Seychelles Paradise: Between Praslin and La Digue

We arrive at Mahé airport at 9 in the morning after a flight of around 12 hours with a stopover in Doha. A light rain greets us as we cross the runway to board the small plane that will take us to Praslin, the first stop on our trip to the Seychelles. After a flight of around 15 minutes, we arrive at the island’s small airport, collect our luggage and make our way to the Creole taxi already waiting to take us to our resort.
The Air Seychelles domestic flight During the journey, we immediately get a feel for the island’s natural beauty: its landscapes are characterised by dense, lush vegetation, interspersed with rocky outcrops shaped by the waves and wind. The weather is not particularly good, so we take the opportunity to rest for a while.
We are staying at the Berjaya Praslin Resort, set in a tropical garden with a restaurant on the beach. Meals are served buffet-style, with a fairly varied selection of meat, fish, vegetables and fruit. The highlight of this hotel is undoubtedly its location: simply cross the road and you are on the beautiful, long beach of Anse Volbert (Cote d'Or), with its dazzling white sand. Beach service is included, with sun loungers and beach towels available for guests.

Anse Volbert (Côte d'Or), Praslin

We spend the day exploring the hotel beach: Anse Volbert, on the Côte d’Or. We walk the entire length of the long white bay, dotted with resorts, guest houses and luxury hotels, while the sea displays every shade of green.

Anse Volbert (Côte d'Or), Praslin

Quentin, one of the beach boys, approaches us and we arrange a speedboat trip to Curieuse, a nature reserve and granite island 2 kilometres off the coast.

We leave at 9.30 and arrive at Curieuse Marine National Park at around 10. After trekking for about 30 minutes along a long path, partly made up of wooden boardwalks through a dense mangrove forest, we reach the beach, home to more than 100 Aldabra giant tortoises. The reserve is a breeding and nesting site for them.
We are served a barbecue lunch of chicken, barracuda, vegetables and fruit. After a swim in the bay’s very shallow but beautiful water, we board the boat for the return journey, passing the islet of St Pierre and, of course, stopping for some snorkelling along the way.

St. Pierre Island

We hire a car for 3 days (€50 per day plus insurance). The steering wheel is on the right, but the automatic gearbox makes everything much easier!
We set off for Anse Lazio, the beach where the film Tarzan was shot, stopping briefly for a swim at Anse Boudin, a beautiful deserted bay with crystal-clear water.
Anse Boudin, Praslin We arrive at Anse Lazio, which in our opinion is the most beautiful beach on Praslin. Surrounded by granite boulders, this bay has sand as soft as talcum powder, a sea somewhere between blue and green, and breathtaking vegetation all around!

We have lunch at the restaurant of a lovely guest house, then enjoy a drink in the afternoon at Honesty, a charming bar nestled among the rocks.
To make the most of the day, we climb up to the viewpoint. The trail is quite strenuous, but the view from the top makes the long uphill walk worthwhile.

We set off for Anse Georgette at the north-eastern tip of Praslin. The beach is considered one of the most beautiful in the Seychelles and forms part of the exclusive Constance Lémuria Resort. To visit it, we had to book through our resort 2 days in advance.
After a 20-minute walk through the hotel’s luxurious 18-hole golf course, we arrive at the small bay, surrounded by lush palm groves. The sea is fantastic, and we immediately dive in, letting the waves crashing against the granite boulders sweep over us.
Anse Georgette, Praslin On the way back, we pass Fond de l'Anse (Grand Anse) and follow the coast as far as Baie Ste Anne, where Praslin’s harbour is located.

Grand Anse, Praslin

We wake up to rain. After breakfast, taking advantage of a little sunshine, we set off to visit Vallée de Mai, a nature reserve declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. It is a truly remarkable place where you can also spot the extremely rare black parrot, though we do not see so much as a feather (then again, it would not be so rare otherwise!).
It is the only place in the world where the Coco de Mer grows, an unusual fruit shaped like a woman’s hips.
In the afternoon, we decide to return to beautiful Anse Lazio for a snack and a swim.

We wake up to rather poor weather. As we are due to go diving with the beach diving centre, we decide to give it a miss: there will be other opportunities! We stay at Anse Volbert, and fortunately the sun comes out by mid-morning. The beach is almost deserted, with more stray dogs than people (only in Los Roches have we seen more dogs!).

The sea is still a shade of green unlike anything we have ever seen!
Towards evening, we decide to do some shopping and buy a few souvenirs from the small shops around the bay.

We leave the hotel at 9 in a Creole taxi, then take the 10 o’clock ferry to La Digue, an island we had already visited for the day a few years earlier while on holiday in Mahé.
We arrive in the rain, but it is no great problem, as that was only to be expected at this time of year!
What makes La Digue’s landscape unique is its rocks, predominantly pink granite, which contrast beautifully with the green of the lush, wild vegetation and the white beaches.

La Digue, by bicycle, of course!

With the weather on our side, after a generous breakfast we hire mountain bikes and set off to explore the island. We head towards the harbour, then shortly afterwards stop for a swim at Anse Severe, shaded by numerous palm trees and home to several giant tortoises roaming freely. Anse Severe, La Digue
We then stop for another swim at Anse Patates in the north-east of the island, a rather small beach with very fine coral sand, and again at Anse Banane, which offers views of the small islands around La Digue, before continuing as far as Anse Fourmis, on the eastern side of the island, where the road ends.
After a snack from a takeaway, we head south-east and, following a lovely cycle ride with a bit of an uphill stretch, arrive at Grand Anse, La Digue’s longest white-sand beach. Beautiful and spacious, with powerful waves breaking on the shore, it is excellent for surfing.

Grand Anse, La Digue

Today, as we continue exploring the island, we head to Anse Source d'Argent, the picture-postcard beach featured in every Seychelles brochure and which alone makes the whole trip to La Digue worthwhile.

To reach it, you pass through L'Union Estate , paying 115 rupees to enter. The park has a botanical garden, vanilla and coconut plantations, and an enclosure housing a great many Aldabra giant tortoises (a little sad – it is much better to see them roaming freely on Curieuse Island!). Near the entrance, there is also a small English cemetery where the island’s earliest inhabitants were buried. Within the park, there is also a workshop demonstrating how coconuts are processed to make copra, the dried flesh from which coconut oil is extracted, as well as a small shop selling local products, mainly tea, vanilla and lemongrass infusions.
Famous for featuring in several adverts, including those for Bilboa with Ilary Blasi and Bounty, as well as in the film Cast Away, Anse Source d’Argent is dotted with coves and turquoise natural pools surrounded by immense granite boulders.

Do not miss a freshly squeezed exotic fruit juice accompanied by Jamaican music at the Fruita Cabana bar.

After our usual generous breakfast, we set off towards Grand Anse. We park our bicycles and take a path that leads us in just a few minutes to Petite Anse, one of La Digue’s most beautiful and unspoilt beaches.
Despite the large waves, you can safely wade about 10 metres into the sea, as the water is very shallow and the seabed sandy, and it is great fun letting the waves carry you back to shore.
Petite Anse, La Digue In the afternoon, we take the path again and, after a 20-minute trek through nature at its wildest – comfortable shoes are highly recommended! – we reach Anse Cocos. It is a beautiful strip of fine white sand, with the Seychelles’ characteristic granite rocks at either end and surrounded by enormous coconut palms. On the left, among the boulders, a small natural lagoon forms where a little shark is swimming.

The water is crystal clear – a true paradise!

Anse Coco, La Digue

We wake up to rain – not so much rain as a deluge!!! We have to give up our catamaran excursion to Sister, Coco and Félicité islands, which is a shame! We will save it for our next trip to the Seychelles! So... off we go shopping!! We visit every little shop around the harbour and buy souvenirs for friends and family. After an excellent pizza at an Italian restaurant, it is still raining, so we return to the hotel and relax beneath the patio outside our room.
We stayed at Pension Michel, which was a truly wonderful surprise: spacious, spotlessly clean rooms, free Wi-Fi, an excellent and generous breakfast, and a traditional Creole dinner that always included both meat and fish. We highly recommend this accommodation. It is very simple, but every detail is carefully looked after. The small guest house is set in a tropical garden among palm, mango and papaya trees. Pension Michel, La Digue

We wake up and it is still raining! After breakfast, we return to La Passe for a stroll around the harbour. The sun finally comes out halfway through the morning, so we return to the hotel, collect our bicycles and head to Anse Grosse Roche for a swim.
After a sandwich at Chez Jules in Anse Banane (good, but more expensive than elsewhere!), we decide to return to Anse Source d’Argent. The sea is not the same colour as it was three days ago – perhaps because of the high tide or the rain over the past 36 hours – but the scenery remains among the most beautiful we have ever seen! We decide to stay until sunset, and the sunlight on the huge pink granite boulders makes the atmosphere magical!

It is our final morning on La Digue, so we take the opportunity to have one more stroll around the harbour and make our last purchases. At 13:30, the Creole taxi arrives to take us to the ferry for Praslin, followed by another taxi to the airport and then a flight to Mahé. After a stopover in Doha, we arrive in Milan right on time at 06:30.

Thank you to SeyVillas for the flawless organisation and professionalism, and also to Creole Travel, who were punctual and efficient with all our transfers by ferry and taxi.

We will certainly return to the Seychelles, and definitely with SeyVillas!