Return to Paradise
At Christmas 2016, we visited the Seychelles for the first time and enjoyed a magnificent holiday, superbly organised by the team at SeyVillas.
We fell so deeply in love with the islands that we decided to ‘do it again’ at Christmas 2017, returning for another two weeks in paradise.
We cannot fault the organisation by the SeyVillas team: precise, punctual, attentive and patient… they put together a first-class, flawless holiday for us.
We spent the first 10 days on La Digue, our favourite island because of its human scale: you get around entirely on foot or by bicycle. The island is very small, and there are only a handful of taxis taking tourists from the little harbour to their hotels.
Apart from that, there is nothing but unspoilt nature… coconut palms and banana trees everywhere, even along the roadside, dazzling white beaches, granite rocks and a magnificent sea… all interspersed with guest houses and colourful little homes (never enormous hotels or imposing buildings), as well as the ever-smiling local people… everything in harmony and symbiosis with nature.
La Digue has remained in our hearts because it brings you into such close contact with unspoilt nature and the local people.
By bicycle, you can reach all the island’s beaches within just a few minutes, and that is precisely its charm: you have the chance to see everything… including some of the more secluded beaches, which can only be reached after a good cycle ride followed by a walk through the forest, such as Anse Cocos and Petite Anse… wonderful!
In the evening, the island’s only small tarmac road, which runs around its coastline, has practically no lighting: there is silence, peace, an incredibly starry sky and the occasional torch used by tourists to find their way in the dark.
This was exactly what we wanted: we wanted to experience the island as though we lived there, getting around on foot or by bicycle just like the islanders, and its small size allowed us to do just that.
There are a few restaurants (which we tried, of course), but we had our evening meals at takeaway and street-food stalls… delicious food that was also very inexpensive: 100 rupees was easily enough for the two of us.
We spent our final 4 days on Praslin.
After a half-hour ferry journey, we arrived at Le Tropique, directly on the very long Grand Anse beach, which was almost always deserted.
Praslin is much larger than La Digue, so people generally get around by taxi or hire car.
However, because we wanted to experience the island like its residents, we travelled on the local buses: for just a few rupees, they took us around the most beautiful beaches, such as Anse Lazio and Anse Volbert (Cote d'Or).
Travelling by bus is certainly rather basic, and the timetables are never followed with Swiss precision (buses might arrive 10 minutes early or 10 minutes late… and nobody complains…), but it allows you to mingle with the local people and experience the island as a guest rather than a tourist.
The Seychelles truly are paradise on earth and should definitely be visited at least once in a lifetime.
We have been twice, and who knows… perhaps we will make it a third!
