The Seychelles – Even More Beautiful Than in the Photos

The Seychelles have been my dream destination for as long as I can remember.

My uncle visited the Seychelles in the early 1990s, and after an evening looking at his slides, I knew: ‘one day’! In 1998, when I was 18, I bought a Seychelles guidebook (my first and only travel guide ever????). The more I read, the more fascinated I became. However, a visit to the travel agency quickly brought me back down to earth: everything I had written down and wanted to see was either unavailable as a package in that combination or simply unaffordable.

Over the years, we ended up visiting the beaches of the Caribbean, the east coast of Africa and the Maldives instead. The Seychelles faded from memory as an unaffordable luxury destination.

Instagram and its many stunning photos reminded us of the Seychelles again after 20 years, and this time nothing stood in the way of our plans. After doing a little online research, we soon came across the SeyVillas website.

Initially, we selected one of the Wolkenweit packages from the complete packages, but then we discovered the Island Hopping Configurator, which allowed us to put together an individual package. We first contacted the SeyVillas team by email, and all our questions and requests were handled in a friendly and straightforward manner, both by email and over the phone.

We decided on 15 days, combining luxury and budget accommodation across the 3 main islands of Mahé, Praslin and La Digue. Once you have already seen quite a lot (and many beaches ????), you naturally arrive in the Seychelles with certain preconceptions and high expectations. We were not disappointed – quite the opposite. The scenery is a dream: everything is wonderfully green and nature remains unspoilt. The people are friendly, nobody bothers you or pressures you to buy anything, and you feel safe here. It is even more beautiful than it looks in photos, with none of the usual rows of sun loungers. At most beaches, we were even the only 2 people there, and you encounter very few others even at the ‘popular’ beaches.

For our 4 days on Mahé, we booked the Kempinski Seychelles Resort Baie Lazare, which was the best hotel complex of our trip. Everything was just right here. A beautiful, spacious complex on an even more beautiful stretch of beach, with friendly staff, excellent service and very good food.

Kempinski at Baie Lazare Hiring a car on Mahé was also a very good decision, and you get used to driving on the left quite quickly. We visited several more beaches (recommendation: Petite Anse at the Four Seasons!), the Mission Lodge Lookout, Port Glaud, Victoria, the Chez Batista Restaurant and, of course, the Takamaka Rum Distillery .

Four Seasons, Petite Anse On Praslin, we stayed at the Islander for 6 days. The small bungalows with kitchens are located directly beside a very beautiful stretch of beach, separated from it only by the restaurant. The supermarket was just a 5-minute walk away.

islander, view of the Capricorn restaurant The Islander is somewhat secluded, making it ideal for anyone seeking peace and quiet. We did not use the restaurant, as we prepared all our own meals here. The Constance Lémuria Seychelles, with Anse Georgette, is very close by, and it took us around 45 minutes to walk there. The car hire service is managed directly by the Islander’s owners, so it was relatively easy to hire a car here as well. We explored more dream beaches, ate our first Seychelles pizza right on the beach at the Café de Arts overlooking St. Pierre, visited the Coco de Mer palms in Fond Ferdinand Park and spent plenty of time at Anse Lazio.

Cote d'Or On La Digue, we stayed for 5 days in the Garden Villa at Le Domaine de L'Orangeraie. The hotel’s electric buggy collects you directly from the ferry. The complex itself is modern and has its own distinctive style, although it does not quite match the Kempinski on Mahé. Our Garden Villa was the loveliest room of the trip, with a huge terrace and only 5 minutes from the main building and restaurant area.

Le Domaine de L'Orangeraie The complex itself is divided by the public ‘village road’, and the stretch of beach in front of the hotel is not really suitable for swimming. None of that matters here, though – on La Digue, the next dream beach, complete with free-roaming tortoises, is just around the corner, and at breakfast you sit directly beside the sea. La Digue has the charm of a small, lively fishing village, with picture-postcard beaches and genuinely good, inexpensive food from the takeaways. Our absolute highlights on La Digue, and our recommendations, are the full-day snorkelling tour to Big Sister Island, Coco and Félicité with Simplicity, the hike to Anse Marron and the sunset dinner at Snack Bellevue.

Anse Marron Our favourite island was Praslin, particularly the aforementioned Anse Georgette and Anse Lazio, both genuine picture-perfect dream beaches. In general, Praslin and Mahé are better suited to a beach holiday – the sea around La Digue is very shallow (Anse Source d'Argent), while there were strong currents at the well-known beaches in the east, Grand Anse, Petite Anse & Anse Cocos.

Finally, I would particularly like to highlight the organisation by SeyVillas. We had never before booked an individual holiday where absolutely everything worked so perfectly. From the initial contact, quotation and advice to the travel documents, flights, transfers between the islands and to the hotels, and the support once we arrived – we did not have to worry about a thing. Everything was superbly organised for us.

Many thanks to the SeyVillas team! Matthias & Laura