3 Islands + 3 Weeks + 3 People = 1 Dream Come True

If, like us – Bernd, Anja and our son Tom (aged 5) – you are anything but beach-pool-hotel-buffet holidaymakers and are more adventurous travellers, the Seychelles may not initially sound like a ‘must-visit’ destination. BUT as soon as you look a little more closely at this enchanting archipelago in the Indian Ocean, it quickly becomes clear that the country offers so much more than turquoise seas, powder-white beaches and palm trees!

Our anticipation was therefore all the greater after we had put together a 3-week island-hopping tour with stylish accommodation, not least with the help of the comprehensive and detailed information on seyvillas.com.

Our journey began with an overnight flight from Frankfurt via Abu Dhabi to Victoria/Mahé. After arriving at the smallest international airport I had ever encountered, we had a little time to enjoy our first cappuccino and acclimatise to the tropical climate and what, for us, was extremely high humidity. Admittedly, the journey is long and tiring. That is precisely why we would strongly recommend that anyone travelling straight on should, if possible, take the small Air Seychelles plane to Praslin. It takes around 15 minutes to reach the archipelago’s second-largest island, rather than enduring a 2-hour ferry crossing that can sometimes be rather rough due to the considerable swell.

Some people might even enjoy it: no more than 10 passengers, an unobstructed view into the open cockpit, where they still had to do some ‘proper’ flying – foot pedals, analogue instruments, levers… It was incredibly loud and cramped, and for a nervous flyer like me, it made the journey itself our first adventure. As on every trip, hiring a car in the Seychelles is a ‘must’ for us. After all, we want to see the country and meet its people too. Of course, driving on the left requires quite a lot of concentration at first, particularly as the roadsides really do drop away steeply, suddenly and usually without any markings, just as everyone describes.

In some places, the drop must be a metre or more – definitely not good for the car OR its occupants. But there are so few cars on the roads outside Victoria, and most people drive very calmly apart from the buses, so it really is not a problem.

Our accommodation on Praslin was the Cote d'Or Footprints at Anse Volbert (Cote d'Or). It is a relatively new, small complex with several self-catering apartments in bungalow style, located right beside a gorgeous, long, white sandy beach and even featuring its own small pool. It is very well maintained, pleasantly managed and thoroughly recommended, as it offers EXCELLENT value for a reasonable price, including free kayaks to borrow. Small supermarkets, restaurants and takeaways, as well as various service providers offering boat trips and diving, are all within walking distance. Our favourite restaurant was Da Luca, an authentic Italian restaurant complete with an ice cream parlour.

Côte d’Or Footprints right on the beach Alongside the beach, one of the highlights for our son was the pool – early in the morning, it was home to numerous red crabs, and they were NOT small. Families with children are, of course, ALWAYS awake early, even on holiday ????. Apparently attracted by the lights in the evening, the crabs had somehow ‘wandered’ into the pool during the night.

A boat trip to the tortoise island of Curieuse is definitely recommended. We felt very well looked after by David and the team at Surfari Tours. These trips are usually combined with a snorkelling stop off St Pierre, the iconic little island that, for many people, epitomises the Seychelles and therefore often features in promotional material.

The giant tortoises are absolutely fascinating, and being able to interact with them by feeding them and stroking their necks, for example, is a wonderful experience for children too. After a short walk across the island, we were treated to a delicious barbecue by our friendly hosts. The day concluded with a snorkelling stop off St Pierre, which resembles a pirate island and lies around 1.6 km off the coast of Côte d’Or. Sitting in a small boat rocking back and forth on the relatively rough sea – which unfortunately made snorkelling unsuitable for a 5-year-old – provides the perfect setting for inventing wonderful stories.

Besides our ‘local beach’, Praslin naturally has plenty of other dream beaches to offer. Our favourites were therefore Anse Volbert (Cote d'Or), Anse Lazio – an absolute dream! – and, of course, Anse Georgette, which was unfortunately relatively busy despite the rather changeable weather. To visit the latter, you must register with Constance Lemuria Resort several days in advance, as only a limited number of places are available to non-guests.

Anse Lazio, Praslin Unfortunately, due to the occasionally poor weather, we did not manage to visit the famous Vallée de Mai or the apparently no less impressive Fond Ferdinand park.

After 6 days, what felt like our first 100 mosquito and sandfly bites, an encounter with a fire jellyfish, a looooot of warm seawater, rain, sunshine and waves, we continued by ferry to La Digue.

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Looking back, this was the highlight of our trip! Everything simply came together here and exceeded our expectations, if indeed we had any: the accommodation, bicycles, scenery, beaches, food, diving, weather and photographic opportunities – Bernd is a photographer…

Although only a short ferry journey away, La Digue seemed completely different to us right from the start: somehow more ‘Caribbean’, slower-paced, greener and more intimate. We can only recommend the villas and apartments at Domaine Les Rochers, set amid a beautifully maintained tropical garden where the hosts, Paula and Costas, also live with their two children and dogs. The atmosphere, warmth and service are truly exceptional! We immediately felt welcome and completely at home.

Garden at Domaine les Rochers This little paradise is situated on a quiet side street in the La Passe district, so it is close to both the village and the beach – especially if you hire a bicycle for the duration of your stay, which is practically a must on La Digue. It gives you freedom and flexibility. We were lucky here too: the bicycles arranged by Costas were excellent, and our son was even given a brand-new children’s mountain bike! It was his first bicycle with gears – he was so proud!

On our bicycles, we could reach our favourite takeaway, Mi Mums, in no time at all. The locals eat there too, which is always a good sign. We could also quickly reach the harbour, one of the wonderful beaches or Union Estate Park, which provides access to the well-known beaches around Anse Source d'Argent.

Anse Source d’Argent from above The small Veuve Reserve is also worth a visit, although unfortunately admission will no longer be free from this summer. Photographers like Bernd can search for the rare Seychelles paradise flycatcher, while Tom and I started a competition to see who could spot the most genuinely enormous but harmless millipedes.

A visit to Anse Cocos in the east of the island was also a perfectly manageable half-day excursion for us with a child. Thanks to the gears on the aforementioned new children’s mountain bike – and, fortunately, on the adults’ bicycles too – the route through the lush, jungle-like ups and downs was certainly challenging, but manageable. Never forget that the very high humidity of over 80% usually makes everything even more strenuous.

And, of course, we were rewarded time and again with fabulous scenery, lovely people and plenty of fresh fruit, usually in the form of smoothies, along the way. Grand Anse and Petite Anse set the perfect tone: sandy beaches fringed by rocks and turquoise waves rolling onto the shore. From here, if you venture a little further through the undergrowth in suitable footwear and follow the narrow trail over the next hill, you arrive at a slightly smaller but no less dreamy bay. At one end is an enchanting natural pool, which we had entirely to ourselves in the late afternoon!

Natural pool at Anse Cocos The clear, warm water rippling gently between magnificent rocks allowed us to snorkel among so many colourful fish and even a small reef shark. The underwater world at this little spot completely captivated us and our son and, thankfully, gave us plenty of entertaining and distracting things to talk about all the way back on foot and by bike.

In the evenings, we occasionally sneaked onto Anse La Réunion to watch the sunset and the fish. I say ‘sneaked’ because this beautiful beach is actually in front of the rather expensive La Digue Island Lodge. However, as all beaches are supposed to be publicly accessible by law, it was not a problem at all. And there was certainly no reason not to enjoy a cocktail there after a beautiful sunset – a win-win situation…

Anse La Réunion early in the morning Of course, you cannot visit the Seychelles without going diving! Much to our son’s disappointment, 5-year-olds are still too young. BUT there are operators on La Digue – Trek Divers is highly recommended, according to Bernd, who is also able to assess the supervision underwater – that sometimes allow accompanying passengers to join the divers on their large catamaran free of charge. Hooray! This meant we could accompany Dad and the other divers and spend a fantastic day aboard an incredibly rocky but very cool boat off La Digue and several other small islands. Despite the really high waves, we thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere on board in the sunshine and even spotted sea turtles from the boat! (If needed, remember to bring travel-sickness tablets and take them beforehand!)

We found it genuinely difficult to say goodbye to La Digue. The fact that the weather was absolutely glorious at the time, with the island once again displaying its fabulous colours, the sea glowing and the beach sparkling, made us feel rather wistful!

La Digue harbour

Fortunately, though, we were not heading home just yet, as our final week was to be spent on the main island of Mahé. When planning the trip, I had wanted a little more exclusivity as the ‘crowning finale’, so to speak. To be honest, however, I had already felt that sense of exclusivity on the previous two islands, so the wonderful, enormous hotel/resort was hardly even ‘necessary’. Nevertheless, we naturally enjoyed our time at Constance Ephelia Seychelles very much: excellent food, several pools, two genuinely versatile bays with soft white sand shelving gently into the turquoise sea, pedal boats, an offshore reef…

North Beach at Constance Ephelia The resort is rather secluded in the north-west of the island, so a hire car is important if you want to leave the resort occasionally. Despite – or perhaps because of – its secluded setting, its location in a nature reserve with a lagoon is idyllic.

Baie Ternay For Tom, as an only child travelling with his parents, the kids’ club was undoubtedly a highlight. Despite the language differences, he thoroughly enjoyed spending time with other children and taking part in a wide range of supervised activities. The children played tennis, had a pirate party, decorated T-shirts... Everything was organised with great care and, as we were there almost entirely outside the school holidays, there were so few other children that he practically received one-to-one attention. At times, it took a little persuasion to get him excited about family afternoons by the pool or sea.

On Mahé, Bernd completed the AOWD diving qualification he had begun on La Digue. The handover between the two dive centres – Dive Resort Seychelles in southern Mahé, by the Kempinski Resort – went smoothly. Overall, he preferred the diving around La Digue, partly because of the fantastic catamaran and the comforts it offered. The underwater world around both islands was fascinating, although he was quite shocked and saddened by the amount of dead coral.

To ensure that the hire car was not used only for transfers and trips to the dive centre, Bernd visited several beaches in the south of the island on his own: Anse Royale and Anse Forbans on the east coast, as well as beautiful Baie Lazare. Apparently, his ‘shutter finger’ had also been itching. Judging by his enthusiastic descriptions, those of us who stayed at the hotel must have missed out: deserted white beaches, turquoise sea and palm trees leaning at quirky angles – more than just a ‘photographer’s paradise’!

Overall, I must admit that we did not quite do Mahé justice on this occasion. We mostly made use of the hotel’s amenities and explored far too little of the largest island. BUT that gives us the perfect reason to return! So, when we departed, we deliberately said: SEE YOU AGAIN, Seychelles! – Next time, though, without an expensive resort and staying only in lovely new self-catering apartments or welcoming guesthouses, with the opportunity to connect with local hosts.

More photos can be found on Bernd’s website at www.magicmoments.eu.