Country 44/196: Seychelles
Destinations: Mahe Island, La Digue Island, Praslin Island
Turquoise waters, tropical rainforests, delicious fruit, romantic bike rides, spectacular rocks, white sand, sunshine, and a whole lot of perfect beaches. Seychelles are paradise. ♥
Things to see and things to do
We’ve spent a week in Seychelles. We had enough time to explore the main islands and to visit the top attractions, however, we could have easily stayed forever. 🙂
Mahe Island
We flew to Victoria, the country’s capital city, which is situated on Mahe Island – the main and biggest island.
We stayed on Mahe island for 2 days, which turned out to be enough to explore Victoria, a picturesque laid-back tropical city, and Beau Vallon Beach, which is considered one of the best beaches on Seychelles. We’ll let you be the judge of that. 😉
On the island of Mahe, we were staying in the lovely Ridge Residence. The place is located on top of the hill, therefore it offers an amazing view over the island, which you can enjoy from the lovely terrace, the comfort of your own room, or from the spectacular infinity pool.
Mahe – Praslin – La Digue ferry
In Victoria, we took a catamaran to Praslin and La Digue. The ferry ride to Praslin takes about an hour (to La Digue it’s another 15 minutes), which is quite a long time, especially for those who tend to get seasick. Thankfully, we didn’t get sick, but we do recommend that you take an anti-sickness pill at least half an hour before departure – it’s better to be safe than sorry.
The ferry ticket to La Digue costs about 70 euros if you buy it at the ferry station and it’s approximately 10 euros cheaper if you buy them online.
La Digue Island
We’re always looking for sandy beaches, turquoise waters, and tropical rainforests. And while we’ve been to many stunning tropical islands, La Digue may be the most beautiful island yet. Not only is it home to extraordinary unspoiled forests, lovely hills which offer breathtaking views, great biodiversity, and picture-perfect beaches, it’s also so cute and small (10.08 km2) that you can easily cycle the entire island in a day. 🙂 There are very few cars on the island, the roads are good, and the fact that the ride offers so many amazing sights makes the experience romantic and fun!
Not to miss on La Digue:
– Anse Source d’Argent
Anse Source d’Argent is considered to be the most beautiful beach in Seychelles. Thanks to its world-renowned rocks and turquoise waters it really is one of a kind. A downside: you have to share this paradise with many other people.
– L’unionestate
A big park that includes a vanilla plantation, The Giant Rock, and a tortoise sanctuary.
– Grande Anse And Petit Anse
Grande Anse is the biggest beach on La Digue. They’re both very spacious and lovely. They might not have as many spectacular rocks as the legendary Anse Source d’Argent, however, the water gets deep on those two beaches much faster than on Anse Source d’Argent, which is a big advantage, especially for those of us who enjoy swimming. Grande Anse and Petit Anse also seem to be less crowded, or maybe the crowd is just less obvious due to their sizes.
– Belle Vue
Belle Vue (also known as the Eagle’s Nest Mountain) is La Digue’s tallest peak. We’ve heard it offers beautiful views of the island, but we didn’t get to see it for ourselves. We somehow always ended up visiting the beach instead. 🙂
Praslin Island
Praslin is the second-largest island of Seychelles (Mahe is the first) and a very popular tourist destination. It offers many hiking possibilities, old jungles, great biodiversity, picturesque hills, and stunning beaches. The island is too big to explore it just by bicycles. Tourists tend to rent cars or use public transportation. We did the latter and since it was a crazy (fast, bumpy, yet fun) ride we would deeply recommend it, especially to all the adrenaline junkies. 😉
Not to miss on Praslin:
– Anse Lazio
Anse Lazio is considered to be the most beautiful beach on Praslin, so naturally, we had to check it out. We took a bus in the southwestern part of the island where we were staying and went to Anse Lazio, which is located on the northern part of the island. Since the bus stops have no name it’s best to ask the bus driver to tell you where to get off. From the nearest bus stop, we had to hike for 10 or 15 minutes and then we finally reached the super popular beach. Turquoise sea, some rocks, and a whole lot of white sand. It’s pretty great, but it’s also very touristy and unfortunately, the famous leaning palm tree is also gone. We went for a swim in the wavy sea, but we didn’t go too far from the shore because, you know, it’s a tropical island and well, you never know. 😉
– Anse Georgette
Next, we decided to check out the second most popular beach on the island, Anse Georgette, which is also located in the north. It’s actually very close to Anse Lazio but to reach it you have to hike through the jungle. It was either hiking or taking the bus around the entire island to reach Anse Georgette from the other side. Hiking it was. If you decide to hike from Anse Lazio to Anse Georgette, we suggest you do it with a little caution. The unmarked trail is at times very narrow and steep and sometimes wet or dusty, so for starters, you should wear something more appropriate than flip-flops (like we did :/). You should also pack a bottle of water because the hike takes about an hour and a half (and not 45 minutes as some websites suggest). The hike is kind of adventurous and in the end, it’s well worth it. The trail ends at what is considered the most beautiful golf course in the world. The view of the picturesque course and the picture-perfect beach is truly breathtaking. The beach itself is not too crowded. It’s a bit shorter than Anse Lazio and in our opinion a bit nicer. If you have the time it’s probably best to check out both and decide for yourself. 😉
– Vallée de Mai
Vallée de Mai is a nature park and home to six endemic palm species, including the famous coco de mer, which has the largest seeds in the world. The nut has a very unique shape, therefore it became a true symbol of Seychelles. The popular UNESCO World Heritage Site is also home to abundant wildlife, including some endemic bird, reptile, amphibian, and fish species. The park is truly beautiful and it’s without a doubt a must-see in Seychelles.
On Praslin, we were staying in the beautiful Villa Saint Sauveur, which is located on the southwestern part of the island. The villa is situated right at a stunning beach by the road connecting the northern and the southern part of the island. It is totally isolated, surrounded by nothing but nature. The tropical background, the lovely beach, and the calming silence make it the perfect honeymoon accommodation. The villa has a big kitchen, a great living room with an excellent stereo, a master bedroom with its own bathroom, and even three extra rooms, in case you want to invite some friends or relatives. With peaceful days under the leaning palm tree and fun private parties every evening, we can safely say that it was one of our favorite stays so far. 🙂
Where to stay
There are many luxurious hotel resorts as well as simple guesthouses to be found on all the islands.
Are you planning a trip to Seychelles? Here you can get a room with a 10% discount! 🙂
Budget
The Seychelles are known as one of the most expensive tourist destinations on Earth. If you want to save some money, make sure to find a cheap flight, stay in affordable guesthouses (prices start at 60 USD/51 EUR a night), eat like the locals, and travel by bus (or on foot).
Best time to visit
The best time to visit Seychelles is in April and May, or October and November. The weather is nice this time of year and there is much less wind during these four months. Besides, this way you will avoid the winter and summer crowds. In Seychelles, the temperatures are warm year-round.
Environmental issues
Seychelles is a very biodiverse country. However, its biodiversity is threatened by direct human impacts (such as severe deforestation, biological invasions, forest fires, commercial overexploitation of certain species, soil degradation, and pollution) and global impacts introduced by humans (such as climate change). Seychelles experienced significant coral bleaching due to a rapid succession of strong El Niños, poor fishing methods, and the diving industry. The introduction of alien species (e.g. rats) also poses a threat to local species and so do the increasingly frequent extreme weather conditions (droughts and flooding).
Nevertheless, Seychelles is one of the most successful countries in removing endangered species from the red data list and for the restoration of degraded ecosystems. Also, with 89.45% it is the African country with the highest percentage of land covered by forest.
In addition to the traditional 10-minute clean-up that we perform in every country, we have also partnered up with TRASS, the first environmental NGO on Praslin, which is committed to the reforestation of degraded terrestrial sites in Seychelles, and planted 55 trees.
Romance and adventure
These tropical islands offer so much beauty, lush rain forests, crystal-clear waters, and stunning sandy beaches. They are one of the most popular honeymoon destinations in the world. On Seychelles, you can go snorkeling, diving, canoeing, swimming with the dolphins, hiking, cycling, and much more.
196xLOVE
Found lots of LOVE in Seychelles. 😉 ♥
Honeymoon rating of the visited destinations: ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
As Seychelles is home to some of the most beautiful beaches, most exciting adventures, and top romantic resorts in the world, it is obviously the perfect honeymoon destination! 😉
* Note: This is NOT a general rating of the country, it is merely our personal opinion of the mentioned site(s) as honeymoon destinations, based on the level of tourism development, the number and quality of romantic and adventurous activities and sites it offers, and safety. We strongly believe that every country is beautiful in its own way, they may simply be more or less honeymoon oriented/friendly.
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