Dreamful stay in Seychelles

It can be sometimes complicated to find a nice beach destination as they are very numerous and all offer something special and unique. We already experimented Maldives, Thailand , Ibiza, the French Cote d’Azur… so for summer 2014 we decided to go further in the Indian Ocean to discover Seychelles, through a 2-week stay in Praslin and Mahé islands.

A stay in Seychelles can’t be considered without visiting at least the two main islands, Praslin and Mahé (the capital). They are very closed to each other – separate by a 15-min domestic flight – so we decided to stay the first part of the stay in Raffles Praslin, the latest luxury resort of the second island of Seychelles archipelago. After arriving from Paris by a long haul Air Seychelles flight, we took smoothly a domestic plane – 20 seats, maximum – to Praslin. This process reminded us a little bit Maldives, even if airport staff and crew were here much more professional… They don’t fly barefoot :)

Seychelles – Domestic plane

Once landed in Praslin at 12am, we finally discovered the true Seychelles: hills, jungle, slight mist at the top… Wow, now we started to be on holidays! Raffles staff took care of us, driving us to the resort in a luxury SUV with wifi connection (!!) but we had to keep our stomach in place because roads were very tortuous. Well, this is part of the Seychelles experience! When we arrived we immediately understood why this resort location is particularly convenient: we could bike to Anse Lazio – one of the top 3 best worldwide beaches – or Cote d’Or, both in a 20-min ride and it was very pleasant. Just one tip about those 2 places, given by local police: be careful to not bring any valuable because many robbers are prowling around tourist attractions. Yes, even in the middle of Indian Ocean… But Anse Lazio worth the visit, the beach is really stunning with its crystal clear water and extra white sand beach. A dream. I recommend to finish a Praslin stay with an excursion to La Digue or Ile Curieuse, both are very small island with outstanding preserved flora and fauna ; we did a trip to Curieuse and visited the Giant Tortoises “ranch”, a place on the island where tortoises are free and can move wherever they want. Such a great discovery!

Seychelles – Ile Curieuse north beach

Climax of our stay in Seychelles was for sure the nights we spent in the Baie Lazare on Mahé island, in the luxurious Four Seasons Seychelles and its gorgeous view over the blue tones waters of the bay. The resort is completely secluded so we spent all 4 days without leaving the resort ; we don’t do it very often but it was soooo relaxing and we had many things to see and experiment. Spa treatment, several restaurants tasting, visit the tortoise park, sunbathing at the beach, Creole cooking lessons… Of course, the resort offered many excursions but quite pricey (hey, it’s Four Seasons!). Maybe one regret is to hadn’t done any jungle trek, going to Seychelles hilltops and finding out some tropical fauna (spiders, etc). A reason to come back!

Seychelles – Baie Lazare

Finally we flew back to Paris via Abu Dhabi with Etihad Airways, taking the chance to have a paid upgrade to Business Class which is something we never regret: the airport departure area is amazingly small – compared to the number of waiting passengers – so we highly enjoyed the lounge access and priority boarding. We said “Au revoir” to Seychelles, reviewed our pictures and good moments we had there, before adding that wonderful destination in our return list.