5 days in the Seychelles

With only 5 days, we decided to base ourselves on Mahe Island.  When reading reviews everyone seemed to recommend skipping Mahe and heading out to some of the other islands but in our experience, we would contradict this and say that Mahe is beautiful and a great base for exploring the Seychelles.

The Seychelles are stunning, picture postcard perfect. With this comes a hefty price tag for accommodation and pretty much everything you want to do so we decided to opt for a self-catering apartment to give us more flexibility.  The Silhouette View apartments are 2 apartments in an ideal location, beautifully kept and what really makes them are the awesome hosts.  Bertie and Amandine are what the hospitality industry should be about.  They are so incredibly welcoming, hospitable and helpful.  I had tears in my eyes when we said our goodbyes at the end of the trip, feeling we were leaving behind new friends.

The apartment is in Glacis close to the Bliss Hotel and right next to a small but lovely beach, popular with locals. It is also close to Beau Vallon which was our favourite spot for drinks, dinner and sunsets.   From our balcony we had a beautiful view of Silhouette Island and sunset.  Sunsets in the Seychelles are spectacular.

From the moment we landed Bertie helped us with everything. He picked us up from the airport despite our 12-hour delay (more about this below) and then arranged to have a hire car delivered to our apartment the next morning. He gave us a local mobile phone to contact him in case we needed help, for example when we missed our last bus home one night, he came to pick us up. He also introduced us to Rico who arranged a great day trip to Praslin and La Digue for us.  Please contact us if you would like contact details for Bertie or Rico.

On our first day we took it easy and spent some time recovering from our flight ordeal but in the evening, we decided to walk to Beau Vallon, which is quite a long walk without sidewalks/pavements, but we really enjoyed it and used it as a chance to get our bearings. There was plenty to see along the way.  Warning to arachnophobes – there are a LOT of very big orb spiders in webs along this walk – they are harmless and help to keep mosquitos away so don’t be scared.

We ate our dinner at the Baobab Pizzeria on the beach, which was very pleasant. We had drinks at the lively Boathouse bar (try the local Takamaka Rum – DELICIOUS) and used the BDC right next door which was safe and had good FX rates.

On the second day we took our hire car out for a spin. We were able to drive around most of the island, stopping at various points of interest.  Our favourites were:

• Victoria – the capital of the Seychelles and I think the smallest country capital in the world. It is very quaint and worth a visit to the market and to see the beautiful clock (little ben).
• The road from Victoria which runs through the mountains of the Morne Seychelles National Park to Mission Lodge is scenic and beautiful. It is worth stopping at Mission Lodge to explore the ruins and walk to the scenic lookout. There are also several hiking trails in this area. Just be careful of your belongings when parking your car, as there was a lot of broken glass in the Mission Lodge carpark when we pulled up (presumably from windows being smashed).
• Anse Royale – we had lunch at Kafe Kreol.

We decided to cook at home in the evenings after this to save some money.

On day three we arranged a day-trip to Praslin and La Digue. Unfortunately for us, it poured with rain but despite this we were able to enjoy ourselves between the downpours.

On Praslin the first stop was Vallee Du Mai to see the extremely rare Coco du Mer trees.  I wasn’t too sure what to expect from this but was pleasantly surprised as it was a beautiful spot and interesting to learn about the male and female trees and their titillatingly strange giant fruits.

We then headed to Grande Anse, where we had a swim in the rain and the final stop was Anse Lazio, where unfortunately we couldn’t really leave our vehicle due to the heavy rain.  A short boat trip took us to La Digue, where we had lunch in the pretty harbour and then braved the rain and jumped on bikes to explore the island. We decided to visit Anse Source D’argent – which is touted as the best beach in the Seychelles. You need to pay a small fee to cycle through a plantation to get to the beach, but we found this interesting and fun to explore. They have some huge pens with giant tortoises which you can feed and some interesting buildings.  The beach itself is unique and beautiful – very photogenic. It has a nice trail that you can walk to fully appreciate all the viewpoints.

On day four we had a rest day and visited the beach closest to our apartment as well as a beach called sunset beach (within walking distance), which was good for swimming and has a nice hotel overlooking the ocean, where we had cocktails.   In the evening we went to a local festival which consisted of lots of stalls selling delicious creole food, “jungle juice” aka locally made spirits in shots and cocktails, coconut wine (a strange drink but worth a try) and general crafts.  There was also a bonfire with live music and singing and a bit of dancing.  We enjoyed this a lot, including seeing all the locals having their own parties with 90s hip hop blaring from their cars parked up.

On day five we took the car out again and drove around the island in the opposite direction. We wanted to revisit our favourite spots and take more time. This time around our favourite points of interest were:

• Takamaka distillery – they run tours and tastings of their delicious rum.
• Maria’s Rock Café – for crepes and Creole Cappuccinos – this place is fun. It is a bedrock style house which belongs to an artist. You can visit his gallery or for a small fee you can also visit the house. There is also a café with a pirate theme. It is hard to explain, but worth a visit for the novelty and yum factor.
• Fairyland Beach – this is easy to miss but was my favourite swimming spot. It is just north of Anse Royale. The water is super clear and there is a beautiful view of the offshore island of Chauvre Souris, which you can even swim to if you like.
• Anse Intendance – great for a walk along the beach. When we were there the surf was high and powerful but the beach itself was beautiful with lots of granite formations and a very green backdrop. Very photogenic.

Lessons Learned and Anecdotes….

• Take money out at the airport or at the BDC in Beau Vallon. It isn’t easy to get money out elsewhere and most banks are closed on Sundays. At the airport you will need a passport.
• Food is expensive. You are not being ripped off.
• We didn’t have the best start to our trip. Our 2am flight from Sri Lanka had been due to land in Mahe at 4am but when the pilot went in to land, we flew into a storm and he had to abort the landing. One of the scariest flight experiences to date – he simply announced that it wasn’t going to be possible to land the plane but that we were flying on minimum fuel, so he would have to let us know what the plan was once he had one.   Several minutes later he announced that we would be diverting to Madagascar – a 2-3-hour flight away.  We landed at Nosy Be airport, which is a small island off the coat of Madagascar.  Once the pilot then announced that he would be trying to contact someone to get some help as we now had no fuel.  After several hours on the tarmac and many mobile phone calls from the pilot, and cabin crew – some ground staff arrived and put up a stair to the plane, allowing us to disembark and get some fresh air on the runway.  It then took a while for them to negotiate the payment and provision of fuel before we set off again for the Seychelles arriving 12 hours later than scheduled.  Definitely an adventure.