Stunning Seychelles

In May 2019, we took a trip to the Seychelles, another place on my long haul bucket list to tick off! Unfortunately for us on our outward journey we had a significant flight delay which meant a missed connection onto Mahe from Dubai, resulting in an impromptu 24 hour stopover in Dubai! Not a problem for us, we love Dubai and have been on numerous occasions and it could have been worse as it might have been Manchester Airport! I have to say our Head Office and the airline were fabulous, and on arrival into Dubai, our Head office had already booked us onto the next connection, and the airline transferred us to a lovely city hotel with a gorgeous pool, arranged for our luggage to be brought on, and provided us with all meals.

We arrived into the Seychelles a day late, but having had the stopover we were really refreshed and slid straight into holiday mode! The transfer from airport to our hotel at Beau Vallon Bay was roughly 30/40 minutes, and the journey took us through lush countryside, plenty of hilly roads, and through the main city of Victoria. Beau Vallon is one of the main resorts on the island and there is a good selection of hotels & apartments within this little beach side resort.

Our hotel was beachside, clean and comfortable, not super luxurious but great value for money, with friendly staff, a small swimming pool overlooking the beach, a choice of restaurants, but most importantly a fabulous location right on the beautiful white sand beach. We chose bed & breakfast giving us flexibility to eat out when we wanted to. There were a good handful of restaurants, cafes and bars in the area, more than enough for our 7 nights stay. I would just point out that the Seychelles is not the cheapest of destinations for eating/drinking out, therefore I feel it is important to bear this is mind when choosing your board basis in your chosen hotel - a half board option may give you better value for money. We had a super hotel restaurant right on the beachfront serving a great choice of food daily, with drinks and everything was yummy and cooked fresh to order. It became a popular place every evening with guests coming to watch the sunset from the bar deck area, and the sunsets never failed to disappoint!

Most mornings were spent on the beach watching the world go by, always a small handful of beach vendors but nothing intrusive. I particularly enjoyed watching a small group of people come to the beach every morning with their dogs, and taking them into the sea with surf boards, I must point out the surfboards were for the dogs and NOT for their owners!!! We also became immersed in watching teams training for a world open swimming competition in the sea, held on the 12th May at Beau Vallon Bay. We had the teams from Hungary, Brazil & Italy stay in our hotel and it was interesting watching these young athletes training for hours, unfortunately the actual competition took place on the day we left.

During our stay we took a full day boat trip to see 2 of the other islands where clients go to holiday, these were Praslin and La Digue, this was a lovely memorable day out, perfect blue sky weather, good sea conditions with flying fish to be seen from the boat. Praslin was our first stop, and we were taken to the Vallee De Mai Nature Reserve to see the famous Coco De Mer Palm trees, apparently these only grow in the Seychelles, and are quite stunning, we then moved on to Anse Lazio Beach for swimming - this beach is pure paradise, picture postcard white sand and one of the most photographed beaches. Later that morning we were back on our boat for the short ride to La Digue. The main mode of transport here is bicycle and these can be hired at the small ferry port. We enjoyed a super buffet lunch at a local restaurant before visiting Union State National Park to see the giant tortoises that live here, and there are lots of them.....quite smelly if I`m honest!! We then moved on to another stunning beach Anse Source D`Argent another well photographed beach. The sea here is crystal clear, beautifully warm and you can find yourself surrounded by tiny colourful fish all happily swimming around you!

On another afternoon we ventured out by local bus which was as cheap as chips, to the island capital Victoria, a busy small bustling harbourside city, a half or full day is plenty of time to potter around here for the limited sightseeing and interest that there is here.

Our short trip to the Seychelles was soon over, I would certainly return and think it would be great to do a twin centre with one of the other islands if I returned. The islands have some fabulous luxury hotels for the more discerning client, and its also a great choice for a honeymoon. On this occasion we enjoyed having a more simpler smaller property and I would highly recommend these beautiful tropical islands and the gorgeous scenery.