Seychelles - The Paradise prototype
02/12/2025
The first glimpse of the Seychelles as you fly in is a tiny uninhabited “Desert Island” called Bird Island, some 100 kilometres from Mahe, the largest island of the Seychelles and the location of the capital. Just that glimpse set the scene for what was to come over the next week or so. As we approached Mahe the islands became larger, more numerous but still every bit as alluring, and the approach to Mahe itself is a spectacular traverse of beaches, lagoons and forested hillsides, flanked by the 900 metre peak of Morne Seychellois, the Seychelles highest peak.
The transfer to our hotel in Beau Vallon took around 30 minutes, passing the edge of Victoria, and was accompanied by a history lesson about the Seychelles – passed from France to the UK during the Napoleonic wars – and a brief language class, English, French and Seychellois Creole. Beau Vallon has a beautiful beach, some lovely small hotels and small restaurants and food shacks. The beach faces west towards the perennially cloud shrouded Silhouette Island so it is hard to avoid the sunset. We spent 2 nights here to give us time to enjoy Mahe and recover from the flight, always recommended.
We arrived at the Quay in Victoria to be greeted with a coconut to drink before boarding Sea Bird, our ship for the next week. Sea Bird is a two-masted 42-metre yacht with four Bermuda sails and just 9 en-suite guest cabins so there was plenty of room for the 15 of us on board. As with many such cruises, whilst there is an itinerary, the actual route is very flexible and depends on conditions at the time, clients preferences and other factors like other vessels.
Over the next week we visited four more islands, Praslin, La Digue, Cousin and Curieuse, snorkelled almost every day, saw 3 pods of dolphins (mostly on the crossing between Mahe and Praslin), cycled (or pushed) to a mountain top café on La Digue, spotted a range of endemic birds and a tenrec (look it up), swam with turtles, walked and swam from several truly idyllic beaches, marvelled at giant tortoises and put on several pounds due to the outstanding food, despite being an active trip.
Highlights of the trip – in no particular order
Cousin Island Special Reserve
A spectacular start to the visit involves the official wardens boats (used to prevent non-native species hitching a lift) speeding straight up onto the soft sandy beach where we were welcomed by the official warden guide. Our walking tour lasted approximately 80 minutes and apart from a brief history was focussed on the rare and endemic species that you can expect to see here. Like the Galapagos birds here have no fear of humans and are seemingly unconcerned by our proximity!
Magpie robins, once reduced to just 16 individuals in existence, but now number around 400. They are very interactive with humans and the wardens will whistle a call and turn over a few rocks and robins will appear to collect any titbits uncovered by the wardens. Some birds have got used to this so will appear and call to the wardens expecting some rock turning!- Other birds - Brown Noddy, Fairy Tern, Seychelles Fody & White Tailed Tropic Bird are all common, and seen close up.
- Giant tortoises – Plenty of them here, including the 160 year old George, who, at least while we were there, definitely still had the urge to mate with some of the younger tortoises that strayed into his field of vision!
- Other – Hares can be seen here (introduced from India) and the very common Seychelles skink.
Praslin & Val de Mai
A short mini bus journey from the ship gave us the opportunity to see the beautiful green inland part of Praslin on our way to visit the Vallée de Mai Nature Reserve.
A guide provided us insight during the 1-2 hour walking tour of this UNESCO World Heritage Site, sharing facts and pointing out many interesting plants as well as wildlife and insects in this natural palm forest. Other than the new paths which made the reserve easy to explore, the Vallée de Mai remains largely unchanged from prehistoric times and is home to a selection of endemic fauna and palms including the coco-de-mer, the largest seed in the plant kingdom with notable characteristics (It closely resembles the shape of a human bottom). We spotted the endemic black parrot as well as a small hedgehog like animal, a Tenrec, which is actually more closely related to Elephants than hedgehogs.
Curieuse Island 
Curieuse is an old leper colony and now surrounded by Curieuse Marine National Park and is an important hatching ground for Hawksbill turtles. One of only two islands where the Coco de Mer grows (next door Praslin being the other), Curieuse is home to around 300 giant tortoises, many of which hang around the ranger station in the hope that a passing tourist might “inadvertently” drop a banana.
After half an hour marvelling at the size and capability of these huge, heavy lumps, we headed across the neck of the island via the mile long boardwalk. This path crosses the mangroves, over a rocky outcrop and past the old turtle pond which is now a haven for birthing lemon sharks, to the beautiful beach of Anse St Jose (Wedding are occasionally permitted here if you are interested!). Many fascinating and colourful crabs can be spotted from the boardwalk. The few others we saw here had chosen to hike up to the café to take in the extensive views.
La Digue
Even by Seychelles standards, La Digue is a laid back island. Very few cars (bicycles abound) and very few roads, most people head to the world famous beach of Anse Source D’Argent but don’t ignore the other beaches in the north of the island which are much quieter, or, if you are feeling energetic and foolhardy, head to the spectacular Belle Vue snack bar perched high on the ridge with spectacular views across La Digue and across to Praslin. Even the fit young things had to get off and push the last 50 yards, and it was deemed too steep to cycle down that part as well! We found the largest spider webs that I had ever seen, over 100 feet across. But the wildlife highlights were the spectacular (Endemic) Seychelles blue pigeons and the huge Seychelles fruit bats (1.2 metre wingspan) that languidly fly around during the day, navigating from one fruit tree to another.
Food 
The food was as spectacular as the scenery. A lot of fresh fruit and veg, plenty of curry options but, unsurprisingly, the fish was the star of the show. Add some breadfruit, plantain bananas and try some ladob – plantain, breadfruit and cassava simmered in coconut milk with some nutmeg and vanilla thrown in – A traditional Seychelles desert.
Crew
The crew of seven (captain, engineer, chef, 2 x stewards, 2 x deck hands) were an unexpected highlight of the journey. Apart from their stated duties, they also proved to be excellent snorkel guides, fishermen, musicians, singers, swimming race opponents and even dance companions.
Snorkelling
We had many opportunities for snorkelling, and saw a vast array of coral fish as well as a few turtles. My favourite, amongst many highlights, was the honeycomb moray eel (my companions all saw turtles, I missed out) but with so much to chose from it is an impossible task to pick a favourite and stick to it.
Sailing
A good wind meant that we could sail between Mahe and Praslin, and this was when we were joined by dolphins – Maybe they preferred sailing vessels to motorised ones? Seychelles is the model for paradise desert islands. White beaches, warm water, endless sunshine (except on the mountain tops), spectacular coral, creole food and a hugely laid back vibe.
What’s the hurry?