Ultimate relaxation in the Seychelles

Growing up in South Africa, the Seychelles or Mauritius was always a popular holiday destination for people as they’re only about a five hour flight away, yet I’d not been to either.

In November we combined Mumbai with a week in the Seychelles – a bit of an odd choice, but it’s a long story! We love to combine city and beach breaks though, so you get the fun and excitement of a city and then the relaxation of a beach break. We had a very early flight to the Seychelles from Mumbai – as there was only one flight a day. Waking up at 3 am was pretty tough! 

Did you know that the Seychelles is an archipelago of 115 islands, with three main islands? We weren’t staying in Mahe (the big, main island) or Praslin or La Digue but at the Four Seasons Desroches, which is on Desroches island so we had to get another flight.

I’m not a great flyer as it is so when I saw the tiny airplane we were going to have to spend half an hour on, (despite my smile) I was bricking it! Plus I wasn’t loving those big black rain clouds either!

Most of the flight is over the sea and you can spot some of the small islands whilst flying over with the stunning water – it’s gorgeous! Luckily the weather got a bit better the further we headed out.

When you land, the staff at Four Seasons Desroches are there to welcome you, which is lovely and they do this when you leave too. I snapped this when we were about to leave and they were welcoming the new guests.

Desroches is part of the Outer Islands of the Seychelles and is situated over 200 km away. It’s fairly small, being only 5.5km long (although this seemed huge to us after Huvafen Fushi in the Maldives!).

The island is split into two, divided by the airstrip. On the one side is the Four Seasons resort and on the other is a village, private residences and lots of different beaches to explore. Every room gets their own bicycles so you can ride around the island – we loved it!

As you’re on an island, there’s not that much to do apart from relax, which was just what we were looking for. We spent our days eating yummy food, reading, swimming in the sea or relaxing by the pool and cycling around the island. Occasionally we went to the gym too!

Of course there are activities that you can do, such as going fishing, diving or snorkelling but we didn’t do any of those. We did visit the tortoises though at the tortoise sanctuary in the village. We got to feed the babies – so cute!

The beaches were stunning! Although at low tide you had to go really far out to actually swim and the water then was really warm – like a bath, which on a hot day wasn’t ideal. When that happened, we stuck to the resort pool or the pool in our villa.

As our flight back to the UK was at 10am, we had to stay one night in Mahe so we stayed at the Four Seasons Seychelles. After being on an island for 6 nights it was strange being on a much bigger island and a much bigger resort! In hindsight we would’ve chosen to spend two nights instead of one so that we could have seen more of the island. On the drive from the airport, we passed so many stunning beaches!

Unfortunately my husband’s zip broke on his luggage so when we landed we had to buy a new bag, so our driver took us to Eden Plaza shopping mall. It looked really lovely, with lots of restaurants overlooking a marina.

By the time we landed, bought a new bag and got to the hotel it was already lunchtime so we only got to spend time on the hotel’s beach. In the Seychelles all the beaches are public, meaning that anyone can go to any beach, even if it’s part of a hotel. I think that’s really nice as it’s not fair that some of the best beaches should only be enjoyed by hotels guests and not the locals.

We arrived on a good day because it was the Manager’s Drinks that night so we went along before dinner. And to give us a fitting farewell, Mother Nature gave us the most SPECTACULAR sunset!!

We really enjoyed our week in the Seychelles. Both of the resort hotels were fabulous and we felt well looked after. If you’re looking for a purely relaxing holiday, with beautiful weather and beaches then consider the Seychelles. We chose to stay in luxury resorts but you can definitely do the Seychelles on a budget.

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