Who is he? I’m sure I recognise the man who just sat down for breakfast at the table next to us, joined by his statuesque wife and two young children. But where from? Then it dawns on me: just 48 hours earlier I was watching him on television as he stood in the Swiss goal and dived – in vain – to try to stop the expertly taken England penalties that knocked his side out of the European Championships.
But don’t feel too sorry for him. The bitter pill of defeat must be a little easier to swallow if you can digest it here, kicking back in luxury on one of the Seychelles’ outer islands, in the middle of the turquoise Indian ocean.
A celebrity couple paradise
The Seychelles were discovered by Vasco da Gama and his 4th Portuguese India Armada in 1503, but the first recorded landing wasn’t until 1609, by the crew of a vessel sailing under the auspices of the East India Company. Today, the country – which was uninhabited by humans until the arrival of European sailors – is a republic of just 100,000 people, dispersed across some 155 islands, with a distinct creole culture that is a melange of French, British, African and Asian influence. Having declared independence from the UK in 1976, it has also been an economic success story; GDP grew nearly sevenfold between 1976 and 2015 and the nation now has the highest nominal per capita GDP of any African country.
Much of this is down to the development of the luxury tourism sector, which has gained a particular reputation as a centre for high-end honeymoons, attracting a slew of celebrity couples such as Prince William and Kate Middleton, George and Amal Clooney, Salma Hayek and François-Henri Pinault, and Nicky Hilton and James Rothschild, to name but a few.
Upon arrival, honeymooners and other big-spending guests often head straight to one of the splendidly isolated outer islands, which is where we come across the Swiss goalkeeper (Yann Sommer is his name, if you were trying to remember). But even those travelling by private jet must usually stop off on Mahé, the largest of the islands, which is home to its capital city and main international airport.
Sadly, the direct British Airways flight from London no longer exists (I’m told the airline had no trouble filling the front of the plane but struggled to shift the cheaper seats towards the rear of the cabin), so many flights come via a connection in the Gulf.
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The approach into Mahé is spectacular. To the west, lush green mountains rear up to more than 900m in altitude, just a couple of kilometres from the sea. To the east, you can see other parts of the archipelago and the vast expanse of the ocean. When we arrive, we make our way through the tiny but pleasantly relaxed airport and meet our driver, who takes us along a narrow, winding road that skirts the coastline. In front of us, people look out from the back of pick-up trucks; inside our air-conditioned car there’s an occasional intake of breath or gripping of an armrest when big buses swing round bends, allowing a front wing to transect the dotted white line in the middle of the road. It is late afternoon on a Sunday and, as the sun gets lower in the sky, our route provides occasional glimpses of silhouetted local families, sitting, eating, playing and swimming on the beaches of an area called Au Cap.
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Bounty-advert-perfect
The first stop on our tour of three of the most luxurious hotels the Seychelles has to offer is Anantara Maia Seychelles Villas, a collection of 30 villas, nestled in the lush forest that opens out onto a secluded bay that is home to one of the most wonderful, Bounty-advert-perfect, white-sand beaches you have ever seen.
Nine of the villas have gardens that open – via a path through the palm trees that line the shore – onto the beach. This access makes these particularly popular with families, but when it comes to seclusion and panoramic views, the ‘hilltop’ villas win out. Both have wooden floors, light-coloured linens and tall thatched roofs that are the product of an Asian-inspired Bill Bensley design.
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Whichever guests opt for, they can avail themselves of not only the ‘beyond all-inclusive’ concept, which includes all food and drink whenever and however you like (with only a few exceptions for items like osetra caviar), but also a dedicated butler, who is on hand to serve meals, snacks and drinks in the privacy of the villa – or to prepare a romantic bubble bath in the private pool in the garden or on the terrace. The ease of this set-up – whereby guests simply send a WhatsApp message directly to their butler – and the feeling of privacy and continuity that is achieved by interacting mostly with just one member of hotel staff, means that you need never leave your villa, if that’s what you prefer.
Scaling new heights
But, as comfortable as it is to stay in the resort, you would be missing a trick not to see some of the rest of Mahé. Walking the friendly, vibrant streets of Victoria, one of the world’s smallest capitals, gives a sense of the historic links with Britain, France and, of course, the slave trade, but also of the cosmopolitan nature of the country. Some of the oldest businesses here are shops and laundries that were established by early Indian or Chinese emigrés, and which are still run by their descendants.
A different kind of perspective comes from a drive into the mountains and although there is no paved road to the highest point (the 905m summit of Morne Seychellois), there are spots along the routes crossing the mountainous interior that provide stunning views of the city and other islands nearby.
On a tour of the island, we stop at one of these lookouts while our guide explains that foreigners are generally not permitted to buy property or land in the Seychelles unless they have a Seychellois citizen to act as a ‘shareholder’ on their behalf. But, he says, motioning down below, an exception to this is Eden Island, a development of 580 units built on artificial, reclaimed land during the 2000s in a project spearheaded by South African investor Craig Heeger. There is no shortage of moorings for boats, but perhaps there are not so many opportunities for safe swimming. Our guide tells us that restaurants within the development have a habit of throwing leftover food into the sea, which attracts sharks. But, he adds brightly, ‘No local has ever been killed by a shark’ in the Seychelles, even if they have occasionally been known to attack tourists.
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Other elevated viewpoints on Mahé provide occasional sightings of a large, grey, utilitarian-looking vessel at anchor off the island’s southern coast. Locals say it owes its presence to the Seychelles’ strong relationship with the UAE, and in particular the royal family of Abu Dhabi, for whom it serves as a floating security and communications hub. Power players from the UAE have connections with several hotels and have supported or invested in various projects in the Seychelles, providing technology, know-how or financing for everything from the Eden Island reclamation to the Seychelles’ response to the pandemic.
The relationship has not always been smooth sailing, however. In 2010 there were reports that 350 households in the region of La Misere had filed for compensation following environmental damage purportedly caused by the construction of a vast hilltop residence constructed for Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the ruler of Abu Dhabi until his death in 2022. The property was back in the news earlier this year when it emerged that approval had been given for it to be converted into a hotel.
New construction projects on Mahé – particularly luxury hotels – are limited by the government, so international hotel groups have become eager bidders for existing properties which have the potential to be refurbished and rebranded for even more up-market (and higher-margin) guests. LVMH’s glitzy and uber-exclusive Cheval Blanc hotel brand is hard at work on the conversion of a pre-existing property. Spanish group Meliá has managed to gain permission for a new 120-room seafront hotel that is expected to open next year.
Desroches Island
By all accounts, there are fewer regulatory or bureaucratic barriers to building hotels on the more isolated outer islands (to say nothing of the logistical challenges). The first of these that we visit is Desroches, a 5km-long atoll which is home to the Four Seasons Resort Seychelles at Desroches Island that opened in 2018.
Accessible via a short trip on a small twin-propeller plane from Mahé, the resort boasts spacious, cleverly designed villas, which often have their own private garden, with pool and gazebo, that backs onto a gorgeous, windswept, white-sand beach. In contrast to the privacy-first Anantara property on Mahé, the set-up gently nudges guests to come to the hotel’s central hub to be fed and watered – and to see and be seen. Here there is a Japanese sushi restaurant that serves fresh, locally caught fish, as well as a main eatery that offers a wide variety of cuisines and a beach bar. The tables at all of these come with a view of an impressive infinity pool, which is set against the backdrop of the Indian Ocean.
Indeed, there is an array of beaches, which can be reached by pootling along sandy paths on the bikes that are provided to each guest. Desroches is also home to a sanctuary for giant tortoises, which are native to the Seychelles. There were once as many as nine species across the islands, but over a century or so several were hunted to extinction by early human visitors, who would use them as a source of protein for long sea voyages. Now only the Aldabra giant tortoise remains.
On a tour of the sanctuary we meet George – a colossal specimen reckoned to be up to 120 years old, who weighs around 300kg and has his own Instagram profile. He and the other tortoises that live here are far more personable than one might expect a prehistoric reptile to be. We hold out leaves as they approach, and they are apparently far more interested in chomping on the morsels offered to them by humans than the other identical ones that are all around. They also like to be petted, arching their necks and clearly revelling in having their heads scratched.
Platte Island
After a few blissful days on Desroches, it’s time for us to board another twin-propeller aircraft and return to Mahé for an overnight stop-off, before heading back to the airport the following morning to catch a short flight to another preposterously beautiful atoll, Platte Island.
Platte is home to the Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island, which opened in early 2024, and which still feels brand new. Like the Four Seasons on Desroches, the resort has a central hub with a stunning pool, dive facilities (including a 3m deep pool for scuba training) and restaurants. Accommodation takes the form of super-modern, intelligently designed private villas accessed by bike (or golf buggy) via sandy paths cut through the palm forest.
Special attention has clearly been paid to what people in the business call ‘F&B’ (food and beverage). Breakfast (where we bump into the Swiss goalkeeper I mentioned earlier) is not the usual five-star hotel buffet, but an à la carte affair that has been developed in order to limit food waste. Of interest to coffee snobs will be the excellent specialist barista-driven cafe concept that serves – by a significant margin – the best coffee that we come across during our trip. What’s more, away from the main island centre, there are two separate standalone restaurants. Maison des Épices focuses on fire, meat and fish – and serves an excellent version of the creole seafood curry that is a favourite throughout the island.
But the standout is Moulin, a (mostly) vegan and vegetarian restaurant – a ‘soil to soil concept’ – that employs ingredients grown from the gardens that surround the glass house-like building. The inventive tasting menu includes dishes such as baked celeriac with yuzu passion fruit emulsion, pickled golden beetroot and chilli honey gel – and can be paired with a varied wine flight.
Mother nature the star
But for all the luxury, ‘concepts’ and service offered by the international hospitality brands plying their trade across the Seychelles, the real star of the show is Mother Nature, time and time again. Our best moments come from things that money cannot buy: bodysurfing in the sea beneath a lilac sunset, snorkelling alongside an inquisitive turtle, or lying flat on our backs, looking up at the night sky and seeing the stars, planets and Milky Way glow more vividly than ever before. It makes sense: the nearest major source of light pollution (the Kenyan city of Mombasa) is more than 800 nautical miles away. And when you consider that, you start to feel as though the Seychelles really is a good place to come to get away from it all – whether you’ve just lost a penalty shootout or not.
Spear’s was a guest of Anantara Maia Seychelles Villas (anantara.com); Four Seasons Resort Seychelles at Desroches Island (fourseasons.com); and Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island (hilton.com). Rates for Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island start from £2,100 per night on a B&B basis, based on two sharing. Excludes domestic flights between Mahé and Platte Island, currently £590 per person return
This feature first appeared in Spear’s Magazine Issue 93. Click here to subscribe.
