I can’t believe that the beautiful Seychelles was actually a Plan B for our honeymoon. You see, we were bent on doing a Euro tour and exploring Spain, the Netherlands and France as newlyweds. Thankfully, we didn’t get our visas, and so we had to look for a visa-free destination for our first baecation as husband and wife, and so we decided on the Seychelles for the (highly cliche but very true statement coming up) white sand beaches and turquoise waters. If you’ve never been to Seychelles, this blog will be the ultimate guide to enjoying your trip there. If you’ve visited already, tell me in the comments what our trips had in common. Also, buckle up; this will be a long read. Also, I am going to use the words “my husband” a lot in this write-up.
Getting there
We travelled from Ndola to Praslin and spent about 36 hours in transit. We flew Proflight to Lusaka at 06:30 AM on a Tuesday morning (we were so eager to make the rather tight connections that we arrived at the airport at 04:30 am and found it still closed), then took another Proflight to Johannesburg where we had a two-hour layover before boarding our Air Seychelles flight to Mahe. We spent those two hours in the FNB Slow Lounge eating and chatting and eating some more.
We were tired and excited and so full of energy (much unlike the Tuba and Moses, who came back tired, weary, and so full of memories). Our energy on the Air Seychelles flight from Johannesburg to Mahe must have been palpable because one of the flight attendants took a liking to us and kept the drinks coming more than on any flight I’ve ever been on. Eventually, he walked over to us with two drinks on a tray and summoned us, saying, “You two, come with me”, with a cheeky smile. Of course, we followed him excitedly and found the whole crew waiting to take a pic with us and present us with the STRONGEST rum cocktails known to man. I diluted mine with apple juice (I know, I know), but my husband decided to take his as it was….and then he promptly blacked out 🤣🤣 of course, I have pictorial evidence of this.
We had an overnight stay in Mahe, and we stayed at a very chic BnB called The Runway Lodge. It is owned by a very jovial and friendly man called Denis with his very helpful house manager called Omar. Together, they rustled up an impromptu meal of fish and chips at 10pm for us and were on hand to answer all our touristy questions.
We slept so well in what we now refer to as the most comfortable bed we’ve ever shared and then had a bright and early start to our first full day on the island of Seychelles.
We had breakfast by the poolside and then said hi to a 32-year-old resident turtle of the lodge, and my husband and I had a little debate about whether the yellow fruits we were seeing were coconut or pawpaws. Denis settled that for us (I won, btw) by bringing one of the same fruits sliced open at the top with two straws inside. “You ever seen anyone drink pawpaw? 🤣” I said to my husband as we shared the coconut and took pics.
That Wednesday, we were making our way to the island of Praslin (pronounced Prah-Leh but with a French vibe to it) via ferry.
I must mention that Denis, our host, advised us to get motion tablets because the ocean was very rough. You see, we travelled in the windy season of Seychelles as it was just before the monsoon season began. Anyway, I very arrogantly (but politely) refused that advice because I’d been on many ferry rides in the past, and I never got sick. I also told Denis my husband doesn’t get seasick (which turned out to be true).
We were picked up by our in-island travel agent, Creole Travel Services, promptly at 8:17 am and driven to the port, where we had a smooth check-in and were ushered to our business class seats on the Cat Cocos catamaran.
The journey started off exciting, we were taking pics and videos and riding the waves as they built up.
I began to feel like I feel during take off and landing on a plane and told my husband that my stomach was beginning to feel unsettled.
Those may have been the last coherent words I spoke because no sooner had I said that than I threw up my entire breakfast and retched and heaved the rest of the way, for about an hour. I was sweating, crying, shivering and shaking. Talk about an uncomfortable start to the honeymoon!!!
My husband was such a superstar, cleaning me up, offering his clothes and nursing me back to health.
We arrived Praslin and took a bus ride to Les Villas D’or where we created the best memories.
Where we stayed:
When looking for a place to stay on Praslin via Airbnb and booking.com, we set our filters to: beachfront access, sea views, housekeeping, breakfast included and also trawled through over 987 reviews of so many places before happily settling on Les Villas D’or. Set along (literally a few steps away from) Anse Volbert beach, are these stunning self-catering villas with beachfront access and ocean views. Upon arrival, we were welcomed by Heidi, the guest relations manager on duty that afternoon, who also offered us a chilled lemon grass tea that helped settle my very upset stomach. She told us a bit about the property and promptly told us to look out for sting rays and how to avoid them (you avoid being stung by gliding your feet on the ocean ground as you enter, as opposed to lifting each leg to step, which might cause you to accidentally step on a sting ray). Anyway, we were a bit scared to hear that sting ray bites are so much of a concern that it’s something to be warned about almost immediately upon arrival.
Once we were ushered into the villa, we promptly forgot about our fleeting fears and settled in FAST! I lay down immediately while my husband got to opening doors and windows and putting our water in the fridge provided in the mini kitchen in the villa. I took a long nap and woke up to sip on some water when we received a call from our on-island travel agent. She was calling to properly welcome us to the island and meet us to go over our itinerary and see if we wanted to plan anything else with them. I found that personalized touch so reassuring and different from anything I’d ever experienced.
Later that evening, Pierre, the manager at Villa D’or, called us to personally welcome us and take us out for a drink. Little did we know that was the beginning of many nights out together and the start of a beautiful friendship. We went to the Tapas lounge and bar set at the beach bordering the hotel Le Duc. They had disco lights, fun drinks and a DJ who even played a Mampi song! Here is a video of me going crazy with the new friends we met on the dance floor.
Activities:
While we never booked any extra activities with Creole Travel, we had a full and packed schedule which began with a photo shoot to commemorate the start of our honeymoon. We had taken my reception wedding dress and my husband’s suits to recreate the ambiance of our wedding day, and so that we can one day tell our kids 'we got married in Seychelles'. LOL
Andre, of Sandpix photography, was our photographer for the morning and oh! How lucky we were to find him. He picked us up from our hotel (at no cost) and drove us to Anse Lazio, which is arguably the most Instagrammable beach on Praslin. We had a lovely 2-hour session with outfit changes and Andre made us us laugh, entertained us and gave us such amazing creative direction, it felt so natural and he really captured our energy so well. Here are a few of the pics we took.
After that shoot, we spent the rest of the day at Anse Lazio, swimming (for me) while my husband took pics of his wife 🤭 and relaxed in the shade on the beach. The waters were quite choppy but still relaxed enough and perfect for swimming.
When we got hungry, we went to have lunch at le Chevalier Bay Guesthouse, a popular restaurant at Anse Lazio that also has accommodation facilities. I had garlic crab for the first time, and my husband laughed when they brought me some pliers-looking instruments to break the shells with and a little Sharpie thing to pry out the meat. I am glad to share that I DEFEATED that crab meal. Le Chevalier Bay Guesthouse really does not compromise on the garlic in that meal. I am certain they had at least 30 cloves of garlic crushed on my plate alone! While there, I “discovered” my favorite Seychellois drink: Sey Pearl bitter lemon flavor. It reminds me of Krest From Kenya and is the perfect accompaniment to the fish and salad meals I ate so much of.
By this time, we had been on the island for 3 days and had found our groove. We woke up early once breakfast was delivered to our villa (that was such a winner in our books from Villa D’or); we would then eat it on the deck/porch/veranda overlooking the ocean and hear the waves roar and crash. It was unbelievably, incredibly cute! Then we’d shower and get on with our day.
On this particular Friday, however, our sole mission was to relax at the beach. So off we went, on our 40-second walk from door to beach and set up camp under a leafy coconut tree, with drinks and juices and waters. The only articles of clothing allowed were bikinis and board shorts. And so we spent that ENTIRE day at the beach, only taking a short walk to the “village” about 10 mins away via the beach to buy some lunch supplies and snacks.
I swam so much that I could still feel the waves rocking me when I slept that night.
In the evening after the beach day, we had a fun night out planned with Pierre. He took us to the Paradise Sun Hotel, where we enjoyed a lovely local traditional dance called “moutya”. The Moutya is a Seychellois dance that reflects the islands' unique Creole culture and history.
We participated in a dance competition that night, and I actually won!!! My husband was in the competition up to what he is calling the “semi-finals” 🤣 what a fun night! We learnt that dancing in the sand is very, very hard. After the dancing, drinks and buffet at the paradise sun, we headed back to the tapas lounge and bar, where we found another DJ who played more Zambian music for us. It wasn’t very busy that night, and so we left by midnight with very, very tired legs.
On Saturday, we took a day-long boat cruise that came complete with snorkelling, hiking and a wonderful Creole BBQ lunch. The boat was sporting a glass bottom that allowed us to see the bottom of the ocean and the many caves, hills, stones and fish that are found below.
We made some new friends on this trip, a lovely young couple from Austria and Switzerland, respectively, who were staying on Praslin too. Of course, we’ve invited them to Zambia, the Real Africa.
That night, we all met up for dinner and drinks and the final UEFA Champions League game at Tapas Lounge and bar. It was so much fun, we were feeling like locals, exploring the night life scene as much as we were.
On Sunday, we took it easy and had a relaxed start to the day. It was our last full day in Praslin, so we slept in, enjoyed the beach, walked to the village, cooked and enjoyed each other’s company. Later that evening, Pierre had a surprise for us, he connected us with some Zambians living in Seychelles on the island and we made a few calls and ended up with an invitation to visit. So off we went to the other side of the island, driving through Vallee De Mai, a botanical national park that contains the biggest coconut seeds in the world, to see this Zambian lady and her family.
We were welcomed so warmly and ended up staying two hours laughing, talking and speaking in Nyanja and Bemba. I asked the lady if she had DSTV and she said “I actually have the Zambian one” and she tuned to ZNBC just in time to catch the main news. She also told us about other nightlife joints we could try the next time we go back out there.
And so ended our stay on Praslin.
We took the ferry back to Mahe on Monday, 12th June, and this time, I had my motion tablets handy. The nice Zambian lady we met gave me two tablets, and she quite literally saved my life because I was very nervous about that trip. Turns out, I had nothing to worry about after taking that pill because I SLEPT THROUGH the entire trip! Apparently, we had two waves that my husband was so sure would trigger me that I didn’t even feel them! I slept through it all. I’m officially an islander!🤭
We arrived at a busy and traffic-filled Mahe around 3 pm and had a long-ish drive to our BnB, Villa Kayola. I somehow forgot to mention that it was our honeymoon, but when Jimmy found out (within minutes of our arrival), he told us he would prepare dinner for us to celebrate. And this is something that the Seychellois people do so well; is just be naturally hospitable. You can’t train or fake that. It’s just in them.
We quickly settled into our mini apartment, which had relaxing Mountain views, a spacious shower and a well-equipped kitchen.
Villa Kayola is at such a high altitude that the ocean views are AMAZING, but the walk to anywhere is rough! Because it’s steep. Thankfully, Jimmy offered to give us a ride to get some snacks and water and the like before supper.
We came back, freshened up and went down for the special creole supper. We had freshly caught, grilled fish, rice, lentils and mango salad and, honestly, English doesn’t have the vocabulary to describe just how good that food was, so here it is, in Lamba; fyali weme nshi wama mwebo!
Jimmy and his lovely wife, Tanya, are less like business owners and more like that aunty and uncle you visit for some good, comforting times. Jimmy sat with us all evening and told us of his travels across Kenya, Tanzania, Nepal and other places. His wife let us play with her very friendly dogs and cats, and they took such a liking to my husband (now he wants his own dog🤣).
We had booked our stay at Villa Kayola with the intent to check out at 6 am for our 9:25 am flight, so we didn’t look for any activities on Mahe. Alas, Air Seychelles rescheduled that flight to 4 pm, leaving us with a full day on Mahe! So we decided to be adventurous and spend the day like locals with a touristy touch; we were going to take the bus to a museum! Ha! How ambitious 🤣 we made it to the bus station and realized we didn’t have as much time as we thought, so we decided to walk around town a bit and then take the bus back to Villa Kayola. We came back to the station and realized we had missed our particular bus. I wasn’t that surprised because that kind of thing happens to me all the time, but my husband was starting to panic, so we took a taxi back to the villa and promptly got ready for the airport.
Off to Johannesburg, we flew! We spent 1 day and 1 night in Joburg and spent the day at Sandton City. It was so fun showing my husband all my favourite spots in the mall.
Notes on visiting Seychelles:
Be sure to check the weather around the time you want to go. It could be windy, rainy, or overly hot, so you’ll just have to pick your poison, although it’s beautiful all the time (she wrote confidently, having only been there once 🤣)
Seychelles is expensive. No beating about the bush on that one. 1 Seychellois Rupee is about K1.50 (ZMW) and it’s 14 USD to the Rupee (as of May 2023). I’m sure locals know where to go for more affordable things, but as a tourist, yeah, it’s expensive but very well worth it. We definitely will be coming again, for longer, this time.
You may get stung by jelly fish as I did.
