Seychelles Grand
Island Discovery

Arrive at Seychelles International Airport, where your private representative meets you for the transfer north through Mahé’s coastal districts to AQUA Boutique Hotel in Glacis. The drive is the island’s introduction: a mountainous, forested interior falling away to granite headlands and water that changes colour every few hundred metres.

The rest of the day is deliberately unhurried. Settle into your suite — there are only nine — and let the infinity pool and its uninterrupted ocean panorama do the work of arrival. A private sunset experience over the Indian Ocean closes the day, and the Seychelles’ legendary evening light needs no introduction after that.

A guided morning in Victoria, one of the smallest capitals in the world and easily walked. The Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke Market fills with produce and spice stalls; the Clock Tower, a replica of the one on London’s Vauxhall Bridge, has stood here since 1903; and the Hindu temple speaks to how mixed these islands have always been. Continue to the Seychelles National Botanical Garden for endemic plants and the Aldabra giant tortoise enclosure.

The afternoon climbs into the mountains to Mission Lodge at Venn’s Town, on the forested ridge inside the Morne Seychellois corridor. The ruins here were a 19th-century missionary school built to educate the children of liberated slaves — one of the very few places on Mahé where that chapter of Seychelles history is formally interpreted. The views west over the coast are worth the drive on their own.

Dinner is at Marie Antoinette, a colonial mansion with a red roof and white shutters that has served Seychellois Creole food since 1972 — grilled parrotfish, tuna steak, chicken curry, slow-cooked fish stew, aubergine fritters, and ladob of plantain and sweet potato in coconut milk to finish. The family recipes are now in the hands of the founder’s granddaughter.

A nature day, beginning inside Morne Seychellois National Park — Mahé’s largest protected area, covering the mountainous spine of the island. Your guide selects the trail to match the group’s fitness and the morning’s weather, climbing through highland forest thick with endemic plants.

The descent brings you to Beau Vallon, the island’s best-known beach and one of the recognised areas in Seychelles for paragliding. Licensed operators certified by the tourism authority fly here, and the bay’s conditions make it an unusually forgiving place to try it. The afternoon then slows into beach time and sunset cocktails — Beau Vallon faces exactly the right way for it.

After breakfast, transfer to the airport for the domestic flight to Praslin — around 45 kilometres and roughly fifteen minutes in the air, with the granite islands laid out below you the whole way.

On arrival, transfer to Constance Lemuria, set across 101 hectares on Praslin’s northwest coast. Spend the afternoon walking its three beaches, including Petite Anse Kerlan and the long sweep of Grand Anse Kerlan, where sea turtles come ashore each year to nest. Cocktails over the ocean close the day.

An early start for Vallée de Mai, a UNESCO World Heritage site and the most famous place on Earth to see the Coco de Mer — the palm that produces the largest seed of any plant. Nineteen and a half hectares of ancient forest also shelter the endangered Seychelles black parrot, found nowhere else. Gates open at 8:30, and being through them before nine makes a considerable difference to the experience. A British general in the late 1800s left convinced he had found the Garden of Eden; on a quiet morning it is not a difficult position to argue with.

The afternoon runs north to Anse Lazio — turquoise water, powder sand and the granite boulders that appear on every photograph ever taken of these islands. Swim, snorkel, and do very little. Dinner is back at Constance Lemuria, across one of its three restaurants.

Begin next door at Anse Georgette, one of Praslin’s most secluded and photogenic beaches, reached through the resort. Mid-morning, continue southwest to Fond Ferdinand Nature Reserve for a guided walk through protected Coco de Mer forest — a steeper, wilder and far quieter complement to Vallée de Mai, with viewpoints out over the island. Last entry is before 1pm, so this is a morning rather than an afternoon.

Return by way of Côte d’Or at Anse Volbert for an afternoon swim and optional snorkelling.

A full-day private boat excursion to Curieuse Island, twenty minutes off Praslin: protected coastline, mangrove forest, and roughly 250 Aldabra giant tortoises ranging freely across the island. During mating season they can be tracked by call alone, and several are usually found near the coastal pond.

The day continues to a nearby snorkelling site before returning to Praslin. Bring swimwear, a towel, a waterproof bag and cash — the Curieuse entry fee is SCR 300 for ages twelve and up, and cards are accepted here though not everywhere. Observation only: no touching, feeding or handling of animals.

A private island-hopping day to Cousin Island, a Special Nature Reserve managed for conservation rather than recreation, and one of the great seabird islands of the Indian Ocean. Shearwaters and bridled terns nest in the plateau forest in enormous numbers, while magpie robin, sunbird, fody, blue pigeon and warbler move through the undergrowth with almost no fear of visitors. Giant tortoises have settled here too.

Walks are warden-led and mandatory — independent access to the interior is not permitted, and groups are deliberately small. Depending on sea conditions this can be combined with Curieuse and St Pierre as an established three-island run, with a beach barbecue and snorkelling. Closed or sturdy shoes are essential on the rooted, rocky paths, there are no commercial facilities on the island, and the SCR 600 entry fee is cash only.

A deliberately slower day, and the last chance at everything Constance Lemuria offers: the only 18-hole championship golf course in the Seychelles, complimentary for guests; the Shiseido Spa with its steam room and sauna; three beaches; floodlit tennis; kayaks, windsurfers and body boards; and snorkelling straight off the resort’s own shoreline.

The evening is a private beach dinner, timed around sunset. Grand Anse Kerlan — where the turtles come ashore — is the setting, and it is a difficult one to improve on.

Breakfast at leisure, then a private transfer to Praslin Airport for your onward flight.