An Earthly Paradise - Mahe

Few tourists spend time on Mahe, but the island is very worth exploring. The Seychellois culture, a combination of European, African, and Asian influences, has created unique aspects of language (Kreol), architecture, music, art, and cuisine. The Sir Selwyn Clarke Market in the tiny capital Victoria is a great place for visitors to discover crafts and local foods, and also to appreciate the difficulties of island life when the supply boat fails to come in.

Seychelles’ beaches have been repeatedly voted the world's best, with Mahe's Anse Intendance ranked ninth overall. But with their swaying palm trees and deserted pale golden sands, none of the beaches are unattractive. Particular gems are the tiny Anse Soleil, stunning crescent-shaped Port Launay, and popular Beau Vallon. Snorkling and diving in the crystal-clear waters, viewing millions of species of fish, coral, and invertebrates, is a must-do experience.

The unique flora and fauna can be appreciated at the small Botanical Gardens at Mont Fleuri, which were established in 1901 and contain a wide variety of local species of palms, including the world famous coco-de-mer, fruit trees, and spice plants. There are resident giant tortoises, fruit bats, and many beautiful bird species.

Quick Tips:

It is illegal for hotels and attractions to take payment from foreigners in local currency, so it is essential to bring a supply of US dollars or Euros. When bartering at market stalls or in shops, paying with foreign exchange can get a cheaper price, but it is essential to know the exchange rate to prevent being fleeced.

Many locals, particularly in the tourist centre of Beau Vallon, approach tourists offering drugs and cheap foreign exchange. Both of these are highly illegal and can result in deportation, so do not be tempted by the rates, which can be three times better than those in the banks.

Crime is more prevalent than the Seychelles Tourist Board would lead us to believe, so be careful with valuables on the beaches and plan a safe way home at night. Carrying a torch is useful for walking in the dark outside Victoria, because there are few streetlights.

Best Way To Get Around:

The cheapest way to get around on Mahe is by the frequent public buses. There are routes and stops all over the island, but the buses do stop running at around 7pm. Tickets are a set SR3 (about .50), irrespective of distance, and the hour-long circular route is a good way of becoming familiar with the island. To access the off-the-beaten-track beaches, a car is needed, which costs from around per day for a jeep or less for an open-sided mini-moke. There isn't a great deal of mileage to cover; driving all day for 3 days won't even use a quarter tank of gas.

After years of political conflict, the Seychelles has been slow to develop and capitalise on its tourism industry, and so the standard of accommodation, especially on Mahe, covers the whole spectrum of truly awful to superb. The Coral Strand is one of the best midrange hotels (from $50pp) and where I used to spend most of my weekends when I worked in Seychelles. It has the perfect location right on popular Beau Vallon beach, near to bars, restaurants, bus stops, car rental offices, and an Internet cafe. The hotel has plenty of facilities and a lot of character. The rooms are clean and comfortable, with private outdoor seating areas and views ranging from the courtyard to the car park. There is no television, but there are baths and hot water, which isn't always found in Seychelles.

The hotel has three restaurants, Mahek, a pricy, award-winning Indian place that is not overly special; a restaurant with a nightly buffet of varying nationality; and a reasonable poolside bistro. The breakfasts are excellent, with a choice of porridge, fruits, pastries, local jams, hot English, crepes, etc. Afternoon tea includes the lovely local citronella variety and is served in a lounge near the pool.

Nighttime entertainment consists of cabaret singers at the pool bar (it tends to be the same two guys in rotation), which makes for a good relaxing evening with a chance to dance. By law, this ceases at 11pm, with the only place open later being the Berjaya Casino along the beach.

Facilities include a relaxation therapy centre, an astronomical observatory, a decent-sized pool with a shallow children's pool attached, numerous sun loungers leading onto the sand, and platforms placed in the sea a short swim out in the summer. The Underwater Diving Centre is adjacent to the hotel and runs diving trips (from $25) and courses, with at least four boats daily in the summer. It is run by a British lady, so you won't need to be fluent in French for your dive briefing!

The only downside to this hotel is the standoffishness of some of the reception staff, but they are efficient. Also, as tends to be the case in Beau Vallon, dodgy characters lurk in the street outside and approach guests as soon as they leave the compound. They offer drugs and good rates of exchange for foreign currencies, but beware, as this is highly illegal. Hotel security keeps these people away from tourists on the beach and out of the hotel.

Overall, this is a great place to stay!

After a strenuously steep walk up through a hillside village, you arrive at a lovely colonial spice plantation located high on the mountain. The tiny open-air wooden restaurant has stunning views over the gardens down to the sea below. The decor is rustic and intimate and the food is excellent, with numerous local seafood and meat dishes made with homegrown fruits and spices. Particularly recommended are the unusual flavours of homemade ice cream, such as clove, lemongrass, cinnamon, and rich vanilla, and the tasty fruit cocktails. After dining, visitors can stroll around the gardens and admire the wonderful collection of native plants, and visit the plantation house.

As this place is small, a long way to walk to, and very popular with well-healed locals, I would definitely recommend booking, especially for the renowned Sunday-lunch curry buffet.

The Boathouse is a very popular open-air restaurant in the heart of Beau Vallon, and one of the best dining places on Mahe. Their speciality is Kreol cuisine, focused on a large fish barbecue (generally locally caught tuna or red snapper) and accompanied by a rowing boat full of salads, local fruit, and vegetable dishes. The food is served buffet style, and included in the SR160 ($28) price is an all-you-can-eat main course, a choice from several puddings, e.g. crème caramel, and unlimited house wine, beer, or soft drinks. The Boathouse is unfortunately not licensed for spirits.

The restaurant is busy, but with a laid-back, casual atmosphere with wooden tables and benches and gentle lanterns, allowing it encompass every ambience from family to romantic. Due to its popularity with tourists and locals alike, I would strongly recommend booking, especially in high season.

I worked for 3 months as a scientific diver in the Port Launay area of Mahe, and I found the range and diversity of dive sites very impressive. The coral reefs around Mahe are by no means the most colourful or diverse in the world, and have been damaged by the tsunami, bleaching events, and construction work on the island. However, they are recovering, and there are still many coral varieties to be seen, along with thousands of species of tropical fish and invertebrates. Common fish include bumphead parrots, humphead wrasse, white tip reef sharks, eagle rays, frogfish, stonefish, puffer fish, whale sharks, and loads of angels and butterflies.

My top-five commercial sites around Mahe are:

L'ilot (18-20m): Dives here circumnavigate the tiny granitic islet on the north edge of Beau Vallon Bay. There is a beautiful garden of soft corals and giant clams, and loads of fish, including parrotfish, tunas, potato groupers, butterfly fish, angels, surgeons, eagle rays, and huge shoals of snappers that envelop you. There are often hawksbill turtles to be seen, and octopus, lobster, and eels. The mystical whale sharks also like to hang around here when they're in town.

Aquarium (12m): A great site, and the name doesn't lie. Two large coral bombies in Beau Vallon Bay, which are covered in millions of fish, especially little damsels, angels, anemone fish, butterflies, surgeons, and puffers. I have also seen green turtles here. It is very colouful, and perfect for inexperienced divers.

Shark Bank (35m, good from 18m): Massive granite boulders are surrounded by huge schools of fish, including snappers and barracudas and large numbers of bumpheads, eagle rays, and marbled sting rays. It is a great easy deep dive, with a real feel of the big blue about it.

Ennerdale Wreck (30m): In between Mahe and Praslin, this large wreck is not complete, but still very interesting to explore. There are fewer fish here than at other sites, but if you enjoy challenging dives, you will like battling your way around in the killer current often present here.

Baie Ternay (depending on tide down to 16m): This is a beautiful sheltered bay that is part of a marine park, so it has one of the best abundance and diversity levels of fish and coral. I regularly saw hawksbill turtles here, and it is possible to snorkle from the shore, where there are fish juveniles and sub-adults hiding in the sea grass, far onto the reef.

There are several operators in Beau Vallon. I can recommend the Underwater Centre at the Coral Strand Hotel (www.diveseychelles.com.sc) and Big Blue Divers farther up the beach at Vacoa Village (www.bigbluedivers.sc). Dives cost from about SR150 ($25) for short range, including equipment.

Underwater fanatics should plan their holiday to coincide with the week-long Seychelles Underwater festival (SUBIOS) held annually May, centred around Beau Vallon. There are many interesting lectures, movies, and displays given by visiting eminent scientists and filmmakers and water-sport events for adults and children.

Victoria, the capital of Seychelles, nestles between the port and the forested mountain ranges that run down the centre of Mahe. "L’Establissement" was founded as a French military base in 1778, but became known as Victoria to honour the new queen when the English took control in 1841. Now it is a cultural melting pot of French, British, African, Chinese, and Indian influences. It is a tiny place and can easily be looked around in one day.

The main sights include:

Clock Tower- The country’s most famous monument is an ornate silver clock erected in 1903 to celebrate Seychelles’ new status as a crown colony. It stands proudly in the central crossroads, surrounded by the colonial style courthouse and Queen Victoria fountain, with the verdant mountains in the background.

Botanical Gardens (Mont Fleuri Rd., US$5)- These peaceful small gardens, designed in 1901, contain Mahe’s only coco de mer - the symbol of Seychelles, along with other endemic palms, flowers and fruit trees. There is a small giant tortoise park, a limited café and a rainforest walk.

Victoria Market- The Sir Selwyn Clarke Market is the morning hub of Victoria. Upstairs, the brightly painted boutiques are aimed at tourists. The best locally crafted items include coconut products, jewellery, hand-dyed pareos and silk paintings. Downstairs in the concrete courtyard, stalls sell local foods including Hellfire chilli sauce, whole spices and citronella tea, as well as fruit and vegetables. There is a large fresh fish market, including many colourful species which aren’t normally associated with eating. However, self-catering visitors better cross their fingers, because whatever is present depends on if the supply boat has come in. Sometimes there will be a bountiful variety of shockingly expensive produce (e.g. a box of 40 oranges costs $120), other times the stalls will be empty apart from a few piles of tiny green mangoes.

Kaz Zanana- The "Pineapple House" on Revolution Ave. is a wooden gallery of local art, including work by my favourite, George Camille, who uses a wide variety of media, including silk painting, watercolour, and collage to produce wonderful scenes depicting everyday Kreol life.

Fiennes Esplanade- The stalls on this shady avenue stock the worst of tacky souvenirs, including dyed-pink coral, shells and shark jaws and should be avoided at all costs by anyone with an environmental conscience.

Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception- The centre of religious life for most Seychellois is a huge 1874 French colonial style church, which peers down on the capital from atop a flight of stone steps. Outside is a lovely small garden with a graceful statue of the Virgin Mary, in front of the ornately sinister Capuchin seminary built in 1933.

St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral - This modern cathedral was built in 2003, incorporating its 150 year old predecessor. Inside the feel is fresh and contemporary, with plain whitewashed walls, and lovely stained-glass windows depicting dolphins and local fish.