Make the most out of your gay Seychelles vacations

I’ve been a couple of times before; once just for a long weekend as despite the location and distance from the UK (over 5,300 miles in the middle of the Indian Ocean), the islands are easily accessible with daily flights with Qatar Airways via Doha – that trip, we left the UK Thursday afternoon and were in our resort for breakfast on a Friday morning. We then had almost a full day in our resort on Tuesday before flying home overnight and back to the UK in time to go to work as normal. Qatar Airways is a favourite airline and worth checking out if you haven’t already done so, with often seamless onward connections at their state-of-the-art hub in Doha. On our most recent trip, just before Christmas and in-between UK lockdowns and travel bans, we flew direct with British Airways.

Our first stop was to Raffles Seychelles, a luxury five-star all-villa resort on the island of Praslin, the second largest after the capital, Mahé. There are 86 villas, all with private pools with either garden or ocean views, from partial to panoramic, all based on how high up you’re located within the resort. There are buggies to take you to/from villas and between the Spa, gym, reception, bars, restaurants etc.

Although we were free to go anywhere within the resort (unlike some others which applied restrictions on which villas you would be located in, use of only certain restaurants and not using the gym/spa during a quarantine period), it was great to have the privacy of a villa – each had a pool and large sun deck, as well as a covered dining and open-air seating pavilion too. The views were stunning, as was the villa itself with a huge bedroom area (massive king-size bed on a platform area with separate seating area), walk-in wardrobe, office area, then a phenomenal bathroom with twin ‘his and his’ sinks, huge soaking tub (with a wow view), and both inside and outside rainfall showers. The villa came with a yoga mat and an easel/sketch pad, so there were always things to do there, other than just chill out, read, swim or relax with a movie.

The resort was large with multiple restaurants and bars, different beaches, a huge dual-level pool area, an extremely well-appointed gym & Spa, and with lots of paths to either walk or cycle even within the resort itself, at no point during this first week quarantine period did we ever feel trapped.

As well as the main islands of the Seychelles (Mahé, Praslin and La Digue) and some small islands which you can visit for day trips, there are many private islands with just one resort. Once we’d completed our quarantine period at Raffles, our next stop was to the remote barefoot luxury of Denis Private Island. This exclusive resort is located to the north of the country, around 60 miles from the capital of Mahé and only 36 miles from our prior location on Praslin.

This incredible island had only 25 detached cottages located either right on, or just set back from, the beach. The remoteness only added to the island experience, and all hotel staff were so welcoming; we also weren’t the only same-sex couple – there was a couple of gay dads with their two young children. We were lucky enough to have a Deluxe Beachfront Spa Cottage – there were a luxurious air-conditioned bedroom and lounge area with a separate huge bathroom area open-air on one side to a walled private garden; with both a huge soaking tub and inside shower area as well as an outside bamboo shower. In one corner of the garden was a covered massage pavilion with a proper massage bed, interior fan and sink – no need to go to a Spa for a massage, the therapist would come to you for treatments; the ultimate luxury to not even need to go anywhere!

On previous trips, generally with return flights later in the day, I’ve overlooked Mahé as a place to stay, but with having a reasonably early flight on our last trip, it made sense to leave from a resort there; rather than either trying to get back very early in the morning or just spend the final night at an airport hotel. I’d discounted the Constance Ephelia Resort before in preference to their sister hotel, but wow, was this such a great surprise and their hillside villas rivalled anywhere else we stayed – like a luxurious resort within a resort. The villas (only 10 of them), all with private infinity pools (directly accessible from the bedroom) overlooking the Port Launay National Marine Park, were luxuriously appointed, spacious and had the most fantastic bathrooms with inside and outside showers and, which I absolutely love, his and his sinks. There was a private massage cabana outside with two beds, perfect for in-villa treatments. We loved the privacy of these villas, but there was so much more to do within the resort with an amazing Spa and such an incredible gym, as well as tennis courts and all the watersports you could think of. Having only really thought about Mahé as the place to fly into and out of, I’ve had a complete change of mindset here and realise that this also offers lots of wonderful choices of very high-end places to stay.

The main international airport is on the main island of Mahé and is serviced by many international carriers (although British Airways ceased its route not long after we visited). For island hopping, Air Seychelles offer a shuttle service between Mahé and Praslin, the second-largest island of the archipelago. The flight only takes about 15 minutes, but there can be multiple flights per day, so you’re not short of options. Air Seychelles also operate charter flights inter-islands, but as many of the island resorts are privately owned, you will generally need to organise and book through your resort, as we had to do with Denis Island. The domestic network also includes Bird, Fregate, Desroches and Alphonse Islands.

Although we have used Air Seychelles in the past (and found them very efficient and professional), if you want something a bit more special, then look no further than Zil-Air, the premium provider of luxury helicopters and air-conditioned Vulcan Air 4 or 8 seater aircraft. We’ve used them very successfully before (by helicopter) to get to Constance Lemuria on Praslin and this time to whisk us straight to Raffles Seychelles so that we arrived in perfect time for breakfast – what a way to arrive. We also used their Vulcanair private jets to get us from Praslin to Denis, then back to Mahé before hopping in a helicopter again to Constance Ephelia. This clearly is a more expensive option than scheduled flights, but if there are two (or more) of you travelling, you might find the prices more competitive than you might think, and it’s such a perfect way to get around.

A great day trip is to the island of Curieuse (a former leper colony), a small (non-hotel) island close to the north coast of Praslin. Here you can see the (unique to the Seychelles) coco de mer palms and over 300 of the Aldabra giant tortoise. We were first dropped off by boat (and the scenery is stunning as the island is surrounded by the Curieuse Marine National Park) near the Ranger’s Station, where you can get right up close to these giant creatures. They’re very friendly and don’t bite, but if you’re feeding them with leaves or grasses, just don’t get your fingers too close to their chomping jaws. From here, once we found out more about the coco de mer too, we then walked through the southern part of the island, which is a mangrove swamp (there’s a raised walkway for park visitors). On the other side of an island is a great beach from where you can swim or snorkel, then we were picked up by the boat and whisked back to the hotel.