Stay | Mahé, Seychelles

Seychelles is a dreamy paradise destination in the Indian Ocean. This atoll of small individual islands plays host to honeymoons, romantic getaways and family holidays.

One of the most popular islands, and also the main destination in Seychelles, Mahé, is home to hundreds of beach resorts covering the island’s coastline, including Kempinski, Raffles and Four Seasons.

After five days on Silhouette Island, we arrived on Mahé and headed to our resort for the next four days. We opted for the Hilton Northolme Resort & Spa due to its location and good reviews. Besides living up to its internationally 5-star rating, the resort was perfectly situated in the Beau Vallon bay. 

Upon arriving at the resort, we were welcomed by the hostess and escorted to our beautifully appointed King Premium Oceanfront Villa, overlooking the bay and hills towering over the longest beach of Beau Vallon. We dropped our luggage and headed down to the beach to explore the island before sunset. 

The humidity of the island was extremely high, so we decided to stop for a drink at The Beach Shack. The north of Mahé was totally different than Silhouette, with the main difference being that we interacted with locals and was exposed to the culture of the Seychelles.

We watched the sun set over the island as we toddled along with the ebb and flow of the clear blue waters towards the restaurants. Asking a few locals which restaurant they recommend; it was soon evident that Baobab Pizzeria was the restaurant of choice for locals and holidaymakers. 

The restaurant is situated on the beach with booth-style seating allowing patrons to get a picture-perfect view of the sunset with Silhouette Island in the background. The pizzas here are probably the best I’ve had to date; however, service can get slow as the restaurant gets quite busy.

The locals have a fascination with pizza as seen by the many pizzerias across the island. When I asked a local why this is, I was told “Who doesn’t like pizza, everyone enjoys a good pizza”. 

The following morning, we decided to explore the resort and find a good snorkeling spot along the coast. After breakfast, which is served in the resort’s Hilltop restaurant overlooking the vast blue waters, we headed down to the pool.

Unlike your normal hotel pool, this infinity pool gives onlookers a sense that the pool is overflowing into the ocean, yet the pool is set on a hill with its spa and cabanas visible below.

This called for a massage. We booked a session at the eForea Spa and immersed ourselves into the luxury of their treatment rooms with clear views of the tropics and blue waters of the islands.

Next, we headed to the resort’s small private beach and heard from one of the waiters that this is one of the best spots on the island for snorkeling. We could believe our luck.

Donned with a mask, snorkel and flippers, we headed into the water and what we saw next was like something from a travel magazine; we were surrounded by a multitude of tropical fish that swam with us.

The sun loungers at the beach was positioned under trees which called for a book and some catching up on social media. With Wi-Fi available even on the beach, it made it easy to upload videos to YouTube of our recent underwater experiences.

Friendly barmen served us chilled coconuts which was a refreshing and thoughtful idea in the heat of the midday sun.

That evening we headed back to our villa and opted to relax in our jacuzzi with a view of the Beau Vallon bay which was visible beyond our balcony.

Over the next few days we explored the north of the island and all the little shops selling memorabilia. Being the explorative tourists that we are, we chose to discover all that the destination has to offer instead of relaxing next to the pool. 

The resort offers a complimentary daily shuttle service to and from Victoria, the island’s capital and one of the smallest capital cities in the world. We were dropped off at the Hindu Temple which became our landmark and proceeded to the famous Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke market to explore the island’s delicacies, unique fruits and stalls.

Two of Seychelles local produced items, which can be seen on advertisements around the city, is Takamaka rum and SeyBrew beer.

With the Coco de Mer being one of the items we needed to see and tick of on our bucket list, we headed over the the Seychelles National Botanical Gardens. The gardens are one of the smaller botanical gardens I’ve been to, however its covered in lush shrubbery, palm and coco de mer trees as well as my favourite exhibition, the giant Aldabra tortoises.

After walking for hours, we explored the Natural History Museum, took a picture of the famous Victoria clock tower and headed back to the temple. We noticed that the temple was open to the public and opted to go inside; what a remarkable experience.

On our last night at Northolme, we went out to the local street market in search of street food and found a little stall along the avenue adjacent to the beach. We feasted on a seafood platter for two and headed back to the hotel. 

The resort is also home to one of oddest and most intriguing trees I have ever encountered. The fruits of the cannonball tree are round, large and heavy and hen they fall they make a loud, explosive sound.

The next morning, we packed and waited for our Thifty rental car to be delivered to the resort. After staying for four nights, we greeted all the staff who made our stay a heartwarming experience and headed to the south of the island for the last leg of our vacation.