World_Traveller_-_March_2019

52 worldtravellermagazine.com

you can feed giant tortoises; and the
Natural History Museum, where a dusty
roomful of pickled mini sharks stare
forlornly from their formaldehyde.
It’s not just museums that are cheap
in the Seychelles, either. You can get a
decent beachside hotel for $150 a night,
and a lovely one for $200 (my favourite
is Mahé’s Anse Soleil Beachcomber).
And — take that, Maldives! — there
are plenty of self-catering options.
(You won’t be spoilt for choice in the
supermarkets if you go that route,
mind, but there are good Creole
restaurants all over. Do order: octopus
curry, a fizz bomb of spicy-juicy fusion
flavours. Don’t order: fruitbat — a
gamey-but-boney, grit-your-teeth-so-
you-can-say-you’ve-done-it affair.)
In fact, with every beach a beauty
round these parts, the main difference
between the Seychelles’ megabuck

‘

NORTH ISLAND

IS THE MOST

UNDERSTATEDLY

INDULGENT

PLACE I’VE

EVER STAYED

’

NORWAY

resorts and its mom-&-pop guest houses

is privacy. The resort that hosted George

& Amal’s honeymoon — and Kate &

Wills’s — is North Island, and they came

because every one of the 11 villas sits

in its own hectare or two of gardens,

secreted among an island-wide jungle.

(The discretion extends to the staff.

Whenever I try to draw anyone into

sharing even the tiniest detail about

those other guests, I’m told firmly ‘I

won’t tell you about their stay, and I

won’t tell anyone about yours either’.)

North Island is the most

understatedly indulgent place I’ve

ever stayed — it wears its luxury as

lightly as a linen shirt — but it’s not

the five showers in each villa, or the

supernaturally good service, or the

personally tailored menus and drinks

list drawn up for each guest, that get

me. It’s that I essentially have all this

to myself: 200 hectares divided by a

maximum of around 22 guests equals

never having to share your sunset.

So, every evening I barefoot a few

paces across the sherbet-soft sand

for the (full multi-sensory) show.

Waves shush, their dayglo ultramarine

mellowing to mere aquamarine; the

early-evening breeze on my forearms

tempers the late-afternoon warmth Credit:

Ed Grenby/The Sunday Times Travel Magazine/News Licensing

worldtravellermagazine.com 53

SEYCHELLES

These pages, clockwise from left: Chef

offers up a plate of sushi; North Island; in-

villa BBQ set up at North Island

on my face; the scent of woodsmoke

and herbs and chargrilled langoustines

drifts down from the barbecue; the

citric zing of grapefruit washes over my

tongue; and I watch the sun, blazing

defiant, incandescent orange as it

slowly drowns on the watery horizon,

bleeding pink into the sky behind it.

But, turning back inland towards

the mountains and the bats and the

people and the food and the waterfalls

and the tortoises, I’m aware that, in the

Seychelles, the life-changingly beautiful

beaches and #inspirationalquote

sunsets aren’t even half the story.

Inspired to travel? To book a trip, call

+971 4 316 6666 or visit dnatatravel.com