Visiting the Seychelles with kids is probably not top of the family travel list. After the travel prevention that Covid-19 brought, and the fact we wanted to celebrate Stef’s 40th in style, we did something very un-Trowberry-esque and we splashed out on a luxury 2-weeks in the Seychelles with the kids. Now when I say ‘splashed out’ and ‘luxury’, we didn’t just go and book an amazing hotel, rather we did still travel about and hopped across 3 islands in our 12 nights there. I’m not going to lull you into a false sense of security – this was not a cheap, budget friendly holiday, but if you are looking for something within 3 – 4 hour time difference of the UK to avoid the jet lag, the Seychelles may be worth exploring as an alternative family travel destination. Our flights were from Manchester with Emirates and for a 2-week break our 7 hour + 4 hour journey seemed a little closer then heading back to South East Asia. All of this added to the justification of our break and destination! This is our view of the best areas to stay in the Seychelles as a family with young children.
Praslin Island, a Nature’s paradise for families
Our time in the Seychelles started on the island of Praslin where we spent 3 nights. After landing from Dubai into Mahe, the main airport on the island, we took a 30 minute amazing flight to Praslin. We arrived on Praslin mid-morning at our hotel Les Lauriers Eco Hotel on what we had read to be the best beach, Cote D’Or. The hotel was lush, beautiful gardens, a pool, restaurant, bar and giant turtles! The room was large with 2 double beds and a single bed, and a small patio with hammock.
After a quick snooze we headed to the beach for a stroll and to enjoy the sunset. Nyle enjoyed finding fallen coconuts, they both enjoyed the swings, and we all enjoyed the white sand, warm sea and horizontal palm trees for balancing acts! Heading to this beach became our evening ritual – sometimes with take out food and once we ate in a restaurant on the beach.
At the far north-west of the island is Anse Lazio, one of the top 10 beaches in the world (say a lot of people) and it is truly incredible. The white sand is so bright that sunglasses are definitely needed. We got a taxi here, about 20 minutes from our hotel (this cost around £20), and there is a small supermarket and a few restaurants that do take out (but there isn’t a huge choice so be warned). It’s a calm bay with a stretch of beach that takes around 10 minutes to walk from end to end. The snorkelling off the beach is great quality and very suitable for children. There’s even fish very close to the shore for younger children to see. On the beach Nyle was in his element finding giant snails, lizards and plenty of crabs! It’s a must-visit beach on Praslin.
The main reason we visited Praslin was for the nature and to search for the coco de meer, the world’s largest nut. Praslin has a forest and nature reserve in the centre, Vallee de Mai, with hiking trails and makes it a very different landscape from the white sand beaches. The trails are easy for little legs with around 5 to choose from all of different lengths including some up the mountain for a great look out spot. There is also a small education centre, insects and creatures to spot and a view point right in the centre that gives you stunning view of Praslin and the islands surrounding it. Within our nature haul we added black parrots, lizards, huge spiders and a spikey mouse which we still haven’t identified to this day.
The coco de meer itself is very easy to spot – they are everywhere, including lots of signs warning visits that they could fall at any moment – and they weigh 20kg so a fallen coco de meer would probably knock you out instantly!
La Digue, a traffic free, child friendly island
After 3 nights on Praslin and now being fully accustomed to white sand beaches, crystal clear turquoise sea and super sunsets we took the ferry to La Digue, just a 30 minute ferry away. La Digue is an island with very very few cars – everyone has a bike and there are plenty of rental places around, even with kids bikes and kids seats which we used. On our first afternoon on the island, we took our bikes along the coast to Anse d’sargeant, the national park beach which was one of our stand out days of our trip. You can cycle here in around 20 minutes from the ferry dock and it’s a completely flat ride. You enter the nature reserve from the Union Estate where you pay a fee of 150 rupees per person, which is around £9, and then continue cycling through the estate, past a huge giant tortoise enclosure, to a bike park. You’ll know you’ve got as far as you can go as there are hundreds of bikes parked up and a restaurant here (with a toilet). It’s then a 10 minute walk to the beach itself – take refreshments with you as apart from the odd local selling coconuts, there really isn’t much else there.
There are various kayaking trips you can take from here with the clear plastic kayaks but we opted to just enjoy the beach and the snorkelling ourselves which was great for mums and the kids. Nyle could see the fish whilst being held on my hip, Alicia was off and snorkelled and swam for hours.
Aside from snorkelling the beach has huge granite rock formations which the kids enjoyed climbing and scrambling over, and the trees on the back of the beach provided some more exploring opportunities. We spent the whole afternoon here before heading back to our delightful bed and breakfast.
We stayed at Buisson Guesthouse which is a 10 minute walk from the ferry dock. There are 3 rooms here, and we had the 2-bedroom family room each with a double bed. The house has a beautiful garden, bikes you can borrow, comes with a great breakfast and the hosts are the most helpful and kind couple. We would totally recommend this as a place to stay with kids. As you walk to the house you may spot some animals along the road, as well as some huge spiders (in their webs) and lizards.
Day two on La Digue and we set off on a bike ride in the other direction around the island. You can cycle all the way around to Ande Fourmis, half way down the east coast. Cycling is on a good concrete trail which is wide enough for the few cars that also head in that direction, but it is very safe for family cycling. There are however a lot more hills than we had encountered the day previously and so there was a bit of moaning from Alicia as she pedalled herself. We kept stopping off on our cycle ride to take photos, marvel at the giant tortoises crossing the road, checking out beach bars for refreshments later on and appreciating the stunning view or the beaches and the sea. The very north of the island is quite rugged and swimming is not recommended here. We cycled until the end of the proper track and had a drink at Chez Jules restaurant.
The way home we stopped at Anse Severe for more tortoise spotting, beach playing and of course snorkelling. We found a lot more variety of fish and a small shark off the beach here. It gets deeper than where we had been before but its still safe for children as long as you don’t go out past the headland rocks. And it was only a 5 minute ride back to our accommodation at the end of the day.
La Digue does have a large supermarket for supplies and snacks which we used, and has a wealth of restaurants for lunches as dinners so tourists are very much catered for. We actually would have preferred 3 days on here rather than just two.
We caught the ferry back to Praslin the next morning before our flight from Praslin back to Mahe. The ferry point to airport on Praslin is around 20 minutes in a cab and we arrived early at the airport that on check in they put us on a flight that was due to leave within 15 minutes so there was no hanging around for us which was fab.
Mahe, family-friendly resorts in the Seychelles
On arrival back at Mahe airport into the domestic arrivals terminal we had our bags delivered within minutes and then we were off to get our transfer to our hotel. A taxi was around 45minutes to an hour, but here we did something very unlike us. For Stef’s birthday present I had pre-booked a helicopter ride to our hotel (as it has a helipad) and she had no idea. I only told her and the kids in the airport terminal and then we were bundled off in a car to the heli-centre. This was a first experience for us all. We and our bags had to be weighed (max bag weight is 20kg) and then we had a safety briefing before getting our headphones and climbing aboard. There is only one word to describe this experience – sensational! Stef sat in the front next to the pilot, and me and the kids were in the back. The flight went down the east coast of Mahe, over the centre and then back up the west to our hotel, taking around 20 minutes in total. We felt like celebrities arriving at the Constance Ephelia hotel with staff waiting for us in their golf buggies to take us down to the hotel reception.
So if you are still unsure whether travelling to the Seychelles with children is worth it, check out our last destination which has family-friendly written all over it. The Constance Ephelia is set on it’s own and we didn’t explore anywhere nearby. This was a week to chill, swim, enjoy the beach, and the amazing hotel facilities. We stayed half board in a family room which had a double and 2 single beds, a spacious bathroom and a patio with loungers. The facilities are out of this world with around 7 swimming pools, 5 restaurants – a mix of buffet and a la carte. We sampled them all. Breakfasts and the main buffet restaurants in the evening have so much choice and ever food you could imagine. From egg, waffle and pancake stations in the morning, to more desserts than Alicia could even manage in the evening – even candy floss one night. There is plenty of food for children, with local and western cuisine and too much choice for adults. It is all delicious. We generally didnt bother with lunches but the kids did eat for free during the day so we would often head and nibble on their left overs whilst we had a beer and they filled up. To give you an idea of prices in the resort, it is not cheap and took us a day or so to get over it. A coke is around £5, a small beer £7, large beer £10 and cocktails around £20. Needless to say we didn’t usually have several drinks in one sitting. The price of drinks is probably the only downside to this hotel.
The kids club is an absolute highlight of the resort. Kids have to be over 4 to attend on their own so we booked Nyle in for 3 x 2-hour stints with a babysitter organised by the hotel so he didn’t miss out and mummies could enjoy a bit of down time. The babysitter just does the same activities in the kids club but with your child. They did pizza making, had their own swimming pool, fed tortoises and crabs (and adults could go and do this with their children each day), games, park visits, beach games etc. The kids club has games and arts and crafts as well and you can order them lunch (free) to eat there. There’s evening film nights organised. Every time we went to collect Alicia she didn’t want to leave! We enjoyed the spa one afternoon (children are not permitted) when they were there.
The rest of our days were spent in the different pools and on the two beaches. One beach wasn’t suitable for swimming but great for walking, the other beach was where we spent most of our days. You could hire pedalos, kayaks and paddleboards all for free, enjoy snorkelling (gear available to hire) with reefs on the right and the left of the beach. Again, this was a calm bay and suitable for kids with the reef on the left side better in terms of fish spotting.
This resort is so large that there is a constant stream of golf buggies ferrying guests around. You never have to wait more than a few minutes and tell the driver which beach, pool or restaurant you want to visit and you get taken there. There is also a few hikes you can do in the resort, a zip wire and rock climbing but we opted to just stay at a lower level!
After our week here came to an end we took our taxi back to the airport for our return flight home. We were only away for 2 weeks but it felt a lot longer. It was definitely a trip of a lifetime and one that everyone remembers and talks about so fondly. Visiting the Seychelles with kids should not be overlooked.