How can I have a travel blog and not talk about my incredible Honeymoon in 2016? Well, it has been a while, but my memories from the Seychelles are probably some of my most vivid still. I had dreamed of going to the Seychelles for my Honeymoon ever since I was in High School. Sometime in the mid-1990’s the Chicago Tribune’s Travel section had a massive article about the Seychelles with a big banner photograph of the Anse Source D’Argent beach at the top of it. I took one look at that photo and I said out loud, “That is where I’m going for my Honeymoon.” While I didn’t really think it would take me 20 years to get there at the time, finally, in October of 2016, I made it to the Seychelles with my new husband to fulfill a dream I had had since I was a teenager.

Getting to the Seychelles is not super easy from America. Since it was our Honeymoon, we splurged on business class seats from Chicago, O’Hare direct to Abu Dhabi, UAE via Etihad. This was an approximately 13 hour flight and we were glad to be able to stretch out. I remember the excellent food service on the plane, as well as the “free” limo service from our house to the airport. I don’t think this is still a perk – although they do offer chauffeur service from Abu Dhabi airport to anywhere in the UAE if you are flying in the residence, first class or on select business class tickets according to their website.

We overnighted in Abu Dhabi at the St. Regis Abu Dhabi. The room was on a high floor with a cool view of the Persian Gulf. It was large and sleek, but also classic, and because we were on our honeymoon, the bed was decorated with towel swans and a rose. It was a nice touch! The bathroom was enormous as well. We had about 20 hours there, and we wanted to see some of Abu Dhabi, though quickly realized how tired we were, so the touring was cut pretty short.

We did have the most epic afternoon tea at the Emirates Palace Hotel. There were edible gold flecks on literally everything, from the tiny sandwiches, to the latte at the end. There was also the most food I have ever had at an afternoon tea. It was truly decadent and we were so full at the end that we were practically falling asleep at the table.

Afterwards, we made our way back to the St. Regis, and we went down to the beach, where we dipped our toes in the water. Growing up in the late 80s and 90s, I never thought that the Persian Gulf would be a body of water that I would ever be in or near, so it was a very cool moment. Afterwards we crashed out on the super comfy bed.

Our flight the next morning was very early, so we got up and headed back to the airport. We flew Etihad business the rest of the way to Mahe, Seychelles, about 6 hours. Once there, we caught a shuttle to the marina, as we were not staying on the main island. We took a very very large catamaran, which also seemed to shuttle a lot of commuters, to Praslin Island, our ultimate destination. I am not going to go into too much detail here, except to say that my new husband finally got to experience what I mean when I say I get pretty bad motion sickness. Needless to say, we ditched our return tickets on the boat and chose to fly the 20 minute island hopper flight on the way back instead.

We stayed at the Relais & Chateau resort called Chateau de Feuilles. It was heaven there. The resort is perched a bit higher up than sea level, so you get really incredible views. We had our own small villa (Ocean View Junior Suite) with a deck where we ate breakfast every day, flanked by giant granite boulders with a view of the sea below. The crashing waves were our constant companions. The room was small, but well appointed and very natural looking, fitting in very nicely with the surroundings. There were more honeymoon flower petals on our bed as well!

There is a lovely pool on the property, with views of the sea, and the loungers surrounding it were large and very cushy. One of my main pet peeves at nice resorts is when the loungers are plastic or hard or have no cushioning. When you are expecting to sit by the pool or on the beach for the better part of the day, you want some good cushioning! These definitely lived up to my high expectations! There was also a hot tub at the top of the property. It was a bit of a hike to get up there, but well worth it for the views. The spa is also located near the top of the property, and we definitely took advantage of a few massages during our stay.

Our package included breakfast and dinner at the resort, which were excellent. For breakfast, we called the main bar/restaurant area and could literally order whatever we wanted from eggs to pancakes to french toast, to fruit. They always brought a large carafe of coffee and a ton of bread and pastries. We definitely ate our fill every morning. Lunch was not included, but we were often out and about on the island, or if we were by the pool, they had standard lunch fare such as sandwiches and salads as well as lots of fresh fish. Dinner was included, and we ate a three course meal at the resort every night. Dinner always included a very good bread service with some rolls, along with harder, crunchier bread sticks. These were always served with several different butters, oils and dips. Dinner was different every day. It was always excellent and I cannot remember any complaints about the food. Service was slow, but chill. You are definitely on island time here!

Cocktails at this resort are extremely expensive, costing about 30-40 euro a pop when we were there. The most economical way to drink alcohol here was to order bottles of wine, which is what we usually did. They had a lot of really nice Provencal rose wine bottles and other french wines that were the same price, or sometimes less than one cocktail!

One evening, we had a special honeymoon champagne toast at sunset on a large platform overlooking the sea. There was a large cushy daybed to lounge on, and they provided a bottle of champagne (actual champagne and not prosecco) and some cheese, charcuterie and other appetizers. It was fun, and lovely, and we were able to watch all the fruit bats fly by searching for ripe mangos. It was a little unnerving at first, because there were hundreds of them, but if you allow yourself to see the beauty of the creatures, especially in the surroundings that you were in, it was really quite incredible.

So when you book at this hotel, it also comes with a car rental, and they really really want you to rent a car. Usually when we get to a resort for vacation, we try to do as little as possible for the first day or two in order to decompress, but every day they asked us when are we going to rent the car? They have the cars on the property and the rental company comes to you to fill out the paperwork. It is highly advisable to rent a car here, especially on Praslin, because there are so many beaches to drive around to and explore, and there is no beach on the property itself. Our favorite beach on Praslin was Anse Lazio, which was a pristine stretch of super white sand, flanked by giant granite boulders as well as palm trees. It was calm and not very busy here and we ate a delicious lunch at Bonbon Plume, which shows now as temporarily closed.

We also took an excursion on our own to the Vallee de Mai Nature Reserve, a Unesco World Heritage Site, in the center of Praslin. We hiked along a relatively easy trail (I wore flip flops) throughout the ancient palm forest in the center of Praslin. While we saw a lot of cool trees and plants, including the Coco de Mer trees with their very interesting fruit, but we did not see much in the way of wildlife except a few lizards and geckos. This trip was before we became more interested in bird watching, however, so we didn’t really know how or where to look.

The hotel also owns another very small island called Grand Soeur where they will take you with a few other resort guests on a private charter for the day. This was truly one of the highlights of the trip as the island is pretty much deserted and untouched, apart from a picnic shelter near one of the coasts. Grand Soeur island had incredible snorkeling just off the beach on the calmer side of the island. We saw enormous angel fish, blue tangs, parrot fish, and lots of other colorful fish that make you think you are in the middle of “Finding Nemo!” On the other side of the island was one of the most beautiful beaches we saw on our entire trip. The beach was flanked by giant granite boulders and surrounded by lush greenery. It was simply stunning. There were also giant tortoises on the island walking around. The resort served a fresh lunch to the guests of the island in the covered shelter, and really laid out a spread with tablecloths and cloth napkins and at least 10 different dishes, served family style. This was an incredibly memorable day for us.

We also took an excursion that made several stops at a few smaller islands near Praslin called Curieuse and Cousin. I would highly recommend doing this tour if you are staying on Praslin as you get to see a few of the uninhabited islands that are full of wildlife around the Seychelles. There are several tour companies that offer similar tours, and we booked ours through the resort. First was bird island, or Cousin. Now here, we saw a ton of birds; in fact, they say over a million tropical birds make their home on this tiny island throughout the year. I hadn’t started my bird life list for those of you birders out there, so not many details here, but I just remember walking around and the ground looking like what you would imagine the surface of the moon would look like. Well, it’s not moon rocks, its petrified bird poop. Excellent! The second island was what I call turtle island, or Curieuse. We saw a ton of Aldabra Giant Tortoises here and had lunch here. A very neat stop. Finally, we were taken snorkeling off the coast of another small island, which was fun, although not as spectacular as the snorkeling off Grand Soeur.

Finally, our last excursion took us to the island of La Digue for the day. We drove down to the marina in our rental car and took the ferry over to the island – about a 30 minute ride. Here is where I finally got to see the beach of my teenage dreams – Anse Source D’Argent. It certainly lived up to the expectations that I had with all sorts of little coves everywhere to swim in, crystal clear blue water, and different granite rock formations jutting out from the water and in the middle of the beach. We explored around the island quite a bit, but this beach was the true stunner of all the beaches we visited in the Seychelles. We enjoyed fresh fruit smoothies at a little stand near the beach called Fruita Cabana Bar, and I could’ve sat there all day. These are some of my favorite photos below, very minimally edited.

Flying back to Mahe after our 10 day respite in one of the most beautiful places on Earth was definitely the way to go, even though we were sad our amazing trip of a lifetime was ending. The Seychelles are not easy to get to, nor very cheap to stay at, but if you ever have the opportunity, do not say no! We swore we’d be back for a big anniversary . . . 10 years is just 3 1/2 short years away, but who’s counting?