We took the morning ferry to Mahe (details on the boat and bookings here). We had booked a car with one of the rental agencies here and our Hyundai i10 was waiting for us at the parking.
To get you started, here is a map of Mahe and the routes we took.
Day 1: Explore the Beau Vallon area
Our homestay was close to the Beau Vallon beach. It was up a steep slope and we were glad we got a car. This also meant that we got a beautiful sunset view from our room!
After checking in, we headed straight to the beach. There are quite a few street food stalls here serving Creole food, coconuts, grilled seafood, banana fritters and cakes and many more. It was a beautiful beach, and we spent a lot of time in the water enjoying the waves. In fact, we spent the whole afternoon and evening here!
We picked up some pizza from Baobab pizzeria on the way back and called it a day.
Day 2: Visit Victoria, Hike to the peak of Morne Blanc, Have some amazing Creole food
Our first stop for the day was the capital city of Victoria. We parked our car in the parking area, collected a parking coupon from a nearby store (Sinnasamy Snack Shop) and put it on the dashboard. We visited the Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke Market, walked around the Little Ben clock tower and covered most of the city by foot in under an hour.
We grabbed some snacks and headed straight to the Morne Blanc trail. You need to take the Sans Soucis Road to the starting point of the trail – there are boards and maps along the way, so you won’t miss it. We wanted to make it to the top before noon – island weather can be very unpredictable especially with mountain-top viewpoints. The signboard at the beginning classified it as a hard trek which would take about an hour (Nam decided to skip this and went for the Tea Tavern Nature Trail instead). They weren’t kidding – the forest was dense and in some parts the trail went missing between fallen trees. Luckily, I could see a couple of people about 200 m ahead – all I had to do was ensure that I don’t lose sight of them!
In the end, it was worth it – the view was stunning!
We then drove down to the west coast, upto Port Launey and back down to Grand Anse beach. The beach was beautiful, and we spent some time here.
We drove back to Victoria along the La Misere road. Our lunch stop was Marie Antoinette, arguably the most popular place in Mahe for Creole cuisine. In fact, a sign on the wall claims that it was declared a national monument of Seychelles in 2011. They had a wide variety of dishes – fish, chicken and vegetarian.
Some of them we loved, a few did not appeal to our taste buds.
Maps told us that the road back to Beau Vallon had a lot of traffic. So, we decided to take the long path along the North Coast Road – it was a long drive but a very beautiful one!
We grabbed some food from one of the supermarkets on the way and headed back to our room.
Day 3: Drive along the coastal roads covering the south of the island
Our last day in Seychelles – we checked out of our room and drove straight up La Misere Road to the viewpoint of the east coast. This point is perfect to check out the city of Victoria, the port and the small islands on the sides.
Our drive then took us along the West Coast Road all the way down to Anse Intendance. Yet another stunning beach – we spent a good hour here!
We were lucky that most of the beaches we visited in Mahe did not have any annoying seaweed strewn all over the sand. For lunch, we stopped at Maison Marengo and had the most amazing seafood pizza and calamari!
Our last beach in the trip was Anse Royale – it was a beautiful one for snorkelling with many different types of fish swimming around.
Having covered the entire South and East Coast Roads, we headed up the Providence highway to Eden Island – the poshest area here.
It was too posh for our liking and we drove right out. We went back to Victoria to complete our loop all around the Mahe island! Our last stop – the airport for our flight back home!
Though we didn’t know at the time, Seychelles ended up being our only trip of 2020. Considering that, it was definitely worth it – it was relaxing, exciting and had some of the most beautiful scenery we had ever seen.
For more details on how you can plan your trip to Seychelles, check out all the blogs here:
- Scenic Seychelles – Our itinerary and tips to plan your perfect 5-day vacation in paradise – on a budget!
- The Beaches and Mountains of Seychelles – Part One (Praslin)
- The Beaches and Mountains of Seychelles – Part Two (Mahe) – Some of the must-do’s while you are exploring the two biggest islands
- A Day in La Digue – Home to the iconic “Seychelles Wallpaper”
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