Recommend April 2013 - (Page 37)

africa Left to right: Oceanside at Desroches Island and Hilton Seychelles Labriz Resort & Spa on Silhouette Island. The Seychelles’ Private Island Resorts The Seychelles, a string of more than 100 islands sprinkled along the Indian Ocean between Africa and India, offers seclusion to the Nth degree. paloma villaverde de rico The descriptions are tossed around effortlessly: The Galapagos of the Indian Ocean; the Garden of Eden; Mother Nature’s ﬁnest work, and rightly so. The Seychelles, a collection of coral and granite isles, as well as sand cays and atolls, are the epitome of an island escape and have always been top of mind for honeymooners, but their popularity is beginning to take hold with travelers of all stripes. It’s all here: white-sand beaches caressed by azure blue waters; a tropical setting with an abundance of wildlife; and the sense of truly being isolated and miles from civilization—all framed by verdant hills and those iconic boulder landscapes. “Not to wax lyrical, but the Seychelles are truly beautiful and unspoiled with magniﬁcent beaches, fauna and ﬂora found nowhere else on earth, and warm and friendly people. A thousand miles from anywhere means that they have been kept pristine,” says Moira Smith, general manager, Africa and Middle East for Goway, who’s been to the Seychelles ﬁve times. She adds what might be one of the most important things for you to point out to your clients: “The Seychelles government is intent on keeping the Seychelles low-impact, which translates to the opposite of mass tourism.” That means that the seclusion that makes it so very enticing for travelers who truly want to get away from it all, won’t be going away any time soon. But there’s a way to push that isolation—and your commission check—up yet another a notch: Recommend one of the Seychelles’ private island resorts. If North Island is good enough for Prince William and Kate for their honeymoon, we’re thinking it—or any of the other myriad private island resorts—will do just ﬁne for your clients, even the most demanding of them. Although, of course, staying at the fabulously intimate Banyan Tree Seychelles retreat, for example, on the main island of Mahe—where there are plenty of top-notch resort options—isn’t too bad a proposition either (no, not at all). So you can draw a mental map of the destination, the Seychelles is divided into the Outer Islands, which are truly remote, although a couple of those islands do offer those serenity-encompassed private island resorts, as well as the Inner Islands, which form the cultural and economic hub of Seychelles, and is the center of its tourism industry. It’s here where one ﬁnds Mahe, the Seychelles’ largest and most developed of the islands, and home to about 90 percent of the island group’s population. Are you getting the picture here? If the other 10 percent of the population (there’s an estimated 86,000 people) are strewn around the rest of the islands, then those private island resorts…well, they’re pretty isolated. april 2013 37 37-67 AF Seychelles.indd 37 3/21/13 6:59 AM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recommend April 2013

Editor's Notes
The Islands of Tahiti
Hotel Desk: Song Saa Private Island, Cambodia
Tour Talk: Islands in the Sun
A Med Escape: Greek Isles & Cyprus
Set Sail
The Seychelles' Private Island Resorts
Portrait of Israel
Booking 2 on the Isles: Easter Island & Galapagos
Island-Hopping in Mexico: Cozumel, Isla Holbox & Isla Mujeres
The Pulse of Poipu, Hawaii
Florida's Islands: Amelia, Captiva & Sanibel
The Real Caribbean: Grenada & Martinique

Recommend April 2013