I know this took forever to write and upload, but, this was a lengthy trip. A lot happened. Some new experiences, some new foods and some of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen. Trust me, the wait is worth it.
Not even sure if people will read what I wrote in this post or just look at the pretty pictures – but I am not judging!! The pictures really are something.
If you’d like to know how much this trip cost, click here. Enjoy.
Friday, May 10th
We left at about 6pm on this day.
The route was Toronto to Philly (American Airlines) 1hr, Philly to Doha (American Airlines) 12hrs and then Doha to Mahe (Qatar Airways) I think 4hrs.
Saturday, May 11th
We landed at 4pm on Saturday in Doha.
Prior to the trip I had booked a transit tour with Discover Qatar. I think all together our layover was nine or 10 hours, so no way we were going to just spend the whole time in the airport. This transit tour was three hours and for $43.00 each? Perfect.
The transit tour took us to the Corniche for sunset, saw one of the stadiums from the World Cup, walked around some other major sites in Doha and then ended the night at a souk. If you get hungry, definitely go to the place we ate at named Desert Rose. Their chicken majboos dish was a 10/10. Just don’t be dumb like my mom and I to order TWO of them. One of these could have easily fed three people.
I wish we could have stayed at the souk later out of all the stops because I know I could have done some REAL damage shopping here. But, that is how things go with group tours. Move quickly.
Doha is BY FAR the cleanest city I’ve ever seen in my life. I was very impressed. I’d like to come back one day and maybe do two days to check out some more things.
We got back to the airport at about 10pm and our flight wasn’t still for another five hours. We were annoyed to find out the sleep n fly was closed? I don’t understand that fully, because what do you mean I can’t book a place to sleep AT NIGHT? Made no sense.
Luckily Doha airport has some quiet rooms where you can put your feet up, so we did that. Don’t expect it to be comfortable or quiet though. It was not.
Sunday, May 12th
We took off for Mahe at 245am and I think the landing was in Mahe at 8am.
It isn’t a particularly long flight, but it was full.
Landing in the Seychelles was BEAUTIFUL. Get a window seat for sure. The customs didn’t take long upon arrival either. Pleasant experience.
Our taxi was already outside waiting for us, that the hotel had arranged.
It was about a 15-minute drive over to our first stay of this trip – La Villa Therese in Anse Royale.
The staff here is lovely, the room was very nice and I like that they have an outdoor shower you can use before heading to your room. What I did NOT like was that the one time I travel with checked in luggage (the full 50lbs) – our room was on the third floor of the hotel. No elevator. So my mom and I had to carry that up all those flights of stairs, after a very long two days of traveling. The lady at the front said usually they have a porter for that, but because it was Sunday, no one.
The GORGEOUS Anse Royale beach was only about a four minute walk from this hotel. Love that.
My mom and I went there to hang out and swim. We waited a long time to make it to the Seychelles, no way we weren’t swimming on arrival. ASAPTUALLY.
On the part of Anse Royale we were swimming in there is a beachfront restaurant named Kafe Kreol we were able to get some seafood pizza and a coconut drink from. Very nice.
After much struggle, we finally gave up at 4pm. Being awake from when we left Toronto on Friday evening was taking its toll. We went back to the hotel and went to sleep. Yes, at 4pm.
Monday, May 13th
Jetlag absolutely kicked my ass.
I woke up at 4am to watch the Denver Nuggets game, because the NBA playoffs were happening.
Luckily, our tour was leaving at 6am, so I was nice and awake for that. Also, it was pouring rain when we woke up, which made me slightly nervous about the day ahead because I wanted it to be sunny and nice.
The tour picked us up on time and we went on to pick up some other people on the way to the ferry. I liked that the ferry for this tour wasn’t packed, and it was for the best since the incoming weather was TERRIBLE. I am someone who doesn’t get sick on boats but today? When some inclement weather came through, I wanted to throw myself off the boat. Two hours of rocking back and forth because of the waves was rough. My mom and I chose to sit upstairs on the boat where it was more open, while most of the other travelers sat downstairs where it was more enclosed. I am happy we sat upstairs because the cool air helped me a bit. I had no interest in hearing other people throwing up, while trying to keep myself from doing so as well. Definitely take Gravol for this journey.
The first stop on this day trip was the island of La Digue. We disembarked and went straight to L’Union Estate by bus. Our tour guide, Chloe, was lovely. There was a French group, Russian group and English-speaking group. They were going to show us how to open coconuts and the turtles – but I was totally uninterested. We came here for the beaches. So we politely excused ourselves and went ahead of the group. The turtles are huge though! You see them on the way to the beach.
We made our way to the famous Anse Source D’Argent beach.
This is officially the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. Period. It took NINE years for another beach to come in first before Anguilla’s Shoal Bay Beach. But it happened. This was the most picturesque scene. All the photos I had seen of this beach were not even close to what it looks like in person. The clear water, temperature, nice sand and the cool rock formations. Incredible.
Because we had abandoned our tour group, we got to spend a whole two hours on this beach instead of just 45min-1hr. Thrilled about the decision we made.
Eventually we had to leave this paradise and set sail over to the next island, Praslin.
During this journey (a much closer one that the first one) – we also got to eat. No big waves now, much easier to stomach.
Once well fed and docked in Praslin, a bus took us to the Vallée de Mai Nature Reserve.
If you’re someone who loves lush forests and greenery, this is totally for you. Hiking and greenery aren’t really my thing as I like 1) beaches and 2) I’m fat. But it was still a lovely experience. I spent most of the time giggling at the shape of the famous coco de mer……
After the green space, we went over to Anse Lazio beach.
This beach is beautiful, but the waves were crazy. I learned my lesson from when I was in Bermuda and the Bahamas, I was not losing any piece of my bathing suit today by risking this swim. It was a shame we couldn’t go enjoy the water, but, it was still nice to see.
From Anse Lazio we made our way back to the ferry. Seeing much CALMER waters on the way to the ferry, wish we’d hung out at one of these beaches. Fine.
No more rain happened during the sail back to Mahe, so these two hours were much easier to deal with than the ones earlier in the day. We got back to Mahe by 630pm.
This was obviously a very long day and with a lot going on. If we spent more time in the Seychelles and had more money to spend, we would have spent a day at least on each island instead of rushing it all in one. But if you also don’t have much time and want to do this tour, you can click here.
Aside from the motion sickness from the storm in the morning, it was a lovely experience!
Once we got back to the hotel, we walked over to Kafe Kreole to have a quick dinner. I tried the curry octopus, it was pretty good.
Note that the cost of food in Seychelles is nuts. At this restaurant we had two bottles of water, a coconut, my mom had penne pasta and I had the curry coconut and it came to $145.00 CAD. Insane price for so little food. The Euro being much stronger than Canadian dollar definitely didn’t help either.
Tuesday, May 14th
Woke up at an insanely early time again. Just early enough to see a part of the Dallas Mavericks game.
We decided to walk over to a place nearby for some breakfast.
Got to Cafe 74.
If you are someone who loves cutesy places that are very *aesthetic* – this is for you. They did such a great job with this café. Also, it wasn’t just cute, the food was great. The Nutella waffle is something I’d highly suggest you order.
We went back to the hotel and found out they do laundry for free? HELL YEAH. It was nice to be able to hand over all our dirty laundry and have it done so we don’t travel with that in our bags.
The day before was really tiring and the jetlag was still kicking our ass, so we just hung out on this day. I watched some TV and edited some TikTok’s. The crazy rain returned in the afternoon, so thankfully we weren’t on a beach when that happened.
Eventually we got hungry and ordered on WhatsApp from a place called Perry’s Grillz. The hotel had left their menu in the room, and I think they were one of the only food spots that deliver on the island.
We ordered a bunch of seafood and they literally delivered it to our hotel room on trays! So fancy pants. Also, the fresh coconut I had ordered? The gentleman delivering it took out a cleaver and cut it open in our hotel room kitchen. That was a first time for me. Fresh as it can get outside of getting in on a beach I suppose.
Wednesday, May 15th
Today I woke up at 3am. Still not normal. Watched the Knicks beat up the Pacers for a bit.
It was pouring rain again and we had a taxi coming at 645am to pick us up for the airport. He didn’t show. Our flight was at 9am and I was like oh that’s not so bad, the airport is only 15 minutes away.
Wrong.
Thank goodness the owner of our hotel woke up and offered to drive us to the airport! Such a sweet man. We sat in that damn traffic for an HOUR AND A HALF. That is how bad the traffic towards the airport is on a weekday in the morning. Especially with there only being one lane going North and one going South. It took forever. Because of him, we did make it on time.
We were flying with Air Seychelles to Mauritius. The flight was only 2hrs and 30min. Would you believe, the airline still fed us? Got a blanket, a pillow and a whole meal for such a short flight. Thrilled and very impressed by them.
On arrival in Mauritius, we got in through customs really fast.
We had a rental car booked for Mauritius, which we picked up at the airport. Thankfully from the airport to our hotel was mostly very good and spacious roads. Was pretty impressed by how good the roads were so far, especially compared to the Seychelles. Some entertainment was also had since my mom had never driver on the left side of the road. Learning. Lots of learning.
In about 20 minutes we arrived at our hotel on the island – Blue Beryl Guest House.
Our room here was MASSIVE. Two big bedrooms with their own bathrooms, a balcony and a spacious living room and kitchen. This room easily could have fit six people. So for my mom and I? Great.
We took a little walk on the beach behind the hotel to see the area. This was Blue Bay Beach, and it was beautiful. Apparently this is ‘winter’ time in Mauritius, so it was empty. I loved it.
Hunger set in and we decided to walk over to Esco Burgers for some dinner. Got to walk through a nice little park on the way there, even though it was less than six minutes away.
My mom wasn’t too impressed by her burger, but me? I got this meat on fries / rice dish. OOOOH it was yummy and the server gave me some nice hot sauce to put on it too. Definitely order that.
Thursday, May 16th
We woke up today finally feeling a little more normal.
The hotel we were staying at offers a nice breakfast with fruit, cereal, omelets – BUT THE BEST PART? Their croissants they bake to give as a side to the omelets. I could have eaten forty of these. They were some of the best I had ever tasted. Fluffy and just perfect. Yes, the omelet was good too.
Today we had a catamaran excursion booked. It was great because the departure point was only a five minute drive from us. I had actually picked this specific hotel because it was so close to the excursion and on a beach. Didn’t realize HOW clutch and lucky I was we picked something so close, but more on that tomorrow.
We got to the catamaran, and again, it starts fucking raining. Blah.
It was still a nice day, we got to Ile Aux Cerfs to relax for an hour. I think it would have been even more nice if it stayed sunny, but whatever, still enjoyed it. Plus, didn’t have any traumatizing waves and nausea on this trip.
The boat had a BBQ on it that we ate and just enjoyed our time on the water snorkeling and swimming. Pretty chill day.
If you’re going to Mauritius, this is a nice little excursion and you can find it here.
After the boat we took a nap and then got hungry again. I read on Google there was a really popular place named Blue Bamboo near us, so we walked over there.
Make sure you come eat here. It was soooo fun!
We each got a bottle of water, two alcoholic drinks, starters, mains and two desserts for a total of $80.00 CAD. What a difference compared to the Seychelles!!!
The calamari starter was exceptional and so were the mains, and of course, the rum. However, the star of the night was the coconut ice cream. Hands down, the best ice cream I have ever tasted. I wish there was a way to take it home to Canada with me. Delicious.
Friday, May 17th
Now let’s talk about this shit show of a freaky Friday.
We had something booked for 130pm today, but in the super northern part of Mauritius. According to Google Maps, it would take us 90 minutes to drive there. Cool, we had all the time in the world. We figured if we left at 9am, we could take our time and check out all the beaches on the way driving along the east coast of the island.
30 minutes into driving, we hit a curb on the left side of the car – took out both tires. Not one, BOTH. A lovely gentleman wearing a Montreal Canadiens shirt came out to help us and called the rental company in French to let them know where we are and to come fix this. He even had us come upstairs to have some water and sit down until the rental car people arrived. He told us that curb was something they have repeatedly complained about to the government, but that it doesn’t get fixed. So we didn’t feel as bad, because he said we were the THIRD people to have that happen this week.
We waited for an hour for the rental car guys to come and take the tires and bring new ones back and then we were on our way again.
As we begin driving, another 20 minutes – we side swipe a truck. Again, on MY side, the left side. The impact made the glass of the mirror pop off.
Now listen, I don’t have anxiety attacks or get worried too much, but I was totally fucked up now. All I could think was that I will be dying today because we obviously can’t drive well on the left, and between the narrow roads and mongrel dogs walking them – we are fucked, essentially.
Using the GPS we had accidentally made the wrong turn on a roundabout and decided to pull over to a side street to gather ourselves. I am damn near crying because, what the hell are we going to do?
We had pulled up in front of a mechanic and my mom walked over to ask them if they could do anything with the mirror. This lovely young man came out with his brother to fix the mirror, for only 20 Euros. Wonderful news, between the tires and now this? We knew we were going to get a crazy bill. It was nice that at least something good was happening.
Now I begin chit chatting with the mechanic and ask him how much it is to hire a driver for the whole day in Mauritius, and he tells me he charges tourists 20 Euros for the day. I told him I’d give him 40 and to hop in the car. He did. Now my mom and I could BOTH breathe, because a local was driving and he knows how to drive there in the chaos.
We FINALLY arrived at our booked activity at 330pm. It had taken 6.5 hours to get to where we needed to, and we arrived two hours late. Total shitshow.
The activity we had planned today was a flight on a seaplane over Mauritius with Sealoy Flights. This wonderful woman, Karen, was in contact with me all day on WhatsApp as I kept letting her know how bad our day was going. She was still able to check us in and had a pilot to take us on our flights. I was so happy. After the bullshit we had gone through, I’m so happy we could still do this.
I went up in the seaplane for my 15 minute flight and my mom went after me. Awesome experience! Wish we could have gotten there earlier in the day, when it was sunny but…. yeah. What a day. The cost of the 15 minute flight was 135 Euros per person. Worth it.
The drive home felt like it took FOREVER. This was just an unnecessarily long day. We had all these plans to see other beaches and go into Port Louis for food, nothing. Absolutely nothing. Our driver stopped off at this little restaurant on the side of the road and I ordered a sandwich with lamb. Three of these came to only 10 Euros and aside from the coconut ice cream were the best things I ate on this entire trip. My mom agrees, she had the octopus in sandwich option. Filling and perfectly seasoned.
We finally made it back to the hotel at 9pm. Twelve hour day of fuckery, done.
Saturday, May 18th
This morning we just hung out on Blue Bay Beach until our flight back to the Seychelles later in the afternoon. The fourth photo is actually the view from the living room in our hotel, beautiful.
We drove to the airport to drop off the car and got hit with a $200.00 CAD fine for the tires. We expected that. Shit happens.
The flight back to the Seychelles was again with Air Seychelles.
Initially we had a car rental booked for this part of our Seychelles trip, but after what happened in Mauritius? Hell no. I cancelled that. The $200 we were gonna spend on the rental car in the Seychelles, we had paid for the tires in Mauritius. If we were failing in Mauritius with their larger roads for driving, I can’t even imagine with the more narrow and winding roads in Mahe. No way.
Our next hotel had arranged a driver to pick us up at the airport. KEVIN! We loved Kevin, if you ever go to Mahe definitely call him here is his number (+248 256 3236). Lovely man. I wish we had known about him during our first three days in the Seychelles.
We made it all the way up to Horizon View.
Another massive space with two bathrooms, two bedrooms and a huge living room/kitchen area. There was also a balcony but because it was already dark, we couldn’t see much from there.
Sunday, May 19th
When we woke up today, we got to see the beautiful view from our hotel room. Yeah, look at this.
I had booked us in for a nice day pass today! Kevin picked us up at 8am and we drove over to the Kempinski Seychelles Resort. Very fancy pants.
For $90.00 CAD each we got to enjoy this amazing resort from 9am to 6pm. Whole day.
This price included entry, towels, chairs at the beach, breakfast, a $50.00 CAD credit per person for lunch and 25% off the spa. For how expensive everything is in the Seychelles, this might be the BEST DEAL EVER.
This breakfast they give you? Wowzers. What a spread. All you can eat.
Then we went and picked our chairs for the day and the servers bring water to where you’re sitting throughout the day. The beach was clean, perfect and empty. Loved that.
I went and enjoyed the lunch with the credit and had some prawns.
The drinks were not included and I ordered this one coconut drink with four types of liquor in it? Yeah, that alone was $30.00 CAD. It was really good though.
We had the most amazing day at this resort and I couldn’t recommend this day pass enough. I even booked my mom a nice massage as a surprise. Perfect day. I would have rather spent the $180.00 CAD on this day pass than the $145.00 CAD we spent on one damn dinner the week before.
I gather this resort is super expensive to stay at otherwise because we saw people arriving via helicopter. That told me everything I needed to know.
Monday, May 20th
We woke up in the morning, but first, I wanted to show you the sunset views from night before. Lovely right? This hotel had the best views.
The lovely owner of Horizon View allowed us to check out later, so my mom and I walked down hill to a beach named Anse la Mouche. Another perfect beach in the Seychelles. It was only my mom and I on the beach, and three fisherman. We had the whole place to ourselves. Perfect finish to our trip here.
Today’s route was Mahe to Doha (Qatar Airways) 4hr, Doha to Dallas (Qatar Airways) 16.5hrs and then Dallas to Toronto (American Airlines) 3hrs. Deadly amount of hours in the air coming up.
On the first stop in Doha, my mom and I indulged a little at the Oreo Cafe. And I just wanted to say here, make sure any drinks you buy inside the airport, they put in the duty free bag. I was confused when they did it, but then I saw everyone else coming to board our flight having their drinks tossed. So yeah, make sure they put it in the sealed bag, which you can open up when you board.
This was an insanely long trip home. That 16.5hrs to Dallas was terrible. Eventually you just want fresh air and a shower okay? Tough times.
Flying over Greenland was cool as you see in the above photo and as we landed in Toronto finally, I got the notice that AA had our baggage delayed. Bit of a pain in the ass, but it arrived to my home the next day. So whatever. Fine.
Overall, what an experience. That is what travel is about, the good and the bad. Do NOT rent a car in Mauritius, unless you have lots of experience driving on the left side. But, DO go visit both Mauritius and the Seychelles. Especially the Seychelles. I still can’t get over how perfect their beaches are.
Like I said – a LOT happened during this trip. Thanks for coming along.
- Mirna