Falling in love with Alphonse Island, Seychelles
It’s hard to know where to begin because there isn’t just one thing that made me fall in love with Alphonse, it was a combination of the underwater and overwater life, the people, the location and most incredible experiences. It was, predominantly a fishing island because of the insane island flats and stunning reefs that attract bonefish and Giant Trevally’s but now it is very much an island for anyone looking for an incredible experience where you will want to return time after time.
I was lucky enough to be invited to Alphonse Island on a short four night research trip with my colleague Lara to check it out and see why it could be a great addition to our hotel collection in the Seychelles and boy did it blow us away!
Where
To give you an idea, the Seychelles is made up of around 115 granitic and coral islands, with the majority of the islands being uninhabited. Mahe, Praslin and La Digue are the three main and largest islands where you have stunning beaches, dramatic mountainous scenery and beautiful hotels scattered along the coast lines – perfect islands to get out and explore. You then have some outer islands which are a bit like the Maldives that are private islands with just the one hotel and tend to be low lying flat islands such as Four Seasons Desroches and Denis Island.
Alphonse is a stunning private island, a one hour flight away from Mahe, just 7 degrees south of the equator. Located in the Alphonse Atoll it, is the only ‘resort’ in the area and is considered to be one of the most pristine, untouched Edens of the world.
Because of its remoteness, when you are here you literally feel like you are in the middle of nowhere but not only that it means the sea life, bird life and whole experience is out of this world.
Why Alphonse?
So as I mentioned you do also have other private island resorts in the Seychelles that you can visit and when combining them with a hotel on one of the main islands it makes for an incredible itinerary, and although Alphonse is a beautiful hotel and offers all the things a typical resort would, there is something a lot more special about Alphonse. Most of the other outer islands have good snorkelling, diving and impeccable service, the perfect setting for a stunning resort where you go to completely relax and unwind.
Alphonse does offer all of those things and of course you can go to Alphonse for exactly that too but at Alphonse its all about the experiences and activities to do on and around the island where you fully immerse yourself with the team, learning about the rich island history, the incredible marine life such as Rays, fish, turtles, lemon shark, their marine conservation programme and neighbouring uninhabited islands that house many incredible species of birds – this is what makes it so magical.
The people
On arrival to the island you are warmly greeted by Uno their resort manager who will take you by buggy to the main bar area with stunning ocean views and gorgeous drift wood features where you are met with a fresh coconut and introduced to the team and heads of fishing and diving so that they can chat to you and find out what kind of things you are interested in and what you would like to do during your stay.
For diving/snorkelling and fishing, there is a wonderful team of staff that are absolutely full of insane knowledge and enthusiasm. They can book in any snorkelling, diving, fishing trips that you may want to do and just generally guide and advise you on what and when would be best depending on what you would like to try. Each evening you are invited to the main bar for pre-dinner drinks and here the staff will come and meet you to chat all about your day and what you would like to do the following day – they really make your stay not just a holiday but a home from home. The bar has a really nice social vibe with laid back music where guests interact with each other, quite often making many new friends. Then at around 7.00pm one of the team will make an announcement and award the guest who has caught the biggest or best catch of the day and if you like a little shot can go down with it whilst ringing the bell.
There were so many members of the staff that were incredible, they really made the trip for us. Not only were they so knowledgeable, they were fun, kind and genuinely interested in getting to know us without being formal or stuffy which felt like a breath of fresh air, we left the island having made a lot of new friends.
Things to do
• Snorkelling and diving – With a stunning huge house reef snorkelling and diving is a must. We took a couple of snorkelling boat trips out on guided snorkelling sessions and they were incredible. I would say it was the best snorkelling I have done, we saw Rays, so many types of fish, reef shark, turtles etc. if you are a diver, they have countless dive spots that are a must do, if you are not then you can take a course and learn to dive on the island. You don’t have to go out on the boat for snorkelling too if you didn’t want to as straight from the beach was also really good. I didn’t dive and because the snorkelling was so good I didn’t feel that I missed out from not diving.
• Fishing – I am not a fisher and really didn’t think I would like this but wow was I wrong, Johnno was the lucky one that took us out at 8am not knowing what he let himself in for! We spent the morning bobbing around the lagoon, learning how to cast, having a relaxing morning with a couple of beers and a picnic on board! We even caught a few fish too! The more experienced fishers can go out all day and do the advanced fishing – it is meant to be some of the best places to fish her for bone and GTs.
• Flats lunch – this is epic and you have to do this when you stay at Alphonse! An hour after we arrived we headed out on board a catamaran 40 minutes away to a little remote island called St Francois. Here you have the famous flats with a gorgeous picnic with tables and chairs set up, sand between your toes with local fish, meats and sumptuous salads on display. It was a great start to our trip where we got to experience this isolated island lunch!
• Blue Safari Boat Trip – this again was incredible, spinner dolphins came up to play with the boat, we jumped in and swam with them and then when snorkelling we realised we were joined with two bull shark, a turtle and a group of Eagle Ray!
• Visit the islands of Bijoutier and St Francois to walk around the islands exploring and discovering the Red Boobies and Fregate birds.
• Island conservation talks – learn more about what the team are doing along with the ecologist team.
• Their cycle tour around the island is well worth it, you cycle through dense Jurassic type vegetation with stops along the way learning all about the island history, finishing off at their herb garden with a delicious homemade smoothie.
• They have resident Tortoise and a little Tortoise sanctuary you can visit and we were also incredibly lucky that we stumbled upon a turtle digging her nest ready to lay eggs.
• You can also go stand up paddle boarding, surfing during certain times of the year, sundowner boa trips, sailfish snorkelling, beach picnics and yoga to name a few!
The hotel
Apart from all of the amazing experiences to do in and around the ocean, the hotel itself is really beautiful. It is quite a large island so you can jump on your bikes and go exploring, there are also tennis courts and a Spa to enjoy as well as a gorgeous large main pool with large day beds to relax on.
The Beach Bungalows are their entry level room and really cute and cosy, if you wanted to treat yourself then the Beach Villas have their own private pools adding tothe wow factor and great if you do want to spend more time around the privacy of your villa, relaxing by a pool.
Dining is lovely, with one main restaurant, breakfast tends to be in the open air restaurant with lunch and dinner taking place on the beach in a relaxed manner. Being on a full board basis, all your meals are included and at lunch and dinner you get to choose from 3 different dishes. We also enjoyed a live cooking Asian evening, a gorgeous buffet on the beach and there are always pre dinner nibbles offered at the bar. Head to Sunset bar for music and sunsets between 3-6pm!
