myepiphany

Hello all. I am faced with a difficult choice on where to spend my honeymoon and could use your advice. My fiancee and I were getting ready to book our trip to the Seychelles when we were plagued by second thoughts and are now wondering if we should travel to the Maldives instead. Here's our problem: We spent a week in the Maldives at the Banyan Tree two years ago. It was, quite simply, the most wonderful trip we have ever taken (it came on the heels of our engagement). For our honeymoon we thought we would travel to the Banyan Tree Seychelles. However, the more we think about it, the more we realize how great our Maldives experience was. We feel guilty at the prospect of returning to a place we that have already been to, especially since we are big believers that we should seek out new experiences and explore new places whenever possible. As a compromise, we are thinking of staying at the Four Seaons or Soneva Gili in the Maldives. But the allure of the Seychelles is also strong. Any suggestions? FYI, our top two priorities are a romantic setting and an excellent beach with great snorkelling. Thanks for your input!

sandi

There have been many posts re the Seychelles on this board - do a search for them and read thru.

If you've already been to the Maldives, and it was great, why not another great destination - the Seychelles can meet that.

You also have options of different islands in the Seychelles with a variety of environments on each. There are rain forests, islands with birds, islands with giant tortoises, tea & coffee plantations, botanical gardens - a wide variety of interests and all beautiful. While you don't mention how long your honeymoon will be, my suggestion is to spend a few days on two or three islands.

The newest resorts available are the Banyan Tree and Lemuria on Mahe and Praslin, respectively and also North Island that is a single resort island which is simply outstanding. All are expensive, so you should check out each and see how they fit your budget.

If you stay only at the Banyan Tree you're bound to want to visit other islands and while you can do day trips, it really is better to actually spend a few days on a particular island.

Ideally, you could spend 5-days on Praslin and do day-trips to smaller islands nearby (which from Mahe is too time consuming) and it's much easier to ferry to LaDigue island from Praslin than from Mahe; then 3-4 days on Mahe and here too do day-trips around the island and some small islands off Mahe, even rent a car for the day and drive the island. Or you can spend 3-days on North Island, and 5-days on Mahe.

There are lots of combinations - your choice and amount time you have. In fact one recent visitor decided to stay on one island only even though I had suggested they do at minimum two islands; sure enough upon her return she had to admit, they should have done at least two islands.

But do read the various posts on this board which will be beneficial in making a decision. And there are plenty of websites that you can check for an idea of prices.

gard

Hi

I haven't been to the Seychelles yet but my wife and I are going to Sun
Island in the Maldives in the beginning of April Not long ago I talked
to some friends of mine that have been to both the Maldives and the
Seychelles and their conclusion was that the Maldives was much better than
the Seychelles...at least if you are talking about a romantic getaway with
great beaches and snorkelling. Well, I will post a trip report from our
trip to Sun Island on my personal homepage www.gardkarlsen.com when I
return in April

Regards
Gard
Stavanger, Norway

MyriamC

I would certainly go for the new experience. Personally I wasn't too pleased with the Maldives, so that's probably why.

darren

Hello and congratulations!

My wife and I have been to both Maldives and Seychelles multiple times. Both destinations are excellent, just different.

Banyan Tree Seychelles is located on a beautiful beach, Anse Intendance, on Mahe. The beach, villas, and spa are outstanding. We stayed in a beachfront villa and absolutely loved it. The only thing I didn?t like was the snorkeling which I found to be just average. There were not many fish. The Sainte Anne Marine Park and other beaches have great snorkeling and are easy to get to from Banyan Tree. Other islands also have great snorkeling.

I agree with Sandi that a stay on an island in addition to Mahe is a great idea. Fregate and North Islands are the two most luxurious resorts and are also very expensive. North Island has great diving and they have guides that will go with you and point out different fish and teach you more about the surroundings.

In the price range around Banyan Tree is the Sainte Anne Resort which has a few more villas and better snorkeling. Most of the villas do not have pools like Banyan Tree though. Cousine Island is another resort which is very nice though does not seem to get the publicity as the others. There are only 4 villas on the entire island and the beaches and snorkeling are very good. The villas aren?t quite as luxurious as the resorts above.

Lemuria Resort on Praslin Island is a very nice resort and great for those wanting to be active. The beaches, diving, golf, and pool area are excellent and the snorkeling is good. The resort is larger than the resorts mentioned above. Lemuria is a nice place to make a day trip to La Digue Island as the resorts on La Digue are not the same quality as any of the resorts mentioned in this post.

As for the Maldives, my favorite is Soneva Gili, especially for honeymoons. The Crusoe Villas are freestanding over-the-water villas that are about 10 meters from each other. They are very large and luxurious. You would be pretty familiar with the snorkeling as it is similar to Banyan Tree Vabbinfaru which I consider to be great!

As you would expect, the Four Seasons is a great place, however, I preferred the Crusoe over-the-water villas as I had not stayed in over-the-water villa quite like that before.

One of our favorite trips included a week in the Maldives and a week in the Seychelles, who knows that might be your happy medium! Overall, I prefer the Seychelles for beaches and Maldives for snorkeling. You can?t go wrong with your choices though as you will have a great time in either destination

I hope this helps and feel free to email with any questions.

rekleod

Check out Fodor's Guide to Kenya, Tanzania & the Seychelles. It is a book written by them before they stopped writing about this area. Some of the libraries still have it.

If you want an opinion of a person who rates places to stay, check out deluxeworldtravel.com. I am sure that Doelker can help you out with the Seychelles.