Mahé

Mahé is 27 kilometres long and rises to 905 metres at its highest point — a mountain that pulls cloud off the Indian Ocean and drapes it across the peaks, keeping the interior cool and the rivers running year-round. The Morne Seychellois National Park covers more than a third of the island, and within it are 20 kilometres of marked trails through cloud forest that smell of cinnamon and wet earth. On a clear morning at the summit of Morne Blanc, you can see Praslin and the satellite islands arranged on the water like a scatter of dark shapes. Most guests who arrive in the Seychelles never see this view. They go to the beach. We understand, but we always suggest one morning in the forest first.

Victoria is the world's smallest capital — a town of 25,000 people, a clock tower that is a quarter-scale replica of London's Big Ben, and a market that on Saturday mornings smells of turmeric and bilimbi and salted fish. The Sir Selwyn Clarke Market on Albert Street is where the island buys its fruit, its spices, and its conversation. It is the best hour you will spend without a beach view in the Seychelles.

The south coast of Mahé — from Anse Royale down through Anse aux Poules Bleues to Anse Intendance — is among the most beautiful coastline in the Indian Ocean. Anse Intendance, facing the open sea, has a swell in the southeast trade season that makes it the only surfable beach in the archipelago. Anse Royale, sheltered and shallow, is where Marie-Claire runs the kitchen that has been producing the best octopus curry in the Seychelles for nineteen years.

Shark Bank, twelve kilometres west of Mahé, is a seamount that rises from 35 metres below the surface. It is home to grey reef sharks, eagle rays, and in April — during the seasonal transition — whale sharks that follow the tuna north from the equator. We put our dive guests in the water here before they see any other reef. It establishes a standard that everything else in the archipelago must then meet.