When you Google, "Seychelles", you'll see that it's a beautiful little island/range of islands in the middle of the Indian ocean. It actually consists of 115 islands with Mahe and Praslin, as the bigger and more famous islands.

Recently Air Seychelles, in partnership with Ethiad Airways, had a special to fly from South Korea to South Africa for only $300.
Of course I immediately bought the ticket without even thinking twice about it. Paying $300 instead of the normal $900+ and staying a night on a beautiful island was like a dream come true. Here is my experience and some tips from my 19 hour layover.





As soon as I started to search for accommodation, I quickly realized that this island wouldn't be a cheap place and knew I had to play my cards right. I looked at a few options, because I didn't want to feel stranded in one area.




Option 1 - Stay at a nice beach on either side of the island. Either Anse Royale or Beau Vallon Beach, both of which are well known. If you have big baggage, you'd have to make use of an "airport transfer" from your hotel for an extra charge of $15-50 or a taxi of $30-50. If you don't have much luggage, then a cheap $0.5 bus ride would get you there. Although not very quickly. The positive - awesome beaches all day long. The negative - the transfers are expensive, and it's not you're only expense for the day.

Option 2 - Stay close to the airport, walk there as soon as you arrive. Drop your bags off and catch a bus to the best beaches, Anse Royale or Beau Vallon. The positive - you don't have expensive taxi's or transfers to worry about and it's close to the airport for the next morning. The negative - if you plan to go to the beaches, then you would have to return early, because the last buses are around 7-9pm, depending on the direction. This cuts your great day a bit shorter than you'd like.

I opted for option 1, but with the idea that I would only have my carry-on luggage and take a cheap bus to Anse Royale, where my hotel was. Unfortunately. I had to pick my bags up at Seychelles because of the long layover. This forced me to take a $40 taxi to my hotel. Le Relax Hotel and Restaurant.

Upon arrival, I was quickly blown away by the beautiful room with beautiful views. The room was $100 per night, which is a good price for this island.



I quickly changed into my swimwear and immediately headed towards the beach. I spent the afternoon swimming and getting a little tan, which I desperately needed. After a few hundred pics and being in the water a few times, I went to a restaurant to have a beer and to find some free wifi, to contact some friends on the island.


Later that afternoon a friend joined me and we spent the rest of the day together laughing a lot and enjoying the beach. We then had some dinner at Kaz Kreol restaurant and got a pizza, fries and some drinks. It was bit quiet, but still had a pleasant feel to it, with a local band playing a few nice songs.

Although a stunningly beautiful island, it had a few unexpected expenses.
Here is a breakdown of all the expenses.

Flight - $300
Hotel - $100
Pizza, snacks and 3 beers - $60
Taxi - $40
Hotel- airport transfer - $25
Total = $525

With $525, the price was still much less than a normal flight ticket and you got the chance to have glimpse of a beautiful island. So you have to ask yourself? Go home faster, with a more expensive ticket? Or enjoy an afternoon relaxing in the sun? In the end, what's the rush?

Here are a few tips for doing a layover in Seychelles.

• Save offline maps on google maps so that you at least know where you are, since there is little to no free wifi around. 
• If you've met a bunch of friends along the way, don't be stupid like us, rent a car for the day and split the costs. That way you could explore more of the island on your own time and you're not restricted to one area, the use of taxi's or crowed limited time buses. 
• Be smart and find a travel buddy on a group when you know that you're heading to Seychelles. Then you could also share the room price.
• Organize your hotel-airport transfer prior to arrival. That way you cut out any unexpected taxi fairs. 
• Make sure all your admin is in order before you arrive. First off you'll be relaxing on a beach all day and secondly, you might not get any wifi or internet to do anything else.