The Seychelles have the reputation of being one of these exclusive islands amidst the crystal waters of the Pacific Ocean, a place of paradise for the wealthy few that can afford flight and accommodation. Besides, the Seychelles are in favor of French visitors as the local population speaks Creole, an incomprehensible descendant of French, and can communicate well in French.

If one believes once popular chansons of a famous Austrian singer, there also plenty of opportunities for water sports, namely (wind-)surfing. It seems however that the songwriter has not verified his lyrics on site. Besides some hotels renting two or three beginner boards, there is only one public rental place, and his selection is not any better than the quoted hotel shacks. Besides, he was closed most of the time due to totally insufficient winds for any try. In fact, the wind was even too mild to lift the flags at the beach. Maybe there is some wind in summer, because I have also read about a windsurfing race between the islands. While we were there, there was not a single day inviting to even test a board.

So obviously windsurfing and similar water action cannot attract the big crowd – but diving is very famous here, and there is also a large PADI dive center at Baie Beau Vallon (= the main beach, northwest), which is surprisingly well equipped. With the lack of alternatives it became evident quite soon that we had to take diving classes here. Too bad our hotel, Berjaya Beach Resort, was about 1 hour's drive away, on the southwestern beach, so we had a to count in some hours for driving each day. There is no direct connection along the coast, so the only road there leads through the capital Victoria, which means crossing the central mountains two times. There was actually nothing do to in the neighborhood of our hotel, so unless you enjoy sleeping and lying on the beach all day, it's definitely recommended to check into a hotel at the northwestern beach, e.g. Fisherman's Cove (which BTW also seemed the best hotel resort on the island). All the action is along its beach, and diving is definitely the most excitement one gets out here. The reefs are spectacular, and an open water certification can be obtained in just 4 days.

Anything else on the island is rather disappointing. I tried the tennis facilities of our hotel once, but the courts were in rather bad shape, asphalt surface and torn nets, so that playing there was not too long of an amusement. The Plantation Club, another expensive hotel even further south in the no-man's-land section of Mahe, does feature an excellent restaurant - but staying here would mean driving another half hour more to the diving center. Victoria, the capital, by far the largest assembly of houses anywhere on the islands, has less facilities than any village in outback southern Spain, we did not even succeed in finding a standard supermarket. Which did not matter too much, as hour hotel had all-you-can eat buffets every morning and evening.

Of course we also wanted to try the local cuisine besides the usual tourist traps, so we took our little rental Mini Moke out to one of the recommended places at the southern tip one night. When we arrived, everything was dark, just a few dogs barking outside. We must be wrong, was our immediate thought, as also the street signs leading us here were not very convincing. But suddenly, out of the dark the owner showed up, turned all the lights on he had, and offered to cook whatever we were in the mood for. Too bad his drink menu was a little cut back due to decreased demand:

Was it really that much off-season? Or does no tourist ever try eating outside of the hotel chains? As we were not in the mood for lemonade all night, we left and tried another recommendation of our guide brochure. Same procedure here: Everything dark, but as soon as we came, the welcoming owners lighted everything. They at least had something that distantly resembled an orange juice, and some good fish. Quite an experience. But the atmosphere is a little strange, all alone in a restaurant.

We also wanted to see one of the other islands one day, so we took the ferry over to Praslin, the second largest island, with its famous sandy beaches interspersed with large white round rocks. It was a half-hour taxi ride to the distant beach, across bad Seychellois roads, and – what was worse – with constant attack of Seychellois music of the worst kind out of the tiny speaker of our taxi driver's cassette player. He himself did enjoy his country fellow singing about the beauty of being Seychellois. We didn't too much, as every song was very much like the preceding one, just the sequence of howls was changing.

The beach was nice, not so remote as we thought as a couple of tourists apparently had also read about its secludedness, but nothing that would occupy the action-biased adventurer like me for more than two hours. In general, I had the impression I was wrong here – all the other visitors around us seemed to enjoy the days of doing nothing, even if most of them did not know what to talk about after the first day anymore, which lead to a very silent atmosphere during dinner and breakfast.

The Seychelles to me seem quite similar to any remote island like French Polynesia or the Maldives, where there are gorgeous turquoise beaches and fantastic dive sites in crystal waters, but outside of that they do not have much to offer. If complete relaxation for a week is not too boring for you, you might try it – I am definitely more in the mood for more action available.