Money Diary: A Week In The Seychelles
A 31-year-old living in Dubai spends a week in the Seychelles and spends some of her money on avocados…
All prices here are in pounds and are for the two of us. The official currency of the Seychelles is the Seychelles Rupee (which you cannot get hold of outside of the Seychelles). I took EUR600 with me in cash which larger establishments will accept, giving you change in Rupees and also used my credit card on a few bigger purchases. Obviously there’s the small issue of the current poor Pound-Euro exchange rate which meant that some items were pricer than I thought they were at the time.
The basics:
Flights: Emirates fly direct from Dubai to Mahe Island in 4 hours. (£675)
Day 1
7am: a bottle of Hendrinks (£32) and breakfast (airpot AND Dubai prices – argh!). (£18.50)
2.30pm: two bottles of water after landing in the Seychelles after a smooth four hour flight. (£3.40)
2.35pm: pick up and pay for our hire car for the week. (£375)
3pm: arrive at our Airbnb and meet our hosts, Gene and Philip. They are super lovely and left some bread, jam, eggs, milk and bottled water in the fridge for us. We unpack and explore the rock pool behind our home for the week.
5pm: drive to Beau Vallon in search of a supermarket to buy food for dinner. The one promising-looking shop is closed so head to a tiny supermarket and buy a single Diet Coke (I drink it when on holiday because when you can’t have gluten or dairy there’s sometimes fre foodie pleasurs), four cans of tonic water, almond milk, bottled water and…nothing remotely dinner-worthy. (£12.80)
7pm: make G&Ts and cobble together dinner. Luckily we bought some basics from home which I would highly recommend doing if you’re not staying in a resort.
Day 2
8.30am: breakfast on our Airbnb terrace – I packed some oats and made overnight oats with the almond milk.
11am: wander around Victoria (Africa’s smallest capital city), check out the covered market and buy two bottles of water while wandering. (£0.90)
11.30am: stop at a coffee shop to cool down, green juice for me and a coffee for H (the Aussie coffee culture hasn’t yet reached the Seychelles). (£7.80)
12.00pm: a full tank of petrol for our hire car. (£42.60)
12.30pm: a visit to the island’s largest “hypermarket” – we pick up some large bottles of water to fill up our reusable bottles(the tap water isn’t drinkable), halloumi, banana chips, rice cakes, two bottles of Seybrew, dark chocolate, tonic water, limes and various fruit. We pay for a couple of fabric shopping bags which we reuse throughout our trip. Nowhere in the Seychelles gives out plastic bags anymore and throughout the whole week I see very little plastic pollution which is amazing. (£55.40)
2pm: I make a “salad” of sorts which we eat on our terrace with the view of the sea.
4pm: drive into Beau Vallon for a wander around, stop for a drink in the Boathouse bar (a G&T for me and a local Seybrew for my boyfriend). (£10.20)
6pm: look at a few dinner options and don’t feel particularly inspired – there isn’t a great range of veggie choices and prices are high. Spot a sushi / general Asian restaurant at the Coral Strand Hotel and have dinner watching the sun set (sushi for me, bibimbap for H and soft drinks he’s driving and I’m navigating back). (£25)
8pm: buy some more fruit from a street vendor (£2.80) and drive back to our airbnb.
Day 3
8am: lazy morning breakfasting on oats and fresh fruit and reading on the terrace.
12pm: drive to Carana Beach Hotel for lunch at a beautiful restaurant overlooking the sea, a poke bowl and sparkling water for me and a mix of tapas plates and still water for H. (£43.50)
2pm: spend the afternoon on the hotel’s beach reading our books.
5pm: drinks at hotel bar watching the sunset (a gin and tonic for H and a sparkling water for me as I’m driving today). (£11.10)
7pm: drive to Beau Vallon in search of avocados for dinner as the supermarket ones are rock hard. This is possibly the most middle class mission ever and I enjoy both the task at hand and driving on the narrow winding coastal road as the sun sets. (£4.10)
8pm: dinner in our airbnb of quinoa salad (brought the quinoa from home), followed by fresh pineapple, dark chocolate and G&Ts.
Day 4
7am: same breakfast routine, followed by driving in to Beau Vallon.
8am: set out on a morning scuba/snorkle boat trip only to end up back on the beach approximately three minutes later – the sea currents in the Seychelles are so strong that not only do I almost drown trying to get on to the boat but my prescription sunglasses are knocked off of my face and claimed by the sea (I wouldn’t have worn them had it been made clear that we would be swimming to the boat through two metre waves).
8.30am: sun lounger and parasol rental for the day on Beau Vallon beach, the setting is too beautiful to stay upset about my sunglasses and failure to conquer my ongoing (and now possibly embedded) fear of water. (£17)
12pm: restorative Diet Coke for me – I stopped drinking Diet Coke on a daily basis a while ago but I’m on holiday and the odd dose of artificial sweetener probably ins’t going to kill me (every sip is absolute JOY) . (£2.80)
1pm: a sandwich and smoothie for H from the Boathouse deli (£12.80), I am not particularly hungry so snack on some trail mix (brought from home).
3pm: buy some fresh starfruit from a beachside stall. (£3.30)
6pm: home for a variant on the previous night’s dinner, gin and dark chocolate.
Day 5
9am: catch-up with our airbnb hosts and they show us the other properties they manage and the edible fruits and plants in their garden. Our original plan for today had been to get the ferry to Praslin Island but the tickets are EUR100 each for a return and that seems a little crazy given that this is meant to be a (sort of) budget trip.
9.30am: hop in the car after breakfast and head south to explore more of Mahe island. Stop at a tiny store for water (£0.30) and then at a second store for banana chips (£1.90)
11am: visit the Takamaka Rum Distillery which is in the grounds of a former plantation, wander around, say hello to the turtles and buy a small bottle of coconut rum from the gift shop (I’m not usually a rum drinker but the free samples convinced me). (£8.30)
11.30am: check out the menu of the restaurant but there isn’t really anything I can eat, visit the small shop attached where H buys reef safe suncream and I pick out a small soy wax candle. (£21.35)
2pm: continue driving along the coastal road, stopping by the deserted Petite Anse beach and a promising-looking restaurant which turns out to be closed on Tuesdays. Carry on driving and stop by a local restaurant. Veggie creole curry for me and chicken creole curry for H with a lime juice and a still water. I’m glad we got to try some local food but it’s surpringly expensive for a simple meal. (£34.10)
4pm: drive back to our airbnb via the cross-country road and the hypermarket for more bottled water, fruit, rice milk and tonic water. (£9.40)
6pm: our airbnb host, Gene, drops by with a smoked fish and mango salad after taking away our sadly underripe mangoes the day before – it’s delicious and such a sweet gesture.
Day 6
9am: back to Beau Vallon beach, rent two sun loungers for the day (£17) – of course lying on the sand on a towel is an option but I react badly to insect bites so this seems a safer and more comfortable option.
12pm: a Diet Coke for me (£2.80) and a pizza and salad to share from a beachside restaurant (£20.50) for lunch.
5pm: I head for a massage at the Boat House spa, an entirely unnecessary indulgence as I already feel quite relaxed. (£44.30)
6.30pm: the weekly food market is at the beach tonight, we browse the stalls but nothing particularly appeals aside from some sweet potato crisps (£1.40) and a bunch of mini bananas (£2.80)
7pm: home for dinner – we are now expert quinoa chefs and have some of the salad from yesterday to finish off.
Day 7
8am: back to Beau Vallon beach – H heads of scuba diving (£103 for two dives) and I rent us some loungers on the beach (£17) and read my book.
10am: a scoop of sorbet from The Boathouse deli and a cuddle with their kitten. (£1.70)
1pm: H is back from scuba-ing, head to the Boathouse restaurant for lunch (a salad each, a portion of chips to share, a Diet Coke and a passionfruit juice). I am sad not to have seen sea turtles. (£35.80)
2pm: coffee for H from the the Boathouse deli and another kitten cuddle (£3.05)
5pm: head home for a quick dinner (everywhere we’ve checked out is doing a set food menu of things I probably won’t like for £90 per person) before getting ready for Valentine’s night – decide to head back to Carana Beach and walk the 15 minutes there so that we can both enjoy some drinks before getting a taxi back.
8pm: the road on foot is (1) very dark (2) very steep but after 15 minutes we are back at Carana Beach where we are told that the bar is only open to hotel guests tonight. Oh. Decide to walk back and pick up some tonic water on the way and that the cocktails would have been overpriced anyway.
8.15pm: spot a dog barking at us from the other side of a fence. Suddenly, it and two other dogs are very much not behind a fence and are chasing us. I am not a dog person at the best of times. The dogs are defeated once we turn to face them (ok, H turns to face them and I hide behind him), back slowly away and shine my powerbank/torch in their eyes. Buy tonic water (£3.60), walk back home, make our own gin cocktails and collapse in heap. Happy Valentine’s!
Day 8
9am: another road trip to explore more of the island. Drive to Port Claud and park at the Del Place restaurant.
11am: explore the beach which is the most beautiful yet. A local guy, Jeron, starts chatting to us and points out that the Estonian/Russian version of Love Island is being filmed just across the bay and yep, there’s a girl in black stilletoes walking on the sand.
12pm: lunch at Del Place which turns out to be the best (and most expensive) of our entire trip – eggplant fritters to start, a Caesar salad for me, a croque monsieur for H and sorbet to share for desert all while looking out over actual paradise. (£61)
2pm: Jeron earlier promised to take us to a waterfall so we follow him past a church and away from the main road (£2.80 for the entrance fee paid to a man who has set up a table and log-book where we fill out our names). After scrambling over rocks, we reach a beautiful waterfall and eat some fresh fruit picked along the way.
4pm: arrive back at the beach and give Jeron the rest of our Rupees in thanks for our guided tour, feel bad that we should have given more but it’s our last day and I don’t have any more cash. (£13.90)
6pm: say goodbye to our airbnb hosts and settle our tab for the wifi for the week. (£25.60)
Day 9
6.45am: drive back to the airport for our flight back to Dubai.
8am: buy some airport souvenirs for my parents and friends. (£12)
9am: hop on the plane home and furiously snap Instagram photos out of the window.
The total
£2,443.70
The Seychelles is never going to be a very tight budget trip. There aren’t really any budget food options (a plate of street food at the Beau Vallon market is £8 – £10) and I don’t think you can DIY the Seychelles without hiring a car. That said, this was one of the best trips I’ve been on and it didn’t feel like a frugal trip as we didn’t deny ourselves anything we wanted – had an almond milk matcha latte been up for grabs, you can bet I would have paid a fair amount for one on a daily basis.
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