Rum Soaked Seychelles

Trip date: October 2023

Seychelles, made up of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, is the smallest country in Africa. It's also about 10,000 miles of flying from Seattle! 

My BFF was invited to visit the Takamaka Rum Distillery on the main island of Mahé and the owners generously also invited her to stay at their family beach house. They also encouraged her to bring some of her friends! So after being home for just 13 days from my trip to Mexico City and Oaxaca I was enroute to this tiny spot off the east coast of Africa!  

As usual I used points to fly, and this time I flew business class on Qatar Airway which was VERY nice! You can read about how I booked my Qsuite from SEA to DOH here. 

My DOH to SEZ flight left Qatar at 3am! The Boeing 777's business class lie-flat seats were very comfy and there was lots of room, especially as no-one was seated next to me! There were pillows and a blanket waiting on my seat and a bottle of water inside the armrest. And even though it was 3am I could not turn down a glass of champagne and a little mezze plate before getting a few zzzzs. 

I landed at about 8:30am and it was just a short ride to the Takamaka Beach House in Au Cap where Forest, Thibault, and Caitlin were already settled in. They showed me around, I dumped my stuff in my room, and within 30 minutes I was swimming in the beautiful and warm Indian Ocean!

The beach house sits on its own small stretch of white sand with a huge yard who the local land crabs call home. As the Seychelles are granitic vs volcanic islands, it was no surprise that huge granite boulders were in the front and back yards, but it was surprising to see that the inside staircase of the house had been built around one too! Very cool!

Around lunchtime one of our hosts, Retha who is married to one of the Takamaka founders, picked us up and took us to lunch at Kafe Kreole, just down the way in Anse Royale (anse means bay). This was the perfect first place for a meal! The open-air restaurant is steps from the ocean, has comfy swings and loungers if you want to enjoy your drink with your toes in the sand, and has a great menu of local favorites like octopus curry. Everything is "curried" on this island but octopus is the most famous and that is what I had! Along with a refreshing cocktail!

After lunch, Retha drove us to Port Launay Beach. Even though the island of Mahé is very small, the roads are equally as small and very twisty, so it was about a 40 minute drive to go 12 1/2 miles. Oh and they drive on the left in this country!

This was the first week of Nov and even though the rainy season generally starts mid to end of the month we got some rain each day, including when we were swimming here. It was still very warm (our daily high was 83 and daily low was 80f) and most squalls passed after just a few minutes. The water was always incredibly warm and clear. Heaven!

We also got to try out a few rounds of drinks at Kabana which is part of the the Constance Ephelia hotel and right on the beach. Drinks, service and location here were all top notch!

It had been such a great first day. And the best part was we were able to relax back at the house each night. Our hosts had very generously stocked it FULL of Takamaka rum and the house manager Sophie prepped dinner for us each day so all we had to do was grill up whatever she had prepared- pork chops, curried fish, etc. Then we just made cocktails and played cards and caught up with each other. 

And waking up to this each morning definitely did not suck!

The next day Retha fetched us again and took us to the distillery after we finished breakfast. Takamaka Distillery is housed in La Plaine St Andre, a spice and sugar plantation believed to date back to around 1792 in Au Cap. It was built by some of the first settlers of the island and Richard and Bernard d’Offay, the brothers who founded Takamaka, purchased the plantation in 2008. They set about completely renovating the very neglected historic buildings and gardens. The d'Offay family were early settlers of Seychelles also, having moved there in 1778, so there is a lot of pride and care in what they are doing.

Richard gave us a tour of the entry room, filled with framed photos of the family and the old plantation. Then we moved out to the amazing gardens, where Retha showed us the ruins of the original outdoor kitchen area and the garden filled with all sorts of medicinal herbs and spices. 

The highlight of the garden was definitely a visit with Taka and Maka, the plantation's Aldabra giant tortoises. This species of tortoise is endemic to Seychelles and the 2nd largest in the world! Since they've been around before any of the folks at Takamaka they aren't sure how old they are but guess ~100 years.

We then went on a tour of the distillery followed by a wonderful tasting of the Takamaka line up with one of the distillers. They make both molasses and cane rum and they work with local farmers hiring them to grow and harvest.

After all that rum tasting, Retha invited us outside to have a few cocktails from the bar and lunch from their on-site food truck. Everything was delicious and it was just an incredibly fun day. And of course, extremely generous of them!

We spent the rest of the day and evening back at the beach house swimming and relaxing... with more rum!

The next day the incredibly kind folks at Takamaka arranged for a private driver to take us around the island for some sightseeing. We drove about 40 minutes north to the capital city of Victoria; with a population of under 30k, I'm using the word "city" loosely! 

It was a fairly quick stop but we had time to stroll through the Sir Selwyn Clarke Market & check out the vendors selling fresh fruits & fish, dried spices, and lots of little souvenirs. 

Then we were back on the road and on to Beau Vallon Beach. It was a beautiful drive with the "postcard" granite boulders and stunning coastline. And of course a few rain showers!

In Beau Vallon we had lunch at The Boat House. The restaurant sits right across from the beach in a big wooden open-air building. Lunch and drinks were fine but that was ok; we finished pretty quickly and hit the absolutely gorgeous beach. 

We had such a great time swimming here! We were able to snag a table at the Beach Shak, which sits right in the sand, and spent the entire afternoon having cocktails and running back into the ocean to swim. That is pretty much my perfect kind of day!

5 hours later we had one last drink while taking in the beautiful sunset. It had been another incredible day!

As we did every night, we swam under the moon back at home too!

Another day Retha picked us up and after making a quick stop at a local food truck for curry we drove south to Anse Intendance Beach. This was even more beautiful than Beau Vallen! The day was hot but the skies looked a little stormy and the waves were HUGE! We still swam but it freaked me out a bit honestly.

The sand was so soft and there was zero seaweed or anything! Forest and I went on a beach walk and found a little rum shack blending up drinks. Obviously we had a couple of pina coladas served from fresh coconuts!

After a couple of hours the sky opened up and we were caught in one of the biggest rain storms I've ever experienced! We ran to the car but not before we were completely soaked! It was crazy!

In six full days in Seychelles, each one so fun thanks to our hosts, the absolute best day was a Sunday when the d’Offay family (Richard, Retha and their daughters) came over with their friend Alex and his daughter. The house manager Sophie set a pretty table and laid out dishes, then another of their friends Jemmy came by delivering an amazing lunch he cooked for us! There was a whole fish with chili, octopus curry, lentils, rice, etc. 

Richard made rum cocktails and we spent the entire day swimming, drinking, eating, and laughing. Lots of laughing! The d'Offays are incredibly nice and generous people!

We did actually go out for dinner one night. We arranged a private driver who drove us across the south end of the island to the Mango House Resort. We started at their cocktail bar Kokoye where we sat outside on the balcony with our drinks enjoying another stunning view.

Afterwards we moved to their restaurant Muse for some very good seafood. It was a nice evening out and fun to check out this really gorgeous resort. 

I had one more night after my friends left for home so I used one of my Marriott free nights to stay at the Laila Hotel. The hotel is located in Anse Royale right across the street from Kafe Kreole (turns out the hotel owns it), so I was looking forward to heading back over there the next day for lunch and drinks. 

I was upgraded to a large ocean view room, complete with a little balcony. The hotel was pretty new when I stayed so everything was in perfect condition and the bathroom with huge shower was spotless. 

I headed to the bar, the Marée Basse Lounge, and had a great daiquiri, before heading to the restaurant Laroul, for an ok dinner. Unfortunately I was starting to feel unwell so I headed back to my room and just watched a movie in bed. 

The next morning I was able to arrange a 5pm checkout so I spent the day by the pool. I didn't feel well enough to go out for lunch as planned but relaxing with a couple of mimosas in the warm weather was good.

And then this lovely little getaway was over. I had arranged with the taxi that brought me to the hotel to pick me up and take me to the airport. I had time to check out the Takamaka bar there and also the Qatar Lounge before boarding my Qatar flight to Doha. 

Seychelles is absolutely lovely. I didn't have time to get to the other islands, which I hear are also complete paradise, but I got to hang out with my friends and soak up the fun and the rum! It's a very expensive destination so the generosity of our hosts was really appreciated. If you ever find yourself on this island in the middle of the Indian Ocean be sure to visit Takamaka and tell them hello for me!

If you'd like to listen to the interview that Forest did with the owners of Takamaka you can find that here. 

All photos from Seychelles here.

Other post from this trip: How to Spend 18 Hours in Doha Qatar