Day 1: St. Anne Marie National Park
Head for Vallée de Mai in Baie Ste Anne, a valley protected by UNESCO with an enchanting path that winds through the enormous palm leaves of the famous coco de mer. Wherever you look, the foliage seems to go on and on. Spend the night anchoring in Baie Ste Anne.
Day 2: La Digue Island
Sail to La Digue, possibly the most beautiful island in the Seychelles. Anchor in Petite or Grande Anse, on La Digue's south-east coast. It's the third largest inhabited island, but isn't overrun with tourists. The island is car-free and locals use ox and cart. Get around by bike and explore winding trails under tall palm trees, houses with palm-thatched roofs, copra factories, fine white sand beaches and large polished rocks.
Day 3: Marianne, Félicité and Grande Soeur
Sail around the isles of Marianne and Félicité and anchor on the west coast of Grande Soeur for lunch. Experience the unforgettable snorkeling at Coco Island, just 7km north of La Digue, which is made of large rocks with strange regular stripes carved by the sea. The area has large arborescent corals where thousands of tropical fish swim in front of narrow breaks and dark caverns. Make for Curieuse and anchor for the night in Laraie Bay, on the east coast, or head back to Baie Ste Anne if you need supplies.
Day 4: Curieuse Island
Say hello to the Aldabra giant tortoises at Curieuse, a protected island and bio-reserve. Take a 45-minute walk into mangrove and "coco fesse" trees, which leads you to the other side of the island, where there is a nice beach and small but interesting museum. Sail to St. Pierre islet, a mass of rounded rocks crowned with a clump of tall palms swaying gently in the wind. This is typical and superb Seychelles scenery, photographed on countless occasions and printed a million times in tourism magazines. It's also an excellent spot for snorkeling with magnificent underwater scenery. Go back to Laraie Bay for the night.
Day 5: Aride Island
Make for Aride Island, which is under the supervision of the Royal Society for Nature Conservation. Follow narrow paths through the dense vegetation, which leads to the rocky barrier in the north where you get a great view of the whole island. It's a haven for a wide variety of seabirds, unique vegetation and rare land birds. The ten species of breeding seabird include the rare roseate tern and the red tailed tropicbird. It's home to the world's largest colony of lesser noddy, with more than 200,000 couples nesting there. Head back to Laraie Bay for the night.
Day 6: Cousin Island
Sail to Cousin Island, which is a nature reserve and bird sanctuary with rare species and an important breeding site for Hawksbill turtles. This small island, just 800 meters in diameter, can be visited from Monday to Friday in the mornings. During the season of south-easterly winds, the island is a nesting site for 80,000 breeding pairs of lesser noddies. Go back to Baie Ste Anne for the night.
Day 7: Check out
Check out at the base.
