Many people choose to take one of the many Seychelles luxury holiday experiences every year but most don’t look much further afield than the main island, Mahé. This article takes a look at just one of the alternatives, Fregate Island, to give you a feel for what the other Seychelles islands have to offer.
Fregate Island is just over three square kilometers in size and, like many of the Seychelles islands, is fairly remote. The remoteness meant that for many years nature was allowed to flourish on the island relatively untouched by man. The first settlers on the island were most like 16th and 17th century pirates. They would have most likely stopped off here, after raiding the major shipping routes, for food, water and shelter.
That’s not to say that people didn’t settle on the island though. The famous French explorer Lazare Picault mapped out the island in 1744 and went on to declare Fregate Island as one of the first island in the Seychelles region to be suitable for settlement and agriculture; unfortunately this lead to the mistreatment of the island by later European colonists, who through imported animals and over farming we’re a large threat to the local flora and fauna. Eventually though Mahé replace Fregate Island as the main island in the Seychelles chain and nature was able to re-establish itself.
Today the conservation work continues and Fregate Island has some of the most beautiful natural landscapes in the Seychelles, it really is one of the few places on the planet that can be considered a ‘paradise’.
Fregate Island today is a privately owned and maintained island. It has a unique concept that aims to combine luxury holiday experiences, space, seclusion and security with the natural world. Their motto for the island is ‘we nurture nature, and nature nurtures us.’ With this motto in mind the resorts’ on Fregate Island strive to maintain high conservation standards, especially with respect to integrating a luxury tourism operation into a natural retreat, to maintain a balance on the island between the natural world and the man made.
This leads to some unique encounters too. Just as tourists at the resort enjoy walks around the islands and relaxation on the beach, the animals of the island enjoy sharing the man made spaces. You’ll often see bird life and other indigenous wildlife walking, or flying, around the resort grounds. So next time you’re looking for a Seychelles luxury holiday why not consider experiencing the natural beauty of Fregate Island.
