L'Escale Resort Marina & Spa

At L'Escale the rooms only just outnumber the berths: 25 of one, about 19 of the other, and the berths take boats up to 100 metres. By the hotel's account, no other hotel in Seychelles has a marina that can take a superyacht. It opened in January 2021 at Roche Caiman, on the site of the old Wharf Hotel, as the first commercial project for Winch Design, which until then had designed superyachts. The habit shows in the joinery. Two storeys of timber louvres stand under dark shingle roofs, the ceilings are coffered in woven rattan, and over the bed hangs a pendant like a ball of white coral. The Mountain View rooms look inland, over forest and granite to Morne Seychellois, the highest peak in the archipelago. Ask for the other side. There the pool runs to an infinity edge, then a lawn, then the pontoons, and the view stops at Eden Island's red roofs across the water.

Recommended for couples and families who would rather be ten minutes from the airport and 3 km from Victoria than on the sand. The nearest beach, Anse Bernik, is 1.7 km by road, which in Seychelles takes some nerve, so the pools do the work: children have their own, and their own menu, and the Two Bedroom Presidential Villa with Pool sleeps four adults and two children up to eleven. The boats leave from the hotel's pontoons for fishing and island-hopping, hikes and zip-lining are arranged on Mahé, and the spa's heated infinity pool is for afterwards. Dinner is at L'Escale Lounge & Restaurant, international cooking with a Creole touch, and the pool bar pours until ten, facing Eden Island. For anyone who arrived by sea, bed may be at the end of a pontoon.