Honeymoon: North Island, Seychelles

We left Banyan Tree on Friday morning from the helipad on the grounds of the resort. Our mode of transportation.




This was Anthony's second time in a helicopter (the first was Monaco earlier this year). The take off in the helicopter is always a little scary as it moves slowly up and then tilts down before it starts going. This time was no different. He's a video of our take-off.



The flight to North Island was nice and scenic over the water. It took about 15 minutes. The approach to the island was filled with a lot of anticipation and excitement as we had heard so much about the island. One of Anthony's colleagues spent his last few days of his honeymoon on North Island and said that if he found out the world was coming to an end, he would jet to north island and stay there until his money ran out. We were excited to see it. A shot as we approached our landing.



A video of our landing and the overhead shot of North Island.



We arrived and jumped in a buggie to head to reception. The island was very quiet and private. We got to reception and it had a very interesting design.



North Island is an eco-friendly island and it was designed in that way. Very natural setting. It was beautiful. After checking in we went to our villa (villa 3). There are only a total of 11 villas on the island. There are 150 staff to look after the 11 villas (now thats serious customer service). We learned that we were one of three couples on the island (and we later learned that one of the other couples was David Beckham and his wife Victoria aka Posh Spice who were celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary. Good company.




Villa 3 was absolutely incredible. It was a total of 6,000 square feet. It had an outdoor living and dining room, 4 showers, a private pool, backyard on the water and much much more. It was by far the nicest room we had during our honeymoon or any of our travels. The villa came with a villa attendant, Marcus, who would take care of anything we needed on the island. He was there to cook us breakfast in the villa in the morning, there if we ordered room service, there to arrange picnics or anything we needed.

Some pictures of our room - a nice pool on our private deck



Outdoor shower



The outdoor living room




The kitchen where our breakfast was cooked everyday



The inside living room



Bedroom




Behind these shell ropes - the toilet - followed by the huge bathroom




The backyard




The views from the beach at the back of our villa were amazing



After a while of relaxing and marveling at our surroundings we headed to the spa for a complimentary foot ritual. Foot massages are the best!



We then headed to the other side of the island (each villa got a golf cart for their stay so we were able to move around at will). We were warned when we first checked in that there were 50 large turtles around the island and sometimes they wandered near the road. We saw our first turtles on the drive to the other side of the Island. Anthony loved them - feeling like a kid again in a zoo.






After the excitement with our turtle friends, we decided to explore the other side of the island. The island is so secluded and private that you can go to various beaches and when you are there, you can put a rope up on the road to the beach to signify that someone is one the beach - it becomes "occupied" and is yours to enjoy by yourself. We wanted to check out one of these beaches called Honeymoon beach. We had to hike up and down a little path in the woods to get to the beach. Really roughing it.....





There was a bar on the other side of the island called Sunset Bar which, as you can guess, was a great spot to watch the sun set. It did not disappoint.







After a few drinks and pictures at Sunset bar, we headed back to get ready for dinner. When we got back to the room, we noticed a nice little gift from the hotel staff for our honeymoon - a drawn bubble bath and some champagne. Nice touch.





We were going to the main restaurant which was outdoors near reception to have dinner in a spot called 3 trees (the table is in between 3 trees). We were educated about the menu - or lack thereof. The resort had suggestions for each meal, but no menu so we could order whatever we wanted. Each day we tried to have one part of the suggestions, but then tried to stump the chefs with our other orders. They never disappointed. The food was terrific.





We loved our first day on the island and were excited about finishing up our trip in the lap of luxury that was North Island!