Four Seasons Desroches Island

Our honest verdict

Desroches is the gateway to the outer islands and a destination in its own right. Four Seasons runs a polished, full-service operation on a flat coralline island with 14km of beaches and a house reef that is almost unfairly good. The cycling infrastructure alone — a network of paths through the interior — makes it unlike any other private island in the archipelago.

Desroches sits 230 kilometres southwest of Mahé at the edge of the Seychelles Bank, which means the water around it has a clarity and a depth that the inner granitic islands cannot match. The house reef drops to 25 metres within a five-minute swim of the beach and the diversity of species on the outer wall — Napoleon wrasse, hammerhead sharks, dogtooth tuna, and the largest barracuda schools we have seen in the Seychelles — is exceptional by any standard.

The Four Seasons operation here is the most complete full-service resort on this list. 71 villas and suites, a water sports centre that includes kite surfing instruction, PADI diving, kayaking, and stand-up paddleboarding, a spa that is genuinely well-staffed and substantively programmed, and a kids' programme that is structured enough to actually occupy children rather than simply provide a space for them. For multi-generational groups who want a private island but cannot agree on a single activity preference, Desroches resolves the argument.

The fly-fishing at Desroches is less well known than Alphonse but is serious and productive. The outer flats, accessible by skiff in fifteen minutes from the beach, hold bonefish, permit, and giant trevally in water that is rarely more than knee-deep. The guide team has been on this flat for years. The kite surfing conditions on the western lagoon — consistent trade winds in the southeast season with a sheltered, flat-water lagoon — are the most reliable in the Seychelles.