Properties
North Island
Our honest verdict
This is the property we recommend when a guest requires complete privacy, an entire island, and a team that has been trained to disappear until they are needed. North Island is not a hotel. It is a conservation project that happens to have eleven villas — each one positioned on its own private beach, each one 450 square metres, each one staffed by a team that has memorised your dietary preferences, your sleeping patterns, and your preferred lime-to-rum ratio before you land.
The island was purchased in 1997 in a state of near-total ecological collapse. A century of copra farming had replaced the endemic forest with coconut monoculture, driven the native birds from the island entirely, and left the beaches — beautiful as they were — ecologically empty. The new owners committed to restoring the island to something approaching its pre-human state. Twenty-seven years later, the results are audible before you see the villas: the dawn chorus on North Island is unlike anything in the developed inner Seychelles.
350,000 endemic trees have been planted. The Seychelles white-eye — locally extinct for decades — has been reintroduced and is now breeding. The Seychelles magpie-robin, once counted in the dozens globally, has a stable colony. Over 3,000 giant Aldabra tortoises range freely across 201 hectares. The island now has four functioning beaches, a house reef in excellent health, and a conservation team that works alongside the hospitality team without ever creating a sense of competition between those two priorities.
The eleven villas are large enough to feel like houses — open-plan, thatched, with private plunge pools and timber decks that face the sea. Each one is positioned so that you cannot see another villa from your beach. The staff ratio is four to one, which means that the service achieves the quality of attentiveness without the experience of being watched. Food is produced from the island's kitchen garden, from the house reef catch, and from Seychellois suppliers. The wine list is serious. Dinner is wherever you want it.
North Island is not our first recommendation when value is the primary consideration, when you want organised children's activities and kids' club infrastructure, or when you need to be within easy reach of other islands. The helicopter transfer is twenty minutes from Mahé but the island itself is deliberately, thoroughly remote. If you need connectivity — fast Wi-Fi, business facilities, multiple dining venues with different cuisines — this is not the right fit.
Written by Sarah, Concierge Lead — visited March 2026
Villas
11
Villa size
450 m² each
Staff ratio
4:1
Child policy
All ages welcome
Dive access
House reef, PADI centre
Private beaches
4 (one per villa cluster)
Tortoises on island
3,000+
Transfer
20 min helicopter from Mahé
Conservation partner
Island Conservation Society
Signature experiences here
Sunrise snorkel with the marine biologist
In the water by 5:45am on the house reef. The marine biologist knows every individual hawksbill turtle by name and facial marking. You will leave knowing them too.
Giant tortoise census walk
The conservation manager leads a morning walk through the endemic forest, counting and recording the island's tortoise population. Guests are active participants, not observers.
Bush dinner under the takamaka canopy
A dinner table set in the forest interior. The kitchen brings everything to you — fire-cooked reef fish, Creole dishes, and the silence of an island that has no road traffic, no other guests, and no ambient light.
Endemic tree planting
A session with the restoration team — selecting a species, preparing a site, planting and recording. Your tree is logged in the island's database. You can track its growth after departure.
Private yoga on Anse d'Est
The east beach faces the open ocean and catches the early light. The wellness team sets up before the heat builds. One of the finest yoga locations on earth.
Reef walk with the dive master
A guided surface snorkel along the western reef wall. The dive master narrates what is below — the species, the health indicators, the changes recorded since last month.
Conservation & sourcing
North Island's restoration programme is one of the most ambitious private island ecological recovery projects ever undertaken. 350,000 endemic trees have been planted since 1997. The Seychelles white-eye was reintroduced in 2005 and is now self-sustaining. The Seychelles magpie-robin has a stable colony. Three giant tortoise breeding pens produce hatchlings that are released into the wild population annually. Every guest stay contributes directly to the programme through a conservation levy that funds the annual restoration budget. On departure, guests receive a conservation impact report detailing what their stay has funded.
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