The eyes of the world are on North Island, a tiny island in the Seychelles, where the newlyweds will probably spend their honeymoon. Paradise!
Prince William and Kate, the newly minted princess, will have a luxury problem when they get up on North Island and ask themselves: Which beach are we going to today? To Grande Anse Beach? To the Anse d’Est? To the Bonnet Carré? Or would you rather go to Petit Anse beach?
North Island, the island in the Indian Ocean that is just two and a half kilometers long and one kilometer wide and belongs to the Seychelles, has four beaches and has been in the headlines ever since it was leaked that William and Kate want to spend their honeymoon here.
The “Hamburger Abendblatt” quotes the Hamburg island broker Farhad Vladi: “Yes. We have rented the island to the British royal family. But you will understand that we cannot give any further details.”
Vladi has been in the business for 30 years and brings beautifully situated islands to solvent prospective buyers; North Island is one of his most exclusive properties.
North Island is a luxury island with eleven luxury villas, which does not have its own airstrip and can only be reached by boat or helicopter – this seclusion makes it very popular with celebrities. Which is why Paul McCartney, Salma Hayek and Bill Gates have already been here; the Beckhams celebrated their tenth wedding anniversary here.
Adam and Eve would have liked the island – if only because there are no apple trees here, so they would have been spared a lot (which is a good omen for William and Kate).
North Island was only discovered in 1609. At that time, a ship of the British East India Company landed here to take water and provisions on board. The men of the crew were the first Europeans to set foot on the previously uninhabited island.
In retrospect, it can be said that their behavior was not appropriate to the paradisiacal conditions. The new masters (first the French colonists, then the independent Seychellois) transformed North Island into a mixture of vegetable garden, coconut plantation and livestock enclosure.
Many native species disappeared within a few years, from the giant tortoise to the paradise flycatcher, a rare bird. Instead, tomato bushes and lettuce heads, pigs and cattle, cats and rats populated the island. Apart from the coconut palms, it looked like Holland. What a waste!
This continued until the 1970s, when the island was left to its own devices because it was now cheaper for the Seychelles to fly in fruit and vegetables than to grow them on North Island. The island lay fallow and overgrown, but without ever returning to its original paradisiacal state. Instead, the introduced species continued to spread: Weeds proliferated and the pets, left to their own devices, went wild.
Until the end of the 1990s, when “Wilderness Safaris”, a South African tour operator committed to sustainable tourism and already operating a number of first-class lodges in southern Africa, took over. The “Noah’s Ark” plan was developed, according to which the entire island was and is being restored to its pre-colonization state in terms of flora and fauna.
Pigs and cattle have disappeared into the cooking pot (except for one cow that evaded capture by fleeing into the dense undergrowth), the island has been successfully “denuded”, non-island plants have largely been cut down and replaced by native greenery.
Turtles and rare bird species are also slowly returning. Historical records from the 17th century, in which the original flora and fauna of the island were described, provided orientation for the ambitious “Back to Paradise” program.
But because Winderness Safaris is not Caritas and because it would be a real shame if humanity were to miss out on the revival of this paradise, the decision was made to open up North Island to tourism.
The result is something to behold – and to book: On Anse d’Est, the most beautiful of the four beaches, eleven villas are strung together like pearls on a necklace, so perfectly hidden in the dense greenery that you can’t see the neighboring property from your bungalow.
And this despite the fact that each one measures 450 square meters. They are generously distributed over a bedroom (with a ten-meter glass front), an open-air bathroom (with a two-person bathtub perfect for honeymooners), an open-air shower (with waterfall), a kitchen (with Bosch appliances), an open lounge (with dining area), a second bedroom (with internet connection), a terrace for dreaming (with private pool and four-poster bed, what a love nest!).
Between the terrace and the ocean, each villa has its own piece of beach the size of a tennis court. It can be used without restriction, except when a turtle has buried its eggs in the sand overnight. Then the environmental manager comes by and secures the clutch with a fence.
The villas are furnished with an absolute sense of style; African elements (such as the dining table carved entirely from a piece of tree) complement each other perfectly with design touches from Europe (Philippe Starck chairs) and Asia (Balinese thatched roof).
Each villa actually has a private butler to keep the rooms tidy and provide towels, ice cubes and freshly squeezed juice, but William and Kate are likely to have their own staff in the entourage, partly for security reasons.
Stiff manners are just as rare on North Island as a dress code, even the manager can be found barefoot. The heart of the lodge is the so-called Piazza, consisting of a library, activity center, pool, open-air bar and restaurant. Guests like to lounge around here, enjoying a cocktail with a view of the waves, whose steady roar is so incredibly relaxing.
If you want, you can of course also get active: Either on your own in the sea or pool, or accompanied by the activity center staff for hiking, fishing, snorkeling or diving. Some of the best diving spots in the world are practically on our doorstep.
And if the royal highnesses are in the mood for physical relaxation, they can treat themselves to a massage in the hotel’s own wellness area, where Dr. Hauschka products are used.
We recommend that the couple also take a trip to the west beach. The best way is by electric buggy, which is part of the basic equipment of every villa. When you drive the vehicle through the dense jungle and hear it cracking or see it scurrying somewhere, you feel a bit like you’re in “Jurassic Park”. With the pleasant difference that the largest reptiles on North Island are not dinosaurs the size of a house, but cute lizards or turtles.
But they should be back for lunch or dinner. Firstly, the Creole cuisine (made exclusively from fresh ingredients from the island and the sea) is great, and secondly, food and drinks are included in the price, as North Island is an all-inclusive paradise, with only top wines and champagne having to be paid for separately.
Which brings us to the prices: As everywhere in the Seychelles, a stay on North Island is not cheap. A day in one of the villas 1 to 10 costs 2115 euros per person, for the most spacious domicile, villa 11, where the prince and princess will presumably be staying, 3340 euros per person are due.
And since the royals have rented the entire island according to island broker Vladi, you can work out how much the fun costs in total. But no one needs to feel sorry for the Windsors, because as we all know, they are not poor.