250 miles southwest of Mahe in the Seychelles lies the tiny Alphonse Group. (Image: Getty)
If you are looking for the epitome of a relaxation, beautiful weather and stunning the should be high on your list.
But for some, even that is not quiet enough – so by hopping on another plane, you can enter a private island resort paradise: the Alphonse Group.
The group belongs to the Outer Islands of the Seychelles, East Africa, lying to the southwest of the island nation, 250 miles southwest of the capital, Victoria, on Mahe Island.
The group consists of two atolls – tiny islands – that are only 1.2 miles apart, separated by a deep channel. The Alphonse Atoll sits to the north while St Francois Atoll lies south. The total area including reefs and lagoons amounts to roughly 25 square miles – the picture of a remote getaway.
To make this even better, Alphonse has its own microclimate thanks to its position in the , meaning that guests can enjoy wall-to-wall sunshine at any time of year.
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The waters surrounding the Alphonse are filled with rare fish, including sea turtles, rays, sharks. (Image: Getty)
“The outer islands have quite a different climate to the inner islands,” said Elle Brighton, the conservation and sustainability manager at Blue Safari Seychelles, the company that owns and manages Alphonse, reported.
“The inner islands such as Mahé are mountainous – and mountains create weather. You get the sea breeze, which is very humid and has lots of moisture, and where it meets the mountains, it gets pushed up, so that’s why it typically rains a lot.”
The Alphonse Group, which is flat, receives around 50% of the rain that the inner islands receive. Alphonse is home to a high-end resort accommodating around 100 guests, as well as a nature reserve. It also has a farm, enabling the kitchen to rely almost exclusively on homegrown produce.
The group is capable of producing an impressive 25 tones of fruit, vegetables and herbs each year, as well as a microgreens tunnel and beehives for honey production.
The chefs create menus based on what is available, meaning that everything is fresh and made daily, even including the ice cream, the Telegraph revealed. Fresh fish is bought from local fishermen who catch species outside of the reef. The only regular imports, which arrives every couple of months from the inner islands, are meat and .
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Thanks to its abundance of sunshine, Alphonse is also home to the largest in the Seychelles, with over 2,000 panels powering generators that supply nearly all of the resort’s energy. Guests can enjoy beach bungalows or villas, as well as a communal lodge home to a restaurant, beach bar and lounge, as well as a spa, pools, tennis courts and a watersports centre which offers daily complimentary group activities and private excursions.
The waters surrounding the Alphonse are filled with rare fish, including sea turtles, rays and sharks.
The islands run several conservation initiatives, including setting up a breeding spot for the turtles that nest on the beach each year. It is also home to over 100 tortoises, which are raised in a purpose-built nursery before being released to roam the island.
The months of October and November and March and April typically offer the best weather on Alphonse, with winds picking up during the summer season – but it still remains beautifully sunny.
To get to Alphonse Island from the UK, you can fly to Mahe International Airport in about 10 hours, with offering direct , and then take a one-hour charter to Alphonse.