Thirsty Thursdays: Bar Hopping on Mahe Island in The Seychelles

For about 4 years of this blog, my Thirsty Thursday series was regular, at one point I was doing a new one every week! Since depression kicked in during 2016, the posts may have been less often but I still have easily 500 Thirsty Thursday posts unwritten. They will never be written unless you find someone the same as me to do them for me while I live my own life. I don’t have time, but sporadically I might post a few old ones. 2021 was bereft of them, so here in the first week of 2022, let’s go to The Seychelles for a post.

I ended up in The Seychelles in late 2021 and based myself at the excellent Le Château Bleu in Anse Aux Pins on Mahe Island. I was here during a strict COVID law enforcement so many bars and shops were closed. In fact, the town where I stayed in, Anse Aux Pins, after 19.00 nothing was open! Nothing! The only bar in that town wasn’t even open at all and the shops and food takeaways all shut their doors at 19.00. At least I had a fridge in my hotel room and could buy food and drink early for the evening. However, I simply had to go out into the bars…at least those that were open.

Despite the restrictions, I still managed to visit 6 different parts of Mahe Island (Anse Aux Pins, Anse Royale, Bai Lazare, Victoria, Beau Vallon and Ile Soleil) and had a drink in a bar in 4 of them! I tasted the beers SeyBrew and Vann Swet, which are both local. It’s not an amazing country by any means, definitely very overrated and due to the high cost of this trip, I won’t be back there.

But for now, here are the bars or cafes I visited in The Seychelles.

1.Cafe Kreole, Anse Royale

This cool little cafe was actually exactly what I expected a Seychelles cafe to be like. It was textbook Seychelles. Located down by the beach, you walk through the front door and straight to the beach. I had a Seybrew here and did some writing.

Anse Royale is a small village. It had a few other bars too, including Ole but they were all shut on my visit.

2.La Creole Cafeteria, Bai Lazare

When I bus tripped over to the farside of Mahe Island, I toured the village of Bai Lazare.

Here there was also a Creole bar – La Creole. This was more of a restaurant but was unlicensed. I had an F and N ice cream soda here instead and made do with a carryout beer for the bus trip to the capital city, Victoria.

3.Le Rendezvous, Victoria

Perhaps the best bar I visited in The Seychelles was Le Rendezvous. It was located upstairs in Quincy Mall, on Quincy Street in central Victoria. It just looked good and I was shcoked to find it as I only went here to check out the nearby Hindu Temple! In Le Rendezvous, I initially popped in for a crappuccino but once I realised it was one of the very few licensed bars open in the city, I had a beer here later too.

 

4.Grankaz Casino, Victoria

While buying souvenirs in a central outdoor market, the vendor informed me that there is a place where you can legally have a beer from 9 am to 10.30 pm in Victoria. The catch? There isn’t really a catch but you have to become a member of the Casino. The Casino opposite was called Grankaz Casino.

Of course, I did that! This was a loophole in the 19.00 bar closure thing so I became a member of the Grankaz Casino in Victoria just to have a beer. As a bonus they had football on – it was Italy against Cheatzerland.

5.Lansir Cafe, Victoria

The Seychelles National Museum was shut on my visit to the capital, but the cafe was open! Lansir Cafe was an outdoor cafe which closes at 6:30 p.m. I had a cider and a pastie here at 5:30 p.m. outside and weirdly the ladies at the next table were all Polish (where I live).

6.Silhoette Bar, Berjaya Resort, Beau Vallon

There was a surprise in store when I arrived in the western resort of Beau Vallon. This was the most lively part of the island as far as I could tell. There was a coastal strip full of bars. And these could all stay open until 10 p.m. – there is a different law here and when I arrived I realised it was full of tourists. I went into a few of the bars, but only drank in one of them, the Silhouette Bar at the Berjaya Resort. I was invited there by a lady I met earlier drinking at the Rendezvous Cafe.

As I wasn’t staying in this village, getting back to my hotel on the east coast was a disaster at night. The roads are too dark for walking. The buses stop at 18.00. So my only option was a taxi. The taxi driver wanted 1000 Seychellian Rupees. Ouch. I had to bite the bullet and pay it sadly. The Seychelles during COVID is a disaster and a terrible place to visit. I’m glad that I won’t be back. Just before I left the country, I had time for 3 more bars, don’t get excited – they were all in the airport…

7.SeyBar, International Airport

Can you pub crawl an airport? Certainly I believe you can and as a result of them not accepting my COVID PCR test, I visited three bars in the airport as I ended up spending an extra 14 hours in the country and couldn’t be bothered exploring anymore of this over-rated country. I used that time to edit my book rather than give them loads more money or backpack it. I had pizza and beer in SeyBar.

8.Coffee Club Cafe, International Airport

I continued to edit my book “I Went To Gdansk With Somebody” in the airport that day, and did that also in Coffee Club Cafe, which was a breath of fresh air in the Seychelles as this pace was actually nice. The manager was very friendly and let me use the Wi-Fi (which was the best in the airport) for a few hours.

9.Club Paradiso Bar (Sey Bye), International Airport

My final stop in the country was the airport’s departure lounge and there was a bar here called Club Paradiso. I had my final SeyBrew and that was it. Goodbye Seychelles.

10.Custom Made Bar at Le Chateau Bleu, Anse Aux Pins

After all that, I came to the conclusion that the best bar in The Seychelles isn’t even a bar – it was the place I was sleeping – Le Chateau Bleu. Here, I enjoyed beer and food each evening in comfort.

I won’t be back there but certainly the nearby islands of Mauritious, Reunion, Madagasgar, Comoros, Zanzibar and Mayotte I would like to check out.

 

Here are some videos from those bars in The Seychelles: