Where to stay in the Seychelles: the best islands and resorts

Beau Vallon is the closest the Seychelles comes to a resort town, which is to say not very close at all. A three-kilometre curve of fine sand on Mahé's north-west coast, it has calm water for most of the year, a handful of beach bars and restaurants, dive and watersports centres and a weekly street market. Victoria is about 15 minutes over the hill.

Hotels here suit a first trip and a range of budgets. STORY and the Savoy sit right on the sand; the Coral Strand is a big, easy-going favourite right on the bay; and the Hilton Northolme hides 56 villas in granite coves just around the headland, with Beau Vallon Bay spread out below.

Mahé's west coast faces the sunset and is all about long, quiet bays backed by forested hills. At the northern end, Constance Ephelia spreads across 120 hectares between two beaches beside Port Launay Marine National Park, with an enormous spa and enough activities to keep a family busy for a fortnight.

Heading south, Avani+ Barbarons sits on a sunset-facing beach, and Anse La Mouche is one of the calmest swimming bays on the island. Canopy by Hilton has kids' and teen clubs and direct access to the beach there, while The Seaboards offers a few apartments with full kitchens. The airport is roughly 20 minutes away.

The south of Mahé is where the island goes quiet. The road winds past empty coves and granite headlands, the villages are small and sleepy, and some of the most beautiful resorts in the country sit tucked into hillsides above the sea.

Four Seasons climbs a jungle slope above its own white beach; Anantara Maia's 30 pool villas, designed by Bill Bensley, overlook Anse Louis; the Kempinski sits right on Baie Lazare; and Mango House is an intimate retreat with direct access to the snorkelling at Anse aux Poules Bleues. Most are about 30 minutes from the airport and up to an hour from Victoria, which is rather the point.

Victoria is one of the world's smallest capitals, with a silver clocktower, a lively market and a botanical garden, and you can see most of it in a morning. Just offshore, the islands of the Sainte Anne Marine Park make a brilliant compromise: you get a small-island feel and coral-rich water while staying close to Mahé.

Cerf Island Resort's 24 villas are tucked into a lush hillside at the entrance to the marine park, and JA Enchanted Island Resort has Round Island almost to itself. On Mahé's east coast, JA Enchanted Waterfront offers villas with private infinity pools and direct beach access.

Praslin is the Seychelles' second island, and many people's favourite. It is smaller and slower than Mahé, with a few winding roads, a handful of villages and beaches that regularly turn up on lists of the world's best: Anse Lazio in the north-west and the long sweep of Côte d'Or in the east. Inland, the Vallée de Mai is a primeval forest of coco de mer palms, the source of the famous double coconut.

Raffles has 86 villas with private pools on the hillside above the sea, and Constance Lémuria sits on three beaches of its own, about five minutes from the island's airport. For something simpler, Village du Pêcheur is right on Côte d'Or, and the Coco de Mer Hotel faces the sea on the south-west coast. La Digue, with its bicycles and sculpted boulders, is a short ferry ride away.

The Seychelles' ultimate trick is the private island: a whole speck of granite or coral given over to a single resort. Six Senses Zil Pasyon occupies Félicité, with wide views across the surrounding islands from its higher villas. Silhouette, with its dramatic mountain peaks and rare wildlife, is a 45-minute boat ride or short helicopter flight from Mahé, and Niva Labriz has its beach to itself.

Further out, the islands get flatter, whiter and even more remote. Four Seasons Desroches is a 35-minute flight south-west of Mahé in the Amirantes, with beach suites and villas with plunge pools, and Waldorf Astoria's Platte Island has 50 private pool villas and little else but reef. Prices match the exclusivity, but nothing else in the Indian Ocean quite compares.