North Island

Island · Private island

१The island

North Island in short.

North Island is two square kilometres, twenty-seven kilometres north west of Mahé, and holds a single resort of very few villas. It also holds the first recorded human landing anywhere in Seychelles.

Can you go?

Guests only.

Photographs, under Creative Commons: A.Savin, FAL

२The island

1609, and an East India Company ship

In 1609 the Ascension, an English East India Company vessel on her way to India, put men ashore here and they reported a large population of giant land tortoises. It is the first written account of anybody setting foot in these islands, and it was written by a crew bound for Surat.

The island was a plantation from 1826 until the 1970s, growing fruit, spices and copra, and then fell derelict and was taken over by feral animals and introduced weeds.

३The island

Putting it back

Since the 1990s the island has been cleared of introduced species and replanted with native vegetation, with giant tortoises and threatened birds brought back onto it. The resort funds the restoration, and it is the clearest example in the country of the arrangement where the luxury pays for the ecology.

There are four beaches. The island became internationally known as a honeymoon destination for reasons that have nothing to do with any of the above.

४Getting there

How you arrive

By helicopter or light aircraft from Mahé, arranged by the resort.

५The facts

The sheet.

Checked 2 September 2026 against the sources named in our island file.

Area: 2.01 km²
North west of Mahé: 27 km
Beaches: four
First recorded landing in Seychelles: 1609, by the Ascension

६Questions

What people ask.

Can we visit North Island?

Guests only.

How do you get to North Island?

By helicopter or light aircraft from Mahé, arranged by the resort.

७The rest of it

What we do arrange.

We do not sell islands, and most of these could not be sold to anybody. What we do arrange is everything that gets you to them and around them once you land.