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Private islands & atolls
Félicité Island
Félicité has no airstrip, and every visitor arrives by helicopter or by boat from Praslin. The island covers about 2.7 square kilometres, rises to a peak of 213 metres, and counted around 20 residents in 2014.
- Location
- 4 km east of La Digue, 55 km from Mahé
- Area
- About 2.7 km², the fifth-largest island in Seychelles
- Population
- About 20 residents, recorded in 2014
- Access
- By helicopter (18-20 min from Mahé) or boat via Praslin
Félicité was a coconut plantation for most of the 20th century, with a population of about 50 that declined through the 1970s. Before that, in 1877, the British colonial administration exiled Sultan Abdullah Muhammad Shah II of Perak here for two years, after the 1875 killing of the British Resident J.W.W. Birch in Malaysia. The Seychelles government granted a 99-year lease over the then largely uninhabited island for resort development in 2007, and Singaporean developer Kishore Buxani acquired the development rights in 2013, when construction began. The result, Six Senses Zil Pasyon, has 30 villas and 3 private residences on about a third of the island; the rest is kept as forest. Only native Seychelles plants are used in the landscaping, and an ecologist has spent years clearing invasive species such as coco plum, replanting around 40,000 native seedlings and allowing species such as the black paradise flycatcher to return. A turtle programme monitors hawksbill nesting on the beaches, and a coral-reef restoration project runs offshore at Anse Peniche.
Selected stays
Félicité Island
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