Anse Intendance

Anse Intendance is on the south-western coast of Mahé, the main island of the Seychelles, reached by a steep road down through the Takamaka hills. It is a single crescent of coral sand backed by takamaka trees and granite, with no reef in front of it.

That absence is the whole record. Almost every Seychelles beach sits behind a reef and is calm as a result; Intendance faces the open Indian Ocean and takes the south-east trades directly. From May to September the swell arrives with nothing to slow it, a heavy shore break forms, and swimming becomes genuinely dangerous — there are no lifeguards anywhere in the country and people have drowned here. From November to April it flattens and becomes one of the better swimming beaches on the island.

The sand is deep, pale and steep, and the beach is wide enough to absorb its visitors easily. Hawksbill and green turtles nest here between October and February, and the sections in use are marked. A single resort sits behind the tree line at one end; the rest is empty and, because Seychelles law makes all beaches public, walkable end to end. The beach is steep enough that the sand shelves away sharply within a few metres, which is part of why the break is as heavy as it is.

There is nothing on the sand — no bar, no sunbeds, no shade beyond the takamaka. The road down is steep enough that hire cars struggle in the wet, and the last stretch is unsealed. Anse Soleil and Petite Anse further round the same coast are smaller and more sheltered, and Beau Vallon in the north is where Mahé's own population swims.

No reef in front of it, which on Mahé makes it the exception — from May to September the swell arrives with nothing in the way and swimming becomes genuinely dangerous, with no lifeguards anywhere in the country. November to April it is one of the best beaches on the island.