Mahé is the largest island in the Seychelles, home to the diminutive capital, Victoria, and 90% of the country's population. It's the quintessential tropical paradise, a sun-drenched landscape of granite mountains, lush jungle and heavenly white sand beaches.

Lovely little La Digue is every inch the desert island idyll, and with less tourist development than Mahé or Praslin to impinge on your Robinson Crusoe fantasies. This is a place where many locals still get around by ox cart, and the beaches are some of the most beautiful in the Seychelles.

The remote Aldabra Atoll is the world’s second largest coral atoll, situated on the outer fringes of the Seychelles. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is home to the world’s largest population of giant tortoises, providing a sanctuary for over 100,000 of these remarkable creatures.

The island of Kilwa Kisiwani, just off the coast of Tanzania, was once the centre of a great East African empire that stretched from Kenya to Mozambique, and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The fascinating ruins include mosques, palaces and the tombs of the sultans who grew rich off the back of trade in gold, ivory, spices and slaves.

Pemba is situated to the north of Zanzibar, a lush and mountainous island that attracts a fraction of the tourists of its more famous neighbour. Beautiful beaches and mangroves are fringed by coral-rich waters offering fantastic diving, while inland the fertile terrain is used to grow crops including cloves, rice and bananas.