Stopover Istanbul & Inselhopping Seychellen (Mahe + Praslin)

About the destination: Istanbul owes its historic importance and its amazing cultural and architectural heritage to its perfect strategic location, straddling the Bosphorus straits which separate Europe and Asia Minor. Through most of its 2,500-year-long history, the city (first known as Byzantium, then as Constantinople and since 1930 as Istanbul) was a cultural melting pot. Today, its population of more than 13 million is almost exclusively Turkish, and many of its people are recent migrants from provincial Turkey, lured by the promise of jobs and careers in this vibrant, fast-growing city. Istanbul is no longer the nation's capital, but is Turkey's economic and cultural powerhouse - a status underlined by its role as a European City of Culture in 2010 and the award of UNESCO World Heritage listing to many of its most important landmarks, which range from stunning Ottoman mosques and Byzantine churches and catacombs to the columns of Hellenistic temples and the remains of massive medieval city walls. But there's more to Istanbul than Byzantine and Ottoman heritage. A fast-growing economy contributed to a flourishing arts and music scene, with a plethora of new bars, clubs, private art galleries, restaurants and designer fashion outlets.

About the destination: Lying in the Indian Ocean, the Seychelles archipelago has passed in four centuries as a haven of pirates to become the destination dreamed by millions of travelers. Its 115 islands - only thirty are inhabited - have everything to love: sun all year round, tropical climate, coral beaches, an endemic flora and a valuable marine life. The essential route through this paradise visits Mahé, Praslin and La Digue, the islands that concentrate more services and also a greater diversity of attractions. The first stage of the voyage is the island of Mahé, the largest and the only island in the Seychelles. Just eleven kilometers away from Victoria, the capital, which offers the first contact with the islanders, friendly people with traits that denote a mixture of African, Chinese, Indian and European origins. This ethnic diversity has bequeathed a culinary, musical, architectural and artistic culture full of nuances and in which abound the legends of pirates. Anyone from the islands tells tourists about the exploits of John Taylor, Jean François Hodoul - the Château Mamelles, from 1804, was one of his two residences in Mahé - and other buccaneers who hid treasures with jewels and gold coins in some Place of the archipelago. The last known treasure is still found near the beach of Bel Ombre in Mahé. Several bus lines travel the island taking the small Victoria station as a starting point and arrival. Riding in these rudimentary vehicles is a great opportunity to share a seat with people coming and going to the Victoria market, local workers and students returning home at the end of the day. A few kilometers of route by bus and the traveler has already learned that it is imperative to shout "devant!" So that the driver stops.

About the destination: The island Praslin is the second in size of Seychelles. With a population that round up about 6,500 inhabitants. Praslin is known as a tourist destination of Sun and beach. Although the island is also a tropical forest with some endemic as Bulbul bird and the black Parrot animals, all of them are in the beautiful Valle de Mai nature reserve.