Fregate Island: The Comeback We’ve Been Waiting For

Oh, Fregate.

You’ve likely have heard me go on and on about it for the last few years, because in the ultra-luxury space, we cling to whatever scraps we can get.  Low room-count, high-end beach openings don’t exactly pop up every Tuesday.  As I said recently, if you rewind to 2018, the only new contenders worth mentioning are Kisawa and Soneva Secret.  That’s it.  That’s the list.

Fregate already exists, but has been shut for a rebuild since 2022.  And rightly so.  It has always been one of those awkward in-betweeners.  It sort of qualified as ultra-luxury—if you squinted hard enough and didn’t mind design with a side of clinical depression.  But it was more “what could be” than “what is.” The island is outrageous.  Genuinely world-class.  It has some of the best beaches I’ve ever seen.  But the product was tired, dated, and the service seemed to have been outsourced to an army of millipedes that would randomly descend from the ceiling.

Now it’s being completely rebuilt.  Not a refresh.  Not a renovation.  A full transformation that shares almost nothing with the previous version other than the name and coordinates.  It is on a one-company mission to Make the Seychelles Great Again.

My thoughts

I’m in a unique position—someone who would book this for myself and someone who regularly books similar properties for others.  So, Fregate invited me to a presentation to discuss the rebuild, review what’s included, and share my thoughts on pricing.

The good news?  It looks even better than it did the last time I saw concept renders.  I’ve now seen real photos of real structures.  This thing exists.  Their rep company is even hiring, and one of the best ex-Aman sales directors I know has just joined their team.  And you tend not to hire top-tier sales talent to sell something imaginery – unless you’re either crazy and do it for shits and giggles, or pretty confident that launch day isn’t far off.

The bad news?  My only contribution was to suggest a new pricing policy where anyone named Tom gets 99% off, and everyone else pays double.

I have very little doubt this is going to be one of the world’s best.  Not “world’s best” as decided by some magazine award voted on by sycophants and extended family, but genuinely—actually—world-class.  A world-class product on a world-class private island.

Next year’s shaping up to be big.  Bulgari Maldives is opening with 47 villas, Fregate returns with just 17 villas, and if Singita Elela actually opens in time in Botswana, we could be looking at a golden year for ultra-luxury travel.  Colour me excited.