Seychelles

Overview

If you think about the Seychelles the first images that appear are lovely beaches, honeymoons and expensive hotels. But besides this the Seychelles have so much more to offer. The island hopping is of course not as cheap as for example in south east Asia but you can keep it on a low if you organize everything on your own. Compared to an all inclusive package holiday you will save a lot of money and you can explore much more on the different islands 🙂

Facts:
Time of travel: May 2018
Best time to travel (warm & dry): May – October
Length of stay: 10 days
Transport: bus, ferry, bicycle, rental car
Visa: Not needed
Costs: 1,600 € per person

Preparation & info

Route

Mahé, Praslin and La Digue are the three main islands of Seychelles. The international airport is located in Mahé (SEZ). We spent 3-4 days on each main island and did trips to the smaller islands around the main islands.

Transportation

Main islands

There is a ferry connection between the three main islands which you can book in advance or on site at the harbor.

In advance you can book ferries here: seyferry.com/
Here you can find the time schedule.

Costs for one trip (Baggage up to 30 kg included)
Mahe – Praslin: from 50 €
Mahe – La Digue: from 60 €
Praslin – La Digue: from 14€

Transportation on Mahé
Starting from the airport you can get to the harbor by bus. This is much cheaper than taking one of the super expensive taxi drivers that are offering to take you there everywhere on the airport 🙂
Later we took a rental car on Mahé (around 40 € per day) because the island is very big.

Transportation on Praslin
Praslin has a very good bus network that we used every day. You can easily ask the locals or your host where and when to wait for the bus that will take you to your desired location. It is very common that the time schedule is not correct and the busses are coming pretty randomly 😉

Transportation on La Digue
Because La Digue is very small you can easily explore the island by bike. There are no cars on this island which makes exploring it much easier. You will get offers for a bike immediately if you leave the ferry. Try to negotiate the price because as everywhere the first offer is always way too high. Our bike rental guy (Harry) took our baggage to our stay and picked us and the baggage up the day we left.

Smaller islands

You can book day trips at the beaches or on the harbor of every main island to the surrounding islands very easily and spontaneously. You should negotiate especially when you have a local who wants to sell you a trip and compared to the trips that are offered online you will save a lot of money. Try to do as many trips with one provider so each trip will be less expensive 🙂

The pickup always takes place at the harbor or the beach with a small boat that takes you to the island. At the harbor or at the beaches (especially on Praslin at Anse Volbert) there are many people asking you to participate at one of their trips.

Eat & Sleep

Besides expensive beach hotels you will find many cheap apartments or AirBnB’s on the islands of Seychelles. We paid around 70 – 100 € per night for a double bed room.

It is very useful if your stay has a kitchen because we found it a little bit complicated to find good, cheap and vegetarian food. There are barely restaurants and if you find one they are very expensive (above European prices). We mostly used one of the many take aways that offer super delicious Creole food for around 5 € per dish. If we did not find one of those we went to a supermarket and made pasta 🙂

---

Travelogue

Praslin

Anse Volbert

We would recommend to chose your stay at Anse Volbert beach because this is the center of the island. You can find restaurants, super markets and one take away (which is only open during the evening) there. We slept at Coco Bay Villa but cannot really recommend this. Anse Volbert is a very nice beach (be aware that there can lay sting rays in the sand in the shallow water!!) with many boats that take the tourists out on the day trips to the surrounding islands. You can book the tours on site.

We also went diving at Anse Volbert with diving school Whitetip Divers and met a whale shark!!! We would highly recommend this diving school.

Anse Lazio

Anse Lazio is the most beautiful beach on Praslin. It is very easy to go there by bus. The bus stops directly at Anse Volbert and you have to get out at Anse Boudin. After the stop at Anse Boudin you have to walk for approximately 30 minutes to get to the beach.
At Anse Lazio you will find a restaurant. On the left side of the beach (coming from the restaurant) after passing some rocks there is another beach where a small bar called “Honesty Bar” is located. You can buy whatever you need by just putting your money in a glass at the bar if no one is there 🙂

Boattour: Curieuse & St. Pierre Island

We booked both tours at a local guide at Anse Volbert (around 50 € per person for 3-4 hours).

Curieuse
Curieuse is famous for its giant tortoises. You will be dropped at a beach with a farm where all the tortoises live. From there you have to walk for around 20 minutes to get to Anse St. José where you get picked up again.
Attention: On the farm it is allowed to feed the tortoises (see picture). Never feed a tortoise if you meet it in the wild. It will forget about hunting and just die if the tourists don’t come around with leafs.

St. Pierre Island
St. Pierre is a super small island. There is nothing much to see on the island itself but the view of the island from the water and the underwater world is simply stunning. Snorkeling here is so much fun 🙂

La Digue

From our opinion La Digue is the most beautiful island of the three main islands. On La Digue you will find beautiful beaches with so many granite rocks. Exactly as you would imagine the Seychelles. You can explore the whole island by bike which is so much fun.

Anse Source d’Agent

Anse Source d’Agent is rated one of the most beautiful beaches of the world. Commercial spots for Raffaello or Bacardi have been filmed there. To get to the beach you have to pass a small park La Union Estate. For entrance you have to pay around 6 € per person at a barrier.
If you make it to the beach you will immediately understand why this is known as one of the most beautiful beaches. Giant granite rocks besides beautiful beaches with crystal clear water. The scenery looks almost unreal.
You can walk along the beach for a very long time (sometimes you have to climb rocks) and you will find many beautiful hidden bays and beaches. We walked until Anse Pierrot. You should be informed about the tides if you walk that far. It could be that there is no trail anymore when you want to go back and the water is already too high 😉

Grand Anse, Petite Anse & Anse Coco

Those three beaches are located right next to each other in three different bays. You don’t even need a lock for your bikes that you can leave at the first beach. From there you have to hike through the jungle 🙂
From out point of view those three beaches were almost better than Source d’Agent. Especially Anse Coco which is the third beach but it is absolutely worth it to hike that far. We never saw such a huge and empty beach before. Behind you only palms and jungle and in front huge granite rocks and simply stunning water. Attention: take enough water and sun scream with you. You won’t find any restaurants or bars there. Good shoes are recommended even if we didn’t have them (as usual).

Anse Severe

This beach is on the east side of the island. By bike you have to pass many hills to get there but it is worth it. Shortly after the harbor we met two giant tortoises next to the street (do not feed them!). The beach itself is also known for a high chance of meeting tortoises during snorkeling.

Snorkeling trip: Félicité, Coco & Sister Island

We booked a half day snorkeling trip at the harbor to those three islands (around 55 € per person). This tour was one of the highlights of the whole vacation. During snorkeling at Félicité we swam away from the reef into the open water. What we found there was simply amazing. We met a huge shoal of eagle-rays, huge sting rays and a guitar shark. All within thirty minutes. We highly recommend doing a snorkeling trip to those islands when on La Digue. The underwater world there is amazing!

Hotel-Tip on La Digue:
Pension Hibiscus (nice hosts, good location, clean and big, with kitchen & balcony // from 90 € per night)
Food-tip on La Digue:
Gala Take-Away (rice curry dishes for around 5 €)
Rey & Josh Cafe Take-Away (rice curry dishes for around 5 €)

Mahé

Mahé is compared to the other islands very big and best to explore by a rental car. The rental car we rented directly at our stay. Besides beaches you can visit the capital of Seychelles on Mahé. We also went diving on Mahé with Dive Resort Seychelles.

Beaches

The beaches on Mahé are all beautiful but not comparable with the beaches on Praslin or La Digue. You won’t find that many granite rocks and the beaches are a little more crowded (but still empty…). The best beaches are located in the south:
Anse Takamaka, Anse Intendance, Anse Gaulettes and Anse Royale.

Morne Blanc Nature Trail

Starting point of this hiking trail can be found with maps.me or Google Maps. You have to walk for around 40 minutes up a hill until you get to a view point. Try to go there when the weather is nice as you won’t see anything if it is cloudy. If it is not cloudy you will have an amazing view!

Victoria

Victoria is the capitol of Seychelles and worth a visit. We could easily park right in the city. Strolling around the markets you can find many nice little restaurants and cafes.

Food tip in Victoria:
News Cafe (Coffee and breakfast)

Hotel-Tip on Mahé:
Petit Baie Chalets (Modern apartment with kitchen // parking spot right in front of the house // from 90€ per night // Jenny, the host, is the best! She and her family will help you with everything. You can also rent a car there)