East & Southern Africa · Indian Ocean
What to actually do, and how long you need – from seven days across Mahé, Praslin, Curieuse and La Digue.
Tested by Paulius Pikelis · 140 countries
Yes, with one condition: treat it as an island-hopping country, not a single resort. I spent a week across four islands, Mahé, Praslin, La Digue and a boat day to Curieuse, and the trip only worked because it moved. Most people book 7 days on one island, see three beaches, and come home saying it was beautiful but expensive. It is beautiful. The expense is mostly optional.
What you actually do here: you swim on beaches that regularly top the world lists and cost nothing to walk onto, you walk into the only forest on earth where coco de mer grows, you share a protected island with giant tortoises that nobody fenced in, and you spend two days on an island where bicycles replaced cars. The distances are short. The ferry hops are under an hour, sometimes fifteen minutes. Nothing about the country is hard except the sea between the islands, which can be rough.
The country is malaria-free, English and Creole are both spoken, cards work almost everywhere, and no country I have taken a wife to has produced fewer logistical arguments. Of 140 countries, this is one of the very few where the postcard version and the real version are the same photograph, provided you get up early enough to take it.
The clean window is May to October: drier, cooler, steadier trade winds, and the sea is generally kinder for the ferry crossings. Temperatures barely move all year, around 28 degrees, so season is about wind, rain and seaweed rather than heat.
May to October
The reliable choice. Southeast trade winds, less rain. Some east-facing beaches collect seaweed.
November to April
Northwest winds, hotter, wetter, but calmer water on the east side and better snorkelling visibility in places.
July and August
The peak. Everything books out earlier and the famous beaches fill fastest.
What I would pick
Late May, or September. Peak-season weather without peak-season prices and queues.
UV is punishing year-round, and it does not feel punishing until the evening. That is the one thing people underestimate here.
Five days, four nights
One island, probably Mahé or Praslin, plus one boat day. You will see good beaches and miss the country.
Seven days, seven nights
The sweet spot, and what I would recommend to almost anyone. Enough for three islands plus a boat day to Curieuse, with each island given long enough to become itself rather than a stop.
Ten to twelve days
Add the bird islands, or simply slow down further and spend more time doing nothing, which Seychelles rewards.
Seven days, seven nights sounds like a race across four islands. It is not, because the hops are short and the islands are small. We came home feeling like we had been somewhere, not like we had run a relay.
Guide: Seychelles: Four Islands in 7 Days covers the seven-day version day by day, with the ferry timings, the booking deadlines and the hotel picks per island.
The main island and the only one with an international airport. Mountainous, green, and much bigger than people expect, with a road over the interior that climbs through cloud forest into viewpoints over the whole inner island chain. Good for the first and last days: a coastal trail to a cove with no road access, a proper capital with a spice market, and beaches that are quieter than the famous names elsewhere. Rent a car here. You will want it.
Half an hour by fast ferry from Mahé, and the reason most people come is the forest. Vallée de Mai is UNESCO-listed and the only place the coco de mer palm grows wild, producing the largest seed in the plant kingdom. It is also home to the endemic black parrot. The beaches on Praslin are the postcard ones: one of them regularly ranks among the best in the world, another takes some arranging to reach, which is exactly why it stays quiet.
The smallest of the three main islands, fifteen minutes from Praslin, and the one everybody remembers. It runs on bicycles. There are almost no cars, so the whole island moves at bike speed, and bike speed turns out to be exactly right. Anse Source d'Argent is here, the pink granite boulders you have seen a hundred times without knowing the name. So is the wild eastern side, where the surf comes in hard, the crowds thin out, and the beaches get emptier the further you walk.
A day trip by boat, not a base. A national park island off Praslin with free-roaming giant Aldabra tortoises, some over a hundred years old, walking around loose on the beach where you land. Mangrove boardwalk across to the far shore, small reef sharks in the shallows, and a barbecue lunch under the trees. It is the one day of the trip where the wildlife, not the beach, is the point.
Beau Vallon, Mahé
International flights land on Mahé only. From there the country runs on two ferry routes: a fast catamaran between Mahé and Praslin, and a short hop between Praslin and La Digue, both running several times a day. There is a helicopter option that is dramatically faster and dramatically more expensive.
The ferries sell out in high season, and I watched people get left standing on the dock without tickets as they had assumed these would be available on the spot. The crossings can be genuinely rough. On more than one hop I sat outside, stared at a fixed point on the horizon, and concentrated on not embarrassing myself while locals scrolled their phones. Get pills against sea sickness.
On land: rent a car on Mahé and Praslin, and do not rent one on La Digue because there is nowhere to drive it. Bicycles are the transport there. Driving is on the left (like the UK), roads are narrow and steep in places, and some rental companies ask for an international driving permit, so get one at home.
Paperwork is light. No visa for EU, UK or US travellers, but an online travel authorisation is mandatory before you fly – apply well ahead, and know the application has a couple of catches the guide walks through.
Once you are here, the one cost nobody can avoid is moving between the islands: the three ferry legs of the seven-day route – Mahé to Praslin, the short hop to La Digue, and the direct boat back – come to roughly €140 per person. That is what the island-hopping costs, not what the trip costs. Everything above it is a decision, and the decisions run in three styles:
| Style | What that looks like |
|---|---|
| Lean | Guesthouses, takeaway lunches, the free beaches, few paid activities |
| Core | Best-value hotels, mixed meals out, the full activity list, rental cars |
| Splurge | Top-tier resorts, private pools, helicopter transfers |
The expensive part is structural: almost everything that is not caught locally is shipped in, so restaurant food carries the freight, and the top hotels cost what top hotels cost anywhere. But the splurges are choices, not requirements. We mixed a few nights at the top end with simple, well-rated guesthouses we liked just as much, drove ourselves instead of taking taxis, and ate our best meal of the entire trip at a takeaway counter for the price of a coffee at home.
The beaches, which are the thing people fly here for, are almost all free – even the most photographed beach on earth charges only a small entry fee. The guide costs the whole week out line by line at all three levels, every night, every crossing, every activity, so you can build the trip at the level you actually want instead of guessing at a number.
Set the alarm for Source d'Argent.
By mid-morning the most photographed beach on earth is full of day-trippers who came over specifically for it. Get there before sunrise and you get four empty coves and the granite turning from grey to gold to pink while you stand in it. We did it two mornings in a row. The first visitors did not appear until nine.
Ferries, not hotels, are the real constraint.
Ferry seats, not rooms, are what actually run out in season – I watched people get left standing on the dock. The guide carries the booking order and the deadlines.
The best food is not in the restaurants.
The standout meal of the week was a local takeaway counter with thousands of reviews, five minutes by bike, eaten at a shaded table. Fruit bat curry is a real Creole dish and worth chasing, though it took me two days of asking to find a place that had it on.
Walk past the first wild beach.
On the eastern side of La Digue, each cove is emptier than the last. Most people stop at the first one they reach. Twenty minutes more on foot buys you a beach to yourself, but the currents there are serious, so swim only where locals are swimming.
La Digue by bike: the island with almost no cars
Two days of riding between beaches at exactly the right pace.
A barefoot beach dinner, the surprise that closed our Seychelles trip
On the last night in Mahé, a single table on the sand – set in secret, just for two.
Hunting down fruit bat curry in Seychelles
Two days of asking around on La Digue to track down Seychelles' most elusive Creole dish.
Curieuse Island, where giant tortoises roam right past you
A protected island off Praslin where free-roaming giant Aldabra tortoises share the beach with you.
Four islands in seven days in Seychelles, without rushing
Two big islands, one bicycle island, one day boat – and none of it felt rushed.
Sunrise on Anse Source d'Argent, the most photographed beach on earth
Arrive at dawn and have the world's most photographed beach almost to yourself.
Is Seychelles worth the money?
The cost isn't where you expect – and the best beaches are free.
