19 Best Things to Do in Seychelles

The Sey­chelles, locat­ed in the Indi­an Ocean, are famous through­out the world for their pris­tine sandy beach­es, pris­tine rain­forests, beau­ti­ful coral lagoons, nature reserves and parks.

Who and why goes to the Seychelles

These islands were dis­cov­ered by Por­tuguese nav­i­ga­tors in 1502. Dur­ing the colo­nial peri­od, the ter­ri­to­ry often changed hands and more than once turned out to be a stag­ing post for smug­glers and pirates. Inde­pen­dence received from Great Britain in 1976 opened up new avenues for the devel­op­ment of the arch­i­pel­ago.

The island African state has adopt­ed a new con­sti­tu­tion and laws for doing busi­ness. The tourism indus­try has become a prof­itable busi­ness and today accounts for 75% of for­eign exchange earn­ings in the coun­try.

The arch­i­pel­ago con­sists of 115 coral and gran­ite islands. The first are small flat atolls strewn with sand. They grow only coconut palms. The lat­ter are usu­al­ly larg­er and cov­ered with dense trop­i­cal forests.

Hol­i­days in the Sey­chelles are suit­able for chil­dren and adults:

• On Palm Island, tourists admire rare plants, trop­i­cal flow­ers, giant Aldabra tor­tois­es, and black par­rots.
• Denis Island is famous for coke groves, wide beach­es, a coral lagoon, colonies of land tur­tles and rare birds. Peo­ple swim in clear water, enjoy the beau­ty of the coral reef, go fish­ing and div­ing.

Well-appoint­ed hotels have every­thing you need for a care­free pas­time: game rooms, swim­ming pools, attrac­tions. Trav­el com­pa­nies offer excit­ing excur­sions to the palm for­est of the Valle de May on the islet of Praslin, the Fly­catch­er Reserve on La Digue, Baie Ter­nay Marine Park.

The Sey­chelles are very pop­u­lar with gourmets who appre­ci­ate the non-stan­dard approach of local res­i­dents to cook­ing. The eclec­tic cui­sine of the islands was formed under the influ­ence of French, African and Eng­lish cul­ture, so it has an orig­i­nal taste.

In addi­tion to tra­di­tion­al seafood and veg­eta­bles, restau­rants serve fried bananas, bread­fruit chips, and even bat soup.

Notable Islands

Aldabra

One of the largest atolls in the world, formed in the shell of an under­wa­ter vol­cano. It is 34 km long and 14.5 km wide. There are no lux­u­ri­ous beach­es, lux­u­ry hotels and enter­tain­ment. The coral atoll is prac­ti­cal­ly untouched by civ­i­liza­tion.

In the coastal zone, land tur­tles nest, flamin­gos and frigate­birds are found in coconut groves. Col­or­ful coral fish, jel­ly­fish, stingrays swim in the lagoon. There is a sci­en­tif­ic lab­o­ra­to­ry on the island. Spe­cial­ists con­trol the nature reserve, observe the life of ani­mals and them­selves con­duct excur­sions for those who wish.

Amirant Islands

The island group includes 25 coral atolls, many of which are under state pro­tec­tion. There are bird and marine reserves, seclud­ed lagoons, cozy beach­es. To relax in the Ami­rante Islands, tourists rent hotel rooms on Desroches or book small bun­ga­lows on D’Ar­ros.

Sky-high prices have turned this coral par­adise into a pres­ti­gious des­ti­na­tion for politi­cians and celebri­ties who fly here on pri­vate jets.

Mahe

The largest and most pop­u­lous island in the Sey­chelles. In its cen­ter is the cap­i­tal of the state — Vic­to­ria. Many tourists pre­fer to relax here, choos­ing to explore the neigh­bor­ing islands as part of excur­sions.

Guests like the devel­oped infra­struc­ture, friend­ly locals, numer­ous enter­tain­ments on the beach­es. In Vic­to­ria, trav­el­ers are wait­ing for a live­ly mar­ket, the Botan­i­cal Gar­den, muse­ums, squares and parks.

Praslin

The island of the Sey­chelles arch­i­pel­ago, which has a moun­tain­ous sur­face, is over­grown with rel­ic trees. The rarest Sey­chelles palm tree with the world’s largest fruits and seeds has been pre­served here.

Peo­ple get here by yachts, cata­ma­rans or by air. Hotels for every taste and bud­get, restau­rants, beach­es are open in the coastal zone. Local res­i­dents, employed in the tourism busi­ness, offer glass-bot­tom boat rides, excur­sions to neigh­bor­ing islands, and hik­ing in the for­est.

La Digue

An island with an area of ​​10 km² near Mahe and Praslin is a pop­u­lar tourist des­ti­na­tion. The coast­line is indent­ed with nar­row beach­es with soft sand, palm trees and rocks pro­tect from the hot sun. The waves break on the coral reef, so the coast is always calm.

On the cen­tral beach­es there are water rides, bars, hotels. In the south­east of La Digue you can find Coco Bay, and in the north — a shal­low bay with clear water. To the west is Union Estate Park, and on the oppo­site side of the island is Fly­catch­er Nature Reserve.

Frigate

Frigate Island has a seclud­ed pri­vate resort, con­sid­ered one of the best in the world. Its area is only 2.19 km².

In the west­ern part, Mount Sig­nale ris­es, a riv­er flows near­by, framed by trop­i­cal trees. A rare species of birds lives in the shade — the Sey­chel­lois shama thrush and black-bod­ied bee­tles. In the cen­ter of Fre­gat there is a lux­u­ri­ous hotel for wealthy tourists and a spa com­plex. On vaca­tion, guests go in for div­ing, under­wa­ter fish­ing, ten­nis, yacht­ing, water ski­ing.

Architecture and museums

Clock tower

In the city of Vic­to­ria, at the inter­sec­tion of Rev­o­lu­tion and Inde­pen­dence Avenues, the ele­gant Clock Tow­er ris­es. It is an exact reduced copy of Lon­don’s Lit­tle Ben. The attrac­tion was estab­lished in 1903 in hon­or of the Eng­lish Queen Vic­to­ria. This is evi­denced by an inscrip­tion engraved on a stone next to the tow­er.

The archi­tec­tur­al mon­u­ment is paint­ed in sil­ver col­or. On top are mount­ed lights that turn on at night. Tourists come to lis­ten to the melod­ic chimes and take vivid pho­tos.

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

Con­struc­tion of the Cathe­dral of the Immac­u­late Con­cep­tion on Oliv­er Maradan Street in Vic­to­ria was com­plet­ed in 1874. The tem­ple with snow-white walls, thin columns, high arch­es and semi­cir­cu­lar win­dows is a real dec­o­ra­tion of the city.

On the facade there is a clock that strikes the exact time every 30 min­utes, the vaults are dec­o­rat­ed with open­work orna­ments. Inside is a mar­ble altar and stat­ues of saints. Bish­op Felix Pavel is buried in the crypt.

Plantation Domaine de Val-des-Prés

A coconut plan­ta­tion on the island of Mahe includes a man­sion and a back­yard. There is a muse­um in the house, which well illus­trates the colo­nial atmos­phere of the last cen­tu­ry. Among the exhibits are antique fur­ni­ture, things of the for­mer own­ers, paint­ings by local artists.

Sev­er­al Cre­ole hous­es were placed near the estate, in which the Muse­um of Crafts was opened. On the tour, guests weave bas­kets, make crafts from patch­work, cook fra­grant soap, and vis­it a gift shop with jew­el­ry, essen­tial oils and sea shells.

National History Museum

In the build­ing of the Nation­al Library on Mahe there is a muse­um with mag­nif­i­cent his­tor­i­cal exhibits. The vis­i­tors are pre­sent­ed with things raised from ships sunk in the ocean, African musi­cal instru­ments, nation­al clothes.

The cen­tral places in the col­lec­tion are occu­pied by the map of the islands, com­piled by the Por­tuguese Pedro Reinel in 1517, and the Pos­ses­sion stone, laid by the French as a sign that the ter­ri­to­ry became their colony. In a sep­a­rate room, there is an expo­si­tion that tells about black mag­ic, which used to be wide­ly prac­ticed on the islands.

Museum of Natural History

In Vic­to­ria, the Nat­ur­al His­to­ry Muse­um is open, telling about the rich flo­ra and fau­na of the region. On the ground floor there is a col­lec­tion of trop­i­cal but­ter­flies, bee­tles, moths, stuffed birds, tur­tles, croc­o­diles.

The sec­ond con­tains repro­duc­tions of paint­ings and engrav­ings by Mar­i­anne Nor­ton depict­ing the nature of the arch­i­pel­ago, scenes from the life of local peas­ants, and seascapes. Orig­i­nal works of author­ship are pre­served in the UK.

Labren Market

To get acquaint­ed with the local col­or and buy orig­i­nal sou­venirs, you should go to the Labren Mar­ket in Vic­to­ria. A live­ly bazaar cre­at­ed specif­i­cal­ly for for­eign­ers.

Out­door stalls sell seafood, fruits, clothes, coconut crafts, African jew­el­ry, sea shells and stone beads. Small restau­rants serve tra­di­tion­al nation­al dish­es: bread­fruit chips, grilled fish, spicy sausages, coconut and man­go cock­tails, fried bananas.

natural attractions

Reserve of the Val de Meil

The nat­ur­al park in the cen­ter of Praslin cov­ers an area of ​​19.5 hectares. In the rel­ic for­est there are six species of palms, sedge, ferns.

The fau­na is rep­re­sent­ed by black par­rots, blue doves, owls, bats, chameleons, snakes and frogs. A hik­ing trail has been laid through the park among streams and water­falls, the jour­ney along which takes about an hour. It is for­bid­den to spend the night, smoke and kin­dle fires in the reserve.

Cote d’Or beach

Praslin has a 2 km long beach. Tall palm trees frame the wide coast­line. White fine sand heats up weak­ly, at the entrance to the sea there are beau­ti­ful gran­ite boul­ders. The descent into the water is smooth, in shal­low water there are a lot of crabs and col­or­ful fish.

Boats and yachts of local res­i­dents are moored near­by. For a small fee, they offer excur­sions to neigh­bor­ing islands and boat trips. Gro­cery stores, sou­venir shops, restau­rants and hotels are open across the road from the Côte d’Or beach.

Flycatcher Reserve

On La Digue, near the vil­lage of La Reunion, there is a Fly­catch­er Reserve, designed to intro­duce tourists to wildlife. Rare trees, flow­ers and shrubs grow in a small area. Among the lush green­ery lives the Sey­chelles par­adise fly­catch­er.

It is dif­fi­cult to notice this small bird — it hides from peo­ple and flies very fast. In addi­tion to the fly­catch­er, fly­ing fox­es and large tur­tles set­tled in the park. On the ter­ri­to­ry there is a sci­en­tif­ic cen­ter engaged in the study and pro­tec­tion of fly­catch­ers.

Botanical Garden

The Vic­to­ria Botan­ic Gar­den was estab­lished in 1901 by local nat­u­ral­ists for the con­ser­va­tion of rare plants, recre­ation and eco­tourism. A vast area with­in the city is plant­ed with fruit and trop­i­cal trees, shrubs and flow­ers. There are bench­es and beau­ti­ful lanterns along the alleys.

Walk­ing through the gar­den, you can see Coco de Mer palms, man­go trees, orchids, Guiana curupi­ta, tuft­ed cas­sia, Asi­at­ic arau­caria and many land tur­tles.

Royal Spice Garden

Not far from King’s Bay in the vicin­i­ty of Vic­to­ria, in 1772, French colonists plant­ed a spice gar­den.

Today it is a pri­vate prop­er­ty, con­sist­ing of a manor and a park. Excur­sions are reg­u­lar­ly held in the gar­den — tourists are shown cof­fee trees, cin­na­mon, vanil­la, avo­ca­do, gin­ger. The man­sion hous­es a restau­rant of nation­al cui­sine, a sou­venir shop and a muse­um that tells about the life of planters in the 19th cen­tu­ry.

Morne National Park

The largest nation­al park in the Sey­chelles is locat­ed on Moe. The total area of ​​the reserve, estab­lished in 1979, is more than 3,000 hectares.

It includes moun­tain peaks, man­go forests, val­leys, rivers. Trails with dif­fer­ent lev­els of dif­fi­cul­ty are equipped for tourists. Some of them pass through an aban­doned mis­sion and the ruins of a cin­na­mon pro­cess­ing plant. Hik­ing enthu­si­asts enjoy spend­ing the whole day here, explor­ing the mag­nif­i­cent land­scapes.

Bai Ternai Marine Park

The Gov­ern­ment of the Sey­chelles is doing every­thing to pro­tect coral reefs. The coastal zone in the west­ern part of Moe is con­sid­ered a nation­al reserve and is under state pro­tec­tion. The marine park, stretch­ing between the capes of Matoopa and Ter­nai, is a unique place. Thanks to the reefs, there are no strong waves here and the water is always warm.

Div­ing with scu­ba gear, you can see the most beau­ti­ful corals, crabs, lob­sters, stingrays in the coastal waters. Excur­sions in the marine park are car­ried out on yachts and cata­ma­rans. The price includes a stop at the reefs for snorkelling, a bar­be­cue on board and a vis­it to small islands.