Seychelles
Seychelles
Granite boulders older than the Indian Ocean, standing in water the colour of glass
Photos by Christian Cacciamani, Vitalii Ustymenko, Secret Travel Guide and Tommaso Nervegna on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Seychelles
April to May and October to November (between the two trade winds); warm all year
Climate month by month
The next sixteen days in Beau VallonOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 379mm in Jan
Where it is
4.62°S, 55.45°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Weeks of it- Walk Anse Source d'Argent at low tide, when the boulders stand in ankle-deep water
- Cycle the whole of La Digue in an afternoon
- Find a coco de mer in the Vallée de Mai, a forest that has not changed in millennia
- Snorkel the granite shelf at Sainte Anne marine park
- Climb into Morne Seychellois for the view down onto the reef
Seychelles travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Seychelles
Very expensiveAnything sold to visitors — hotels, guesthouses, ferries, car hire, dive boats — is priced in euros or dollars and paid by card. Rupees are for buses, shops, markets and takeaway, and a small amount goes a long way. Change what you need and no more; rupees are hard to sell back.
ATMs & cards
Absa, MCB, Nouvobanq and Seychelles Commercial Bank machines are in Victoria, at the airport, at Beau Vallon and in Baie Sainte Anne on Praslin. La Digue has one, and it runs out. Draw before the ferry.
Avoid these
- the single machine on La Digue, which empties
- changing rupees back at the end
Use these instead
- Absa
- MCB
- Nouvobanq
- Seychelles Commercial Bank
Almost everything a visitor buys is priced in euros or dollars and paid by card, so the rupees are only for buses, shops and takeaway. Draw a small amount in Victoria or at the airport and do not carry a week of it around.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Seychelles
SafeVery safe to walk and to travel alone, with no dangerous wildlife on land. The complaint that comes up is opportunist theft from beach bags and from self-catering houses left open. In the water, the southeast trades from May to September put real current on the exposed beaches — Anse Major and parts of the south coast of Mahé have drowned confident swimmers.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (7 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- Opportunist theft from self-catering houses and from beach bags, which is essentially the whole crime picture here
- Anse Major — and the exposed beaches during the southeast trades, where the current is real
- Victoria, Seychelles — the market area late in the day
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Seychelles visa rules
Travel authorisation requiredup to 90 daysEUR 10 standard, approved within 24 hours
No passport in the world needs a visa for the Seychelles — a visitor’s permit is issued on arrival for the length of the stay, up to three months, and can be extended in three-month steps to a year. What is compulsory is the Travel Authorisation, for every traveller including infants, applied for up to 30 days before departure. Immigration also asks for a return ticket, confirmed accommodation for every night, and funds of about US$150 a day.
Other passports
Travel authorisation requiredup to 90 daysEUR 10
The answer is the same for every passport: no visa, and a compulsory Travel Authorisation before you fly.
How to get it: Apply at seychelles.govtas.com, which is the government’s own portal and the only one — the lookalike sites charge several times the fee. You need the flight booking, the accommodation booking for each place you will stay, and a card. Standard processing is EUR 10 and takes up to 24 hours; turning up without one is a EUR 30 penalty and you fill it in on your own phone before immigration will see you. It covers one journey, so a stopover in and out needs two. Separately, accommodation collects an environmental levy of EUR 6 per person per night.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Before you fly: travel authorisation
Seychelles Travel AuthorisationRequired
Before you fly. It is checked at boarding, not only on arrival.
Have these in front of you before you start:
- passport
- flight number
- the full address of your first night
- your travel insurance details
Use the official link above. Sites that charge a "service fee" to submit one of these for you are not the government, and they want the same passport details the real form does.
Health & emergencies all of Seychelles
Good but costlyRequired to enter
- Yellow fever certificate, but only if you are arriving from a country where yellow fever is present
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Hepatitis A
- Typhoid
- Tetanus up to date
- Hepatitis B for a long stay
Getting treated
Seychelles Hospital in Victoria is the only full hospital in the country. Praslin has a small one and La Digue a clinic, and both refer anything real to Mahé. Serious cases are flown to Réunion, Mauritius or South Africa, which is several hours and an air ambulance, so evacuation cover is the clause that matters here — particularly for divers.
There is no malaria. Dengue does flare, and the outbreak that ran from 2015 to 2017 was a large one; chikungunya turns up with it. Tap water on Mahé is treated and generally fine, less so on the smaller islands. The two things that actually hurt visitors are the sun, which is directly overhead this close to the equator, and the current on the exposed beaches during the southeast trades.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
Very goodCreole cooking, and better than the resort menus suggest: grilled fish with a chilli, lime and ginger sauce, octopus curry in coconut milk, breadfruit chips, and ladob for pudding. The takeaway stalls at the Beau Vallon beach market on Wednesday evening are the cheapest good meal in the country.
Nightlife
Almost none, which is the honest answer: a handful of bars on Mahé, a casino, and hotel séga evenings.
- Beau Vallon — the beach bars, and the Wednesday market
- Eden Island — the marina bars and the casino
- Victoria, Seychelles — the town, which is asleep by nine
Closing: 01:00 at Beau Vallon, earlier everywhere else.
The Wednesday evening beach market at Beau Vallon is the cheapest good meal in the country and the closest thing to a night out.
Getting around
Limited- UberNot here
- BoltNot here
- From the airport
- Mahé airport to Beau Vallon €20–30 by taxi
No ride-hailing. Metered taxis, the cheap SPTC buses, or a hire car — which is what most people end up doing on Mahé and Praslin.
Time zone and your working day
Indian/Mahe — 8 hours ahead of you
0 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — — your time, — theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 01:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 01:00–09:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Getting online
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Seychelles, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Where to base yourself
Three islands carry almost every visit, and the ferries between them are quick and reliable. Most trips take two of the three rather than one.
Mahé
The main island, with the airport, the capital and the mountains.
Where you land, and the only island with a real road network, a hospital and a supermarket. Beau Vallon is the swimming beach; the south is much quieter.
The international airport (SEZ) is on Mahé, 20 minutes from Victoria.
Praslin
The second island, with Anse Lazio on one side and the Vallée de Mai in the middle.
Anse Lazio is the beach the Seychelles is sold on, and the Vallée de Mai is the only place the coco de mer grows wild. Small enough to cross by bus.
15 minutes by air from Mahé, or 1h by fast catamaran.
La Digue
A small island with almost no cars, reached from Praslin.
Anse Source d'Argent and its granite boulders, and an island small enough to do entirely by bicycle. The reason most trips are two islands rather than one.
15 minutes by ferry from Praslin; 1h15 direct from Mahé.
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Seychellois Creole
- HelloBonzourbon-ZOOR
- PleaseSilvoupleseel-voo-PLEH
- Thank youMersimer-SEE
- Yes / NoWi / Nonwee / non
5 more phrases
- Excuse meEskiz mwanes-KEEZ mwan
- How much is it?Konbyen sa?kon-BYEN sa
- The bill, pleaseLadisyon silvouplela-dee-SYON
- How are you?Ki dir?kee DEER
- GoodbyeOrevwaro-rev-WAR
Kreol, English and French are all official. English is spoken in every hotel and shop, French is widely understood, and Kreol is what people speak to each other — a few words of it changes the temperature of a conversation.
Religion
Roman Catholic, with Anglican and Hindu minorities
Around three quarters Catholic, and Sunday mass is still a fixture of the week rather than a formality — Victoria empties into it. Older beliefs in gris-gris survive alongside the church and are not discussed with visitors.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Say bonzour, and expect a conversation rather than a transaction — Seychellois are unhurried and friendly with it
- Take your rubbish off the beach; the islands are small and it shows
- Ask before photographing fishermen and market traders in Victoria
- Cover up between the beach and anywhere else — swimwear in a shop or a bus is read as rude
Don't
- Do not take shells, coral or coco de mer nuts without the official licence tag; both are protected and checked at the airport
- Do not touch or stand on coral while snorkelling, and do not feed the fish
- Do not haggle — prices are fixed and pushing on them is taken badly
- Do not assume the last bus or ferry exists; on La Digue and Praslin the day ends early
Where to stay in Seychelles
No Holistay rentals in Seychelles yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Seychelles on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Seychelles International, Mahé SEZ
15 minfrom the airport· 10 km as the crow flies
15 min to Victoria, 30 to Beau Vallon; the Praslin ferry leaves from Victoria.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
