Everyone lands at Mahé, and the next decision is how far past it you go. Mahé itself holds the capital, the mountain trails and the widest choice of places to eat and sleep, and it is the only island where a week can be spent without a boat. Praslin is an hour away by fast ferry or a quarter of an hour by Twin Otter, and it holds the Vallée de Mai, where the coco de mer grows wild. La Digue is fifteen minutes beyond Praslin, small enough to cross by bicycle, and the reason the country appears on every beach list. Two of those three make a first trip, and three make a better one. Past them sit the private islands, one property or reserve each, reached by their own transfer, and the outer islands, hundreds of kilometres southwest, which are a separate holiday with separate flights.
1 Seychelles city guide
Fun fact
The coco de mer palm produces the largest and heaviest seed in the plant kingdom, up to about 25 kilograms, and it grows wild in exactly two places on earth: the Vallée de Mai on Praslin and neighbouring Curieuse.
Stereotypes, sorted out
The realityThat is one product, sold hard. The islands also hold a national park over most of Mahé’s interior, two UNESCO World Heritage sites, a granite hiking network, and self-catering guesthouses that outnumber the resorts. Couples are the marketing; the country is broader than the brochure.
The realityGuesthouses and self-catering apartments are the majority of the beds here, and the bus on Mahé and Praslin reaches almost every bay for a flat fare. The ferry between the three main islands is a public service, not a charter. The expensive trip is the one that flies to a private island; the ordinary one does not.
The realityMahé is a mountain with a capital on it. La Digue is flat enough to cycle and mostly car-free. Bird and Denis are coral cays on the edge of the bank with no granite at all. Aldabra is a raised atoll 1,000 kilometres away with more giant tortoises than people anywhere in Seychelles.
The realityThe interior of Mahé is protected forest with marked trails up Morne Seychellois. Praslin holds the Vallée de Mai. Curieuse has free-ranging tortoises. The diving runs from granite boulder sites in the inner islands to remote atoll walls in the outer ones, and the fishing on the Amirantes flats draws people who never touch a beach.
How to fit in
- Greet people before anything else. A bonzour or a good morning comes before the question, and skipping it reads as rude in a way it does not at home.
- Cover up away from the sand. Swimwear is for the beach; a shirt goes on for the shop, the bus and the restaurant. Topless sunbathing is not the norm here.
- Sunday is quiet and largely Catholic. Shops shut, buses thin out, and the churches fill. Plan a beach day rather than a shopping one.
- The shells, the coral and the coco de mer are regulated. A coco de mer nut needs an official export permit, sold with the nut by licensed vendors, and taking shells or coral off a beach is an offence.
- Ask before photographing people, and especially before photographing a house. A camera pointed down a residential lane is not read as tourism.
- Marine parks charge a fee and enforce it. Boat crews collect it, the money funds the parks, and arguing about it on the water goes nowhere good.
Famous Seychellois faces
James Mancham
France-Albert René
Wavel Ramkalawan
Antoine Abel
Patrick Victor
Jean-Marc Volcy
Rodney Govinden
Dylan Sicobo
James Michel
Danny Faure
Allisen Camille
Roland Raforme
Ned Azemia
Sandra Esparon
Joseph Sinon
Hazel de Silva Mugot
Magie Faure-Vidot
Must-try Seychellois food
Kari zourit
Octopus curry, the dish the country is judged on: the octopus goes in whole and comes out of coconut milk, curry leaf, ginger and chilli tender enough to cut with a spoon.
Pwason griye
Whole reef fish, usually job or red snapper, scored to the bone, rubbed with a chilli and garlic paste and grilled over coals. Ordered with rice and a chatini on the side.
Kat-kat banann
Green banana and fish simmered in coconut milk until it thickens to a porridge. Home cooking rather than restaurant cooking, and worth asking about.
Bouyon bred
A clear broth of island greens, moringa leaves or Chinese cabbage among them, eaten over rice. The plain dish that anchors a Creole table.
Kari koko
The coconut-milk curry base itself, made with fish, chicken or vegetables. Milder than an Indian curry and built on curry leaf, ginger and cinnamon.
Kari sousouri
Fruit bat curry, dark and gamey, and the dish most likely to divide a table. It is a Creole delicacy rather than a novelty, and it is not on every menu.
Satini reken
Shark chutney: the fish steamed, flaked and worked through lime, onion and bilimbi, served with rice and lentils. Nothing else on the islands tastes like it.
Salad zourit
Poached octopus dressed with lime, onion and chilli and eaten cold. The lighter half of the country’s octopus habit.
Soup tektek
A thin soup made from the tiny tec-tec clams dug out of the wet sand at low tide. Seasonal, local, and rarely written on a menu.
Bourzwa
Red snapper, grilled whole or baked in banana leaf. The fish most often named when a Seychellois is asked what to order.
Friyapen
Breadfruit, boiled, mashed with herbs and fried into fritters, or roasted whole. The starch these islands ate long before rice arrived by ship.
Millionaire’s salad
Palm heart, shaved raw and dressed with lime and oil. It carries the name because taking the heart means felling the palm.
Satini papay
Green papaya grated raw with lime, chilli and salt. The default sharp thing beside grilled fish, along with tomato and bilimbi versions.
Ladob
Ripe plantain or sweet potato cooked down in coconut milk with vanilla and nutmeg. It is served sweet as a dessert and savoury with salt fish.
Daube banann
Plantain stewed in sweetened coconut milk with cinnamon until the milk thickens and the fruit collapses. Warm, and usually the last thing on the table.
Nougat koko
Grated fresh coconut and mashed banana cooked to a chewy block with vanilla and nutmeg. Sold in squares at the market.
Takamaka rum
Distilled at an eighteenth-century plantation estate on Mahé, and the local pour behind every sundowner on the islands.
SeyBrew
The national lager, brewed on Mahé since 1972 and served colder than anything else on the table.
Kalou
Palm wine, tapped from a coconut palm and drunk the same day while it is still fermenting. Sweet in the morning, sharp by the afternoon.