Island Hopping in Seychelles

You land on Mahé because everyone does. It is the big one: a granite spine running down the middle, a road that climbs into cloud forest and drops back to the sea, and most of the country’s hotels arranged along its coasts. It is also the island people are most tempted to skip, which is a mistake. The mountains are the thing the postcards leave out.

Then the water. Praslin is the second island, reached by a fast ferry across open sea or a short domestic flight over the same water at a few thousand feet. It is quieter, flatter in feel, and it holds the Vallée de Mai, the palm forest where the coco de mer grows and nowhere else does.

La Digue is the third and the smallest of the three, a shorter hop again. There are almost no private cars. You get off the boat, hire a bicycle at the jetty, and that is your transport for as long as you stay. The island rearranges what you thought a beach holiday was.

The temptation is to add a fourth. Resist it. Every move eats a morning at one end and an afternoon at the other, and the pleasure of these islands is in the second and third day, once you know which shop keeps its beer cold and which stretch of sand nobody walks to. Two islands properly, or three if the week is a long one.

If your week is based on Mahé and moving hotels does not appeal, there is a long day that shows you the other two. It starts very early. La Digue comes first: L’Union Estate, with its old plantation house, a copra mill turned by an ox and a boatyard where boats are built the old way, then Anse Source d’Argent on foot. Lunch is on board on the way to Praslin, and the afternoon is the Vallée de Mai and a swim at Anse Lazio before the boat home. It gives you the islands’ headlines rather than their second days, and it is an honest way to find out which one you would come back for.

We hold the crossings when we hold the rooms, because the two have to agree with each other. A ferry that leaves before your room is ready is a morning spent sitting on a bag. And we put a night on Mahé before your flight home rather than trusting a boat to deliver you to an airport on the same day. See what else the islands hold on the Seychelles page.

Good to know

• Ferry seats and domestic-flight seats both need holding ahead in the busy weeks. We book them with the hotels rather than after them.
• Luggage allowances differ between the boat and the plane, and the plane’s is the tighter one. We confirm yours in writing before you pack.
• The open crossing can be lumpy. If you are prone to seasickness, take something before boarding.
• Boats and flights are weather-dependent. A same-day connection to an international flight is a risk we do not take on your behalf.
• Each island has its own character rather than its own version of the same thing. Splitting a week two ways is usually better than three.
• Operators advise against the long island-hopping boat days during pregnancy. If that is you, tell us, and we will plan the islands a gentler way.