Africa Travel Guides

Points of interest

La Digue

La Digue is home to Anse Source d'Argent, the iconic image of emerald waters, sugar-white sands and sea-smoothed granite rocks. It's also the least developed of the main islands and life here still moves at the pace of an ox cart. It's the sort of place you won't want to leave.

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Anse Lazio

The best beach on Praslin - in fact, one of the best in the country - is Anse Lazio, in the far north of the island. The beach has glorious soft white sand, a few rounded granite boulders and a lively line-up of waves in a magical turquoise colour.

The beach is protected by a reef, which makes the water like a giant bath - it's shallow, warm and safe, and there's some nice snorkelling at the end of the beach. There's even a terrific restaurant right on the sand. Buses travel from Grand Anse around the coast to Anse Boudin, a short walk from Anse Lazio.

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Cousin Island

This is bird watching made easy - over 300,000 birds on an island just 1km (0.6mi) in diameter. Seven species of sea bird nest here, including fairy terns, white-tailed tropic birds and two varities of shearwater, and it's also home to the rare Seychelles warbler and magpie robin. Hawksbill turtles nest here in season.

Organised tours depart from Praslin from Tuesday through Friday.

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Aldabra Atoll

Aldabra is one of the world's largest raised coral atolls, stretching 34km (21mi) east to west and enclosing a huge tidal lagoon, which is home to tiger sharks, manta rays and thousands of seabirds. Aldabra is also the original habitat of the giant land tortoise.

The only people who live on Aldabra are scientists. Anyone wishing to visit must first get written permission from the Seychelles Island Foundation (SIF), based in Victoria, which manages the island. There is accommodation for about eight visitors. The nearest airport is on Assomption Island, about 27km (17mi) south of Aldabra. From there, the Indian Ocean Explorer runs one-week cruises round the atoll.

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Vallée de Mai

Vallée de Mai is one of only two places in the world where you can see the weird and wonderful coco de mer palm growing in their natural state - the other is nearby Curieuse Island. This valley's Eden-like forest is World Heritage listed and the very sight of sunlight filtering through its fronds will make you go all poetic.

You'll see several varieties of screw pine and latanier plams, and, if you're very lucky, the Seychelles black parrot. If you're going to visit the park, keep to the tracks, don't take anything away and don't leave anything behind - this is an incredibly fragile forest.

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Attractions

Aldabra Atoll

Aldabra is one of the world's largest coral atolls, stretching some 22km (14mi) east to west and enclosing a huge tidal lagoon, which is sometimes home to tiger sharks and manta rays. Aldabra is the original habitat of the giant land tortoise.

There are about 200,000 of the tortoises on the atoll, as well as thousands of seabirds, including the white-throated rail, the sole remaining species of flightless bird in the Indian Ocean. The only people who live on Aldabra are scientists, and they're only here three months of the year.

Assomption Island, 27km (17mi) south of Aldabra, was once a rich source of guano, but the harvesters who exploited the island also stripped it of vegetation, so that by the 1920s no plants, animals or birds lived here. Underwater, however, it's a different story: Jacques Cousteau said he'd never seen any other place on earth with same clarity of water or diversity of reef life.

Aldabra is more than 1000km (620mi) from Mahé, and there are no hotels here. If you want to visit Aldabra, you'll have to organise a boat with the Marine Charter Association in Victoria, or fly to Desroches and charter a boat from there.

Anse Lazio

The best beach on Praslin - in fact, one of the best in the country - is Anse Lazio, in the far north of the island. The beach has glorious white, soft sand, a few rounded granite boulders and a lively line-up of waves. The water is a magical turquoise colour.

There's also a sheltered area with great snorkelling at the end of the beach. There's even a terrific restaurant at the end of the beach road. The beaches east of Lazio are protected by a reef, which makes the water like a giant bath - it's shallow, warm and safe, and there's some nice snorkelling.

Victoria

Victoria, on the island of Mahé, is one of the smallest capital cities in the world, and the only major port in the Seychelles. It's also the only town - every other settlement is a village. The courthouse and main post office in the centre of town have been untouched since colonial time.

The streets emanating from the centre have been rebuilt over the past 20 years, giving the town a clean and modern look. There are a few old houses and shops in the city centre, but it's unfortunately barely enough to give the town any character.

The Natural History Museum is right in the centre of town, and specialises in natural history. If you're more interested in the history of the country's people, visit the National History Museum or the Seychelles People's United Party Museum, which celebrates the history of the party.

Victoria's Botanical Gardens are highly recommended for short and shady walks among a variety of native and introduced trees. Within the gardens is a cafeteria, a pen of giant tortoises and an orchid garden.

Events

With its short history, the Seychelles isn't exactly overloaded with traditional festivals. Most public holidays are Roman Catholic events, including Easter, Corpus Christi on 10 June, the Assumption on 15 August, and the Immaculate Conception on 8 December. The major non-religious festival is Festival Kreol, which was set up to preserve and promote Créole culture. Held every year around the end of October, this week-long festival is an explosion of Créole cuisine, fashion, art, music and dance. Créole artists from all over the world descend on the Seychelles for this celebration.