The one everybody starts with
Beau Vallon
Beach · The busy one
Beau Vallon in short.
Two kilometres of open sand on the north-west shoulder of Mahé, with hotels, guest houses, restaurants and a fish market behind it. It is the busiest beach in the country and it is busy for good reasons.
Which months
On the north-west coast, so the calm months are May to September. From December to March it takes the monsoon head-on and can be choppy and cloudy with weed on the sand.
Beau Vallon, in 6 frames.
Harvested from this beach's own Commons category, with the file's own title naming the beach. Captions are that title.
Photographs, under Creative Commons: prilfish, CC BY 2.0 Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0 A.Savin, FAL Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0 Morten Idriss Nygaar…, CC BY-SA 3.0 dronepicr, CC BY 2.0 dronepicr, CC BY 2.0
What it is actually like
Beau Vallon is a working beach, not a private one. There are people on it, there is a bus that runs along the back of it, and on Wednesday and Saturday evenings there is a market at the northern end with grilled fish and Creole takeaway. If you want a beach to yourself, this is the wrong one and there are seven others on this island.
What it has instead is depth of service. Somewhere to eat every hundred metres, water shallow a long way out, shade under the takamaka behind the sand, and boats that take people to Silhouette and out diving. On a first day out of a night flight it is exactly the right answer.
The sunsets, and the hills behind
The bay faces roughly north west, so the sun goes down into the sea in front of it for most of the year, with Silhouette on the horizon. The ridge of Morne Seychellois stands behind the whole bay, which is why the aerial photograph of it is on so many covers.
Glacis, at the north end, and Bel Ombre, at the south, are quieter and are five minutes away on foot.
How you arrive
About twenty-five minutes by road from the airport and ten from Victoria, over the pass. Buses run frequently from Victoria. Any hire car reaches it easily and there is parking along the back road.
The sheet.
Checked 2 September 2026.
- Island
- Mahé, north west coast
- Length
- about 2 km of open sand
- Calmest
- May to September, when the trades are behind the island
- Food and shade
- the widest choice of either on any beach in the country
What people ask.
When is Beau Vallon calm?
On the north-west coast, so the calm months are May to September. From December to March it takes the monsoon head-on and can be choppy and cloudy with weed on the sand.
How do you get to Beau Vallon?
About twenty-five minutes by road from the airport and ten from Victoria, over the pass. Buses run frequently from Victoria. Any hire car reaches it easily and there is parking along the back road.
Is there anything on the beach?
the widest choice of either on any beach in the country
What we do arrange.
The sand is not ours. The car that gets you to it, the day out that takes in three more of them and the driver who meets the flight all are.
Car hire, from €45 a day
Ten cars, no deposit, handed over at the airport, the jetty or your hotel.
Days out and excursions
Island tours, boat days, snorkelling and walks, with real ratings and free cancellation to twenty-four hours.
Airport transfers
A driver who watches your flight number and waits with your name on a board.
The terminal photograph above: Remi Jouan, CC BY-SA 3.0
Planning a week around the right coast?
Send the dates. Meera will tell you which side of which island is calm in your month, and put the car and the days out around it.