The cheapest way
and the slowest.
SPTC goes almost everywhere on Mahé for a few euros a week. It also goes there very slowly, and it stops before dinner.
The buses no longer take cash.
This is the thing most guides still have wrong, including some of our own sister sites in other languages.
| One day | SCR 100 · about €5 |
|---|---|
| Four consecutive days | SCR 198 · about €12 |
| Eight consecutive days | SCR 363 · about €22 |
Visitor Travel Card prices from the SPTC timetable of August 2026, carried by the SeyBooking.com route finder. Euro figures are indicative.
SPTC buses are fully cashless. There is no fare to hand over, no change to have ready and no ticket to buy on board. You buy a Visitor Travel Card, activate it, and tap it on the reader as you get on.
The card is sold on Mahé and on Praslin. Buy it on the first day rather than the morning you want to travel, because a bus with a queue behind it is not the place to discover the rule.
How SPTC works.
- Who runs them
- SPTC, the state transport corporation, on Mahé and on Praslin
- How you pay
- A Visitor Travel Card, tapped on the reader. The buses take no cash at all
- First and last
- First services around 05:10, the last one at 20:47, but most routes finish their day around 18:00
- La Digue
- No buses. The island runs on bicycles and ox carts
Victoria is the hub, and the routes fan out from the station there to every corner of Mahé. On the main lines a bus comes about every half hour.
They are slow. The roads are narrow and they bend constantly, and there is a stop at nearly every bend. A drive that takes twenty minutes in a car can take an hour on the bus, and that is not a complaint, it is the timetable.
They stop early. After seven in the evening it is not something to rely on, and most routes have finished well before that.
The days a bus is right.
If you are staying at Beau Vallon or in Victoria and you are not going far, the bus is entirely enough and costs almost nothing. It is also the only way to see the island the way the island sees itself, which is worth one morning of anybody's holiday.
If you want the southern beaches, the mountain roads, or to be anywhere at sunrise, the bus will not do it. That is the day you want a car.
On Praslin the buses exist but come less often. On La Digue there are none, and none are needed.
What you are actually getting on.
Photographs: Florival fr, CC BY-SA 4.0 Vasilii Martynov, CC0
They are small, they are painted, and they are usually full. The route number is on a board in the windscreen and the terminal in Victoria is where every one of them begins or ends.
It is worth doing once even if you have a car outside. Twenty minutes on an SPTC bus from Victoria out along the coast is the cheapest lesson in the country you will get.
The six that arrive every week.
How much is a bus ride?
There is no per-ride fare for a visitor any more. SPTC is cashless, and you buy a Visitor Travel Card for one, four or eight days and tap it on the reader as you board.
Can we just pay the driver?
No. The buses take no cash at all, no coins and no notes. If you have not bought and activated a card, you are not getting on.
How often do they run?
Every half hour or so on the main routes out of Victoria. Much less often on the far coasts. The first services are around 05:10 and the very last leaves at 20:47, but most routes finish their day around 18:00, so an evening out is not a bus journey.
Can we get to a beach by bus?
To the big ones, yes. Beau Vallon, Anse Royale and Anse à la Mouche are all on main routes. Anse Intendance and Anse Georgette are not, and never will be.
Are there buses on Praslin and La Digue?
SPTC runs buses on Praslin, and visitor cards are sold there too. La Digue has no buses at all. It has bicycles and ox carts, and that is the whole transport system.
Is there a route finder?
Yes. SeyBooking.com keeps one built on the real SPTC timetable, with every service on both islands.
Not sure you need a car?
Tell Meera where you are staying and what you want to see. She will say so plainly if the answer is that you do not.