The island opens the day you stop waiting for a taxi.
Ten cars, no deposit, insurance and unlimited kilometres in the price, and the keys handed over wherever you happen to land.
A hire car is the difference between seeing Mahé and visiting it.
Seychelles has buses and they are good, cheap and slow. It has taxis and they are fine and not cheap. What neither of them gives you is the small decision that makes a holiday here, which is stopping at a bay because it looked right from the road.
Mahé is twenty-eight kilometres end to end. In a car that is an afternoon, and the south of the island, which is where the empty beaches are, becomes reachable rather than theoretical. Two airport transfers cost roughly what a small car costs for a day.
Everything below is priced in euros because that is the currency the island quotes, with a rupee figure beside it so you can think in your own money. Nothing is charged when you enquire and no deposit is held at any point.
The Mini Moke. Not transport, the day itself.
No roof, no doors, no air conditioning, and it has been the face of these islands since the seventies. It is also the only manual car we rent, so somebody in your party has to drive a stick.
It is a Mahé car and it takes one beach bag. Everyone who takes it for a day wishes they had taken it for two. €100 · ₹11,000 a day.
Nine more, and what each one is actually for.
Every car below is one we hand over ourselves. The rate is the rate, and the single-day price is different from the daily price because a one-day hire costs us the same handling as a five-day one.
Suzuki Celerio
A small automatic hatchback for two people with two bags. It is the least money you can spend and still go where you like when you like.
Kia Picanto
A small automatic with a slightly better ride and a quieter cabin, and one of the few cheap cars we can also put on Praslin.
Suzuki Swift
The default island car. Five seats, an automatic gearbox, enough power for the mountain road and small enough for the coast one.
Suzuki Dzire
The saloon. Three large suitcases fit behind the seats and out of sight, which is the whole argument for it.
Suzuki Fronx
The small crossover. The seating position is the point. You see over the wall on the coast road instead of at it.
Toyota Urban Cruiser
The same money as the Fronx with a hybrid drivetrain, which on stop-start island roads means it drinks less than most of the small cars.
Suzuki Brezza
The family car. It is the smallest thing in the fleet that genuinely takes four adults, their cases and a cool box without anyone holding something.
Suzuki Jimny 4x4
A real off-roader that still parks like a small car. It is automatic, whatever you may have read.
GWM Tank 300
Five adults, all of the luggage, air conditioning that copes with a full car in February. It drinks, and it is the only car here that does the job.
Your dates, your car, the real total.
Pick the car and the dates and the number below is what you will pay, including the four per cent a card adds. Nothing is charged here.
Four fixed points, or your door.
Delivery and collection are included at all of them. If you are staying somewhere that is not on this list, which is most villas, type the name into the form instead of choosing a point.
- Mahé airport
- The car is at arrivals when you land. Give us the flight number and we watch it, so a three-hour delay is our problem and not yours.
- Cat Cocos jetty, Victoria
- For anyone arriving on the inter-island ferry rather than a plane.
- Praslin airport
- For the seven cars we put on Praslin. Praslin rentals run to a three-day minimum.
- Praslin jetty, Baie Sainte-Anne
- The ferry terminal, the same three-day minimum.
Left side, forty in the villages, and no hurry.
We drive on the left. Same side as home, wheel on the right. Of everything on this page it is the thing Indian travellers worry about least and European ones worry about most, which is a small piece of luck for you.
Forty in the villages, sixty-five outside. The police do measure it, and it is honestly as fast as these roads want to be driven.
The roads are narrow and shared. A coast road on Mahé is one and a half lanes wide with a bus coming the other way, a drainage channel on one side and a wall on the other. Nobody hurries. Give way to the buses whatever the rule says. It costs you thirty seconds.
Sans Souci is the road worth knowing. The mountain road across Mahé from Victoria is a proper hill climb with blind hairpins and no barrier in places. It is also the best drive on the island. Take it in daylight the first time.
Fuel and parking. Filling stations cluster around Victoria and the airport road, so fill up before a long loop of the south. Parking is free almost everywhere and impossible in Victoria at midday.
Three things, and none of them is a deposit.
Your Indian licence works
Before you driveA valid Indian driving licence is accepted here. An International Driving Permit is not required. If you already hold one, carry it, but do not delay a booking to get one.
What we need before the car moves
Before you driveFull name and nationality, the driver's age, and a photograph of the licence. That is the whole file. Send it when you confirm and the handover takes five minutes.
How you pay
Before you driveCash or card, on the island, when you collect. A card adds four per cent, which is the bank's charge and not ours, and the calculator on this page shows it before you send anything.
No deposit
In the rateWe do not hold a deposit and we do not take a card number in advance. You pay when the car is handed over.
Insurance and unlimited kilometres
In the rateBoth are in the daily rate. There is no per-kilometre counter and no separate insurance desk at the end.
A second driver
In the rateFree. Put both names on the enquiry and both of you can drive.
Delivery and collection
In the rateIncluded, at the airport, the jetty, your hotel or your villa. Tell us where and when and the car is there.
Free changes
In the rateDates and times move without a fee until the day the car is due.
The ones that arrive every week.
Do you take a deposit?
No. We do not hold a deposit and we do not take a card number in advance. You pay when the car is handed to you, on the island.
Will my Indian licence do?
Yes. A valid Indian driving licence is accepted in Seychelles. An International Driving Permit is not required. If you happen to hold one already, carry it, but do not delay a trip to get one.
Which side of the road?
The left, with the wheel on the right, exactly as at home. This is the single biggest advantage an Indian traveller has here over a European one. Speed limits are forty kilometres an hour through villages and sixty-five outside them, and they are measured.
Can we take it to Praslin or La Digue?
Seven of the ten cars can be picked up on Praslin, with a three-day minimum because the car has to be positioned there. Cars are not carried across on the ferry by guests. La Digue restricts private cars almost entirely, so nobody hires one there. Take the bicycle, that is the point of La Digue.
Is there a kilometre limit?
No. Unlimited kilometres and insurance are both in the daily rate, and a second driver costs nothing. Put both names on the enquiry.
Can you bring the car to the airport, or to our hotel?
Yes, and it costs nothing extra. Give us the flight number and the car is at arrivals when you land. If your villa is at the end of an unnamed track, type the name into the form and we will find it.
How do we pay?
Cash or card, on the island, at handover. A card adds four per cent, which is the bank's charge rather than ours, and the calculator on this page shows that line before you send anything.
What happens if our flight is late?
Nothing. The car waits. That is the reason we ask for the flight number rather than only a time.
While the car is yours.
Ask Meera to hold a car.
Tell her the dates and where you are landing. She answers with the car, the total and nothing else attached.