More breeding seabirds than anywhere else
Aride
Island · Nature reserve
Aride in short.
Aride is the northernmost granitic island and a nature reserve run by the Island Conservation Society. It holds more species of breeding seabird than any other island in Seychelles, and a gardenia that grows nowhere else on earth.
Can you go?
Open on set days, and only when the sea allows a beach landing. There is a conservation fee.
Aride, in 6 frames.
Every frame below was found in this island's own Commons category and its own title names the island. Captions are the file's title, so you can check the call.
Photographs, under Creative Commons: Colin J Taylor, CC BY-SA 3.0 Colin J Taylor, CC BY-SA 3.0 Colin J Taylor, CC BY-SA 3.0 Colin J Taylor, CC BY-SA 3.0 Colin J Taylor, CC BY-SA 3.0 Colin J Taylor, CC BY-SA 3.0 Etan J. Tal, CC BY-SA 4.0
The birds
The cliffs and the plateau hold colonies that fill the sky when they lift. Sooty terns were harvested here for their eggs for almost a century, up to two hundred and twenty thousand of them in a season, until the owner stopped it in 1967 and the island began to recover.
Wright's gardenia, named for the Irishman who described it in 1868, grows on Aride and nowhere else. The northern cliffs, taking the full weather, are among the more dramatic pieces of coast in the granite group.
Getting ashore is the hard part
There is no jetty. Boats run onto the beach through the surf, and the reserve decides day by day whether that is safe. Trips are cancelled often between May and September. If Aride matters to you, plan it early in the stay so there is a second chance.
How you arrive
Day excursions from Praslin on the days the reserve is open, sea permitting. The conservation fee goes to the reserve.
The sheet.
Checked 2 September 2026 against the sources named in our island file.
- What it is
- the northernmost granitic island
- Managed by
- the Island Conservation Society
- Endemic to Aride alone
- Wright's gardenia
- Seabird egg collection
- stopped in 1967
What people ask.
Can we visit Aride?
Open on set days, and only when the sea allows a beach landing. There is a conservation fee.
How do you get to Aride?
Day excursions from Praslin on the days the reserve is open, sea permitting. The conservation fee goes to the reserve.
What we do arrange.
We do not sell islands, and most of these could not be sold to anybody. What we do arrange is everything that gets you to them and around them once you land.
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
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