Seven works. Ten is the answer
How many days do you need?
The honest version, with the ferry timings and the island-hopping arithmetic that decides it, rather than a number chosen to fit a package.
Seven works. Ten is the answer.
Seychelles is three main islands and a ferry, and the arithmetic of that decides the length of your trip more than anything else does. Every move costs you the better part of a day once you count checking out, getting to the jetty, the crossing and checking in again. So the question is not how many days you want, it is how many islands you want, and then you add the days.
One island needs four nights to be worth the flight. Two islands need seven. Three islands need ten. Anything under four nights and you have flown four and a half hours to spend two days recovering from the flight.
Five nights, which is what most people book
Five nights is one island. That is not a criticism, it is arithmetic: you land, you lose the first afternoon, you have three clear days, and you leave. If you spend one of those three days on a ferry you have two.
If five nights is genuinely all you have, do not island-hop. Stay on Mahé, hire a car, and use the three days on the south-west coast, the Sainte Anne marine park and Victoria. It is a good short holiday. It is not the country.
Seven nights, the shortest trip that works
Seven nights buys two islands with one move in the middle. Three nights on Mahé and four on Praslin, or four on Praslin and three on La Digue. One ferry, one check-in, and both halves long enough to unpack.
This is the shape we build most often for a first visit, and it is the shortest trip where people go home feeling they saw the place rather than a hotel.
Ten nights, which is the right answer
Ten nights buys all three islands with two moves, and it is the length at which Seychelles stops being a beach holiday and becomes a country. Three nights on Mahé for the mountains, the town and the south coast. Four on Praslin for the Vallée de Mai, Anse Lazio and the boat days out to Curieuse and Saint Pierre. Three on La Digue for the bicycles and Anse Source d'Argent.
It also gives you the slack that an island trip needs. A day of rain, a ferry that sails an hour late, a boat trip that moves to the following morning: on ten nights none of those matters and on five all of them do.
Fourteen nights, and what changes
At a fortnight the trip changes character. You stop sightseeing and start living somewhere, which is what most people who come back a second time are actually after. It is also the length that makes a fourth island worth it, whether that is Silhouette, Cerf, or one of the outer islands on a chartered flight.
A fortnight is the honeymoon length. It is also, in the summer holidays, the family length, because a fortnight in June on the north-west coast at low-season rates is not much more than ten nights in December.
Why the ferry decides everything
The Cat Cocos runs Mahé to Praslin in about an hour and takes around a hundred and eighty passengers. There are a handful of sailings a day and they are not evenly spaced. The Praslin to La Digue crossing is fifteen minutes on a smaller boat and runs far more often. What that means in practice is that Mahé to La Digue direct is a whole morning and Praslin to La Digue is a coffee.
So the sensible order of a three-island trip is Mahé, then Praslin, then La Digue, and back to Mahé at the end for the flight. Every itinerary we write goes in that direction, and every one that tries to go the other way loses a day.
Airport transfers
A driver who watches your flight number and waits with your name on a board, at a price agreed before you fly rather than at the kerb.
See transfersThe day you lose at the end
Most flights back towards India leave Mahé late in the evening, which sounds generous until you realise you have to be off Praslin or La Digue that morning. If the last night of your trip is on an outer island you will spend the final day on boats.
The fix is one night back on Mahé at the end. It costs a night and it saves the day, and it means you fly out having had a last swim rather than a last check-in queue.
What we would do with your dates
Under seven nights: one island, and make it Mahé. Seven to nine: two islands, one move. Ten to twelve: three islands, two moves, and a night back on Mahé at the end. Thirteen and over: three islands and something further out.
None of that changes with the season. What changes with the season is which coast of each island you sleep on, and that is the other page.
What people ask.
Is five days enough for Seychelles?
For one island, yes. For the country, no. Five nights gives you three clear days once the flights are accounted for, and a ferry crossing takes most of one of them. Stay on Mahé, hire a car, and do not try to island-hop.
How many days do you need for all three islands?
Ten. Three nights on Mahé, four on Praslin, three on La Digue, with a final night back on Mahé if your flight leaves late. Seven can be made to work for two of the three.
Which island should we start with?
Mahé, because that is where you land, and then outward: Praslin, then La Digue, then back. Going the other way costs you a day, because the Mahé to La Digue crossing is a morning and the Praslin to La Digue crossing is fifteen minutes.
Can we see Praslin as a day trip from Mahé?
You can and we would rather you did not. The ferry is about an hour each way, the sailings are not evenly spaced, and you will arrive at the Vallée de Mai with an eye on the return boat. Two nights turns it into a place instead of an errand.
Is a fortnight too long?
No. It is the length at which people stop sightseeing and start living somewhere, and it is the standard honeymoon length here. In the low season it costs surprisingly little more than ten nights in December.
Do we need a night on Mahé at the end?
Usually, yes. Flights towards India leave Mahé in the evening but you have to be off Praslin or La Digue that morning, so without that night the last day is spent on boats.
Send your dates and we will send back a shape
How many nights, how many people and whether anybody in the party hates boats. Meera will write back with the island order, the ferry timings and where the slack should sit.