A local SIM at the airport, in ten minutes
Staying connected
Coverage is better than the geography suggests and worse in exactly the places you would want to post from.
A local SIM at the airport, in about ten minutes.
There are two mobile networks in Seychelles and both sell prepaid tourist SIMs with data, at the airport and at shops in Victoria and the larger towns. Buying one takes about ten minutes, needs your passport, and is what almost every visitor staying more than a few days ends up doing.
Coverage across the three main islands is good, better than a country of granite mountains has any right to expect. Where it fails is predictable: inside the national park, in the deeper valleys, on the boat between islands and on anything further out.
The photograph above: Radosław Botev, CC BY-SA 4.0
Buying a SIM on arrival
Both networks have desks in the arrivals area at Seychelles International, open for the scheduled arrivals including the late ones. Take your passport. A tourist data package is a fixed amount of data for a fixed number of days and it is straightforward.
If you arrive at three in the morning and the desk is shut, the shops in Victoria and at Beau Vallon sell the same thing, and your hotel will point you at the nearest. There is no urgency: most accommodation has wifi.
Or roaming from India, and when that is better
An international roaming pack from an Indian operator is simpler and usually more expensive. For a trip of under about five days, or for one phone in a party where everybody else will use wifi, it is the sensible choice.
For a fortnight, for a family, or for anybody who will be navigating with maps every day, the local SIM costs less and works better. Check that your handset is unlocked before you fly, which is the one thing that catches people out.
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 transferseSIM, if your phone takes one
Both an international travel eSIM bought before you fly and a local eSIM are workable, and an eSIM means you keep your Indian number active on the same handset. If your phone supports it, this is the least trouble of any option.
Buy it before you leave rather than at the airport, because activating an eSIM needs the connectivity you are trying to buy.
Where the signal actually fails
Inside the Morne Seychellois National Park on Mahé, in the valleys on the north-west of the island, on parts of the road over the mountain, and along the coast path to Anse Major. On Praslin the interior around the Vallée de Mai is patchy. On La Digue the east coast beyond Grand Anse is thin.
On the ferry between Mahé and Praslin you lose it in the middle of the crossing. And on any of the outer islands, from Bird and Denis to Alphonse and Aldabra, assume there is nothing at all unless the lodge says otherwise.
Wifi, and what it is actually like
Nearly every hotel and guesthouse has it and its quality varies more than the price of the room suggests. Restaurants and cafés in Victoria and the tourist areas generally have it. Speeds are fine for messages and maps and unreliable for a video call at the wrong hour.
The country is served by submarine cable and the connection is far better than an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean has any obligation to provide.
Working from here, honestly
It is possible on Mahé and on Praslin, and a number of people do it. The difficulties are not bandwidth, they are the time zone and the day. Seychelles is two and a half hours behind India, which is workable, and it gets dark at six, which does more to your evening than you expect.
For a call that genuinely matters, use the hotel wifi rather than mobile data, and do not schedule it from a boat.
Offline, which is worth doing anyway
Download the map of all three islands before you leave the hotel wifi. The road network on Mahé is small enough that an offline map is genuinely sufficient, and it removes the one moment where losing signal matters, which is the mountain road with a hire car and no idea which turning.
The ferry timetable, your accommodation address and your booking references are worth having as screenshots for the same reason.
Staying connected, in six frames.
Photographs, under Creative Commons: mwanasimba from La Réunion, CC BY-SA 2.0 Remi Jouan, CC BY-SA 3.0 A.Savin, FAL NASA Earth Observatory image by Wanmei Liang, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey, Public domain prilfish, CC BY 2.0 Radosław Botev, CC0
What people ask.
Can you buy a SIM card in Seychelles?
Yes. Both networks sell prepaid tourist data SIMs at desks in arrivals at Seychelles International and at shops in Victoria and the larger towns. It takes about ten minutes and you need your passport.
Is a local SIM better than Indian roaming?
For a fortnight, for a family, or for anybody navigating with maps daily, yes, and it costs less. For a trip under about five days, an Indian roaming pack is simpler. Check your handset is unlocked before you fly.
Does eSIM work in Seychelles?
Yes, and it is the least trouble if your phone supports it, because you keep your Indian number active. Buy and activate it before you leave, since activation needs the connectivity you are trying to buy.
Is there good mobile coverage?
Good across the three main islands. It fails inside the Morne Seychellois National Park, in the deeper valleys, on the coast path to Anse Major, in the middle of the ferry crossing and on the outer islands.
Do hotels have wifi?
Nearly all of them, with quality that varies more than the room rate suggests. The country is served by submarine cable and speeds are fine for messages and maps.
Can you work remotely from Seychelles?
On Mahé and Praslin, yes, and people do. The constraints are the time zone, two and a half hours behind India, and the fact that it gets dark at six, which affects the shape of the day more than the bandwidth does.
Download the map before you collect the car
Meera sends every itinerary as something you can read offline, with the addresses, the crossing times and the driver's arrangements in one place.