The days you will remember are not in the brochure.
21 excursions with real ratings and real prices. Island tours, snorkelling, boat days and walks, from all three of the big islands.
Two ways to book a day, and we are honest about both.
Most of what is below is booked on Viator, the excursion platform owned by Tripadvisor. The rating, the review count, the price and the duration on every card are theirs and are shown exactly as they come. We are a Viator partner, so a booking made through one of these links earns this site a commission. It costs you nothing, because we cannot add to their price.
The other way is our own team on the island. Every excursion page carries a form for them. They confirm the day, the time and the price by letter and you pay on the island. It is slower and it is better when a day has to be shaped around a family, a muhurat or a kitchen that has to cook without onion and garlic.
One product in the same data set is not an excursion at all. It is a transport and accommodation booking service, and it is not on this page, because twenty-one honest days are worth more than twenty-two padded ones.
The one day we run ourselves.
Kayaking the Grand Police wetland and a four by four run over the mountain, on the wild south end of Mahé. No platform, no commission, no listing. You write to us and our own people take you out.
It is the day we send our own families on, which is the only recommendation worth anything.
Twenty-one days, grouped by where they start.
Not by which island they visit. The Sainte Anne boat days leave from Mahé, so that is where you will look for them.
From Mahé
Sixteen days that start on the main island, from the classic island loop to the boats that cross to the Sainte Anne marine park.
Mahé island tour with a guide
The classic loop of Mahé. The mountain road, Victoria market, the southern beaches and the viewpoints where the hill drops straight into the sea.
Private Mahé island tour
A whole day with your own guide and vehicle. The route is built around you rather than around a bus timetable.
Half-day Mahé island tour
The short version of the island tour. The main viewpoints and one beach, for a day that has an afternoon in it.
Mahé island tour, four hours or eight
A flexible island tour you can take as half a day or a whole one, decided when you book rather than on the morning.
Private full-day Mahé tour
A whole day, privately, with the route entirely yours. Stop where you want and for as long as you want.
The wild south of Mahé
The southern end of Mahé is the quietest and least built part of the island. Anse Intendance, Anse Takamaka and the viewing platforms above them.
Full-day Mahé tour with hotel pick-up
A whole day around Mahé that starts and ends at your door. The version to take if you have not hired a car.
Private beaches and snorkelling, half a day
A private half-day between two or three beaches with snorkelling, on whichever coast the wind has left calm.
Mahé island tour by beach buggy
An open buggy on narrow roads. This one is an adventure rather than a way of getting somewhere.
The rock pools, a private guided walk
A short walk to natural granite pools, where a river meets the boulders and makes calm water in a place the ocean is anything but.
Guided nature trail hike on Mahé
A guided walk on Mahé's trails, through forest and along cliffs with the ocean below.
Sun printing workshop with a local designer
Traditional Seychelles textile printing with a local designer. Unusual, and you carry home the thing you made.
Sainte Anne Marine Park by boat
A day in the marine park with a glass-bottomed boat, snorkelling and lunch on one of the islands.
Semi-submarine over the Sainte Anne reef
An hour in a semi-submerged boat over the reef. You sit below the waterline behind a window and see what the snorkellers see, with dry feet.
Private boat day in Sainte Anne Marine Park
A full day with a boat of your own in the marine park. The most expensive way to see it, and the quietest.
Anse Major, Baie Ternay and a little fishing
A boat along the north-west coast to the Baie Ternay marine park, with snorkelling and a pass by the beach that has no road to it.
From Praslin
Three days on the island of the coco de mer, one of them a boat to the tortoises on Curieuse.
Guided walk in the Vallée de Mai
A guided walk through the UNESCO palm forest in the middle of Praslin, where the coco de mer grows.
Curieuse, St Pierre and Anse Lafarine
A day from Praslin to the giant tortoises on Curieuse, with a mangrove boardwalk, lunch on the beach and snorkelling at St Pierre on the way home.
Private Praslin tour
A whole day around Praslin privately, from the Vallée de Mai to the northern beaches.
La Digue and further out
The hardest walk in the country, and the private boat that reaches three islands in a day.
The Anse Marron hike on La Digue
A guided scramble across the south of La Digue to Anse Marron, between granite boulders the size of houses. Nobody goes there without a guide.
Private boat to La Digue, Curieuse and Anse Lazio
A full day with a boat of your own out of Mahé, across three islands, without a ferry timetable anywhere in it.
Then ask for a day that is yours.
If none of the twenty-one is right, say so. A private guide and a car for the day costs less than most people expect once it divides across four, and it goes where you want rather than where a minibus is going.
The same is true of the things this list cannot hold. A muhurat that has to be kept, a grandmother who cannot climb, a kitchen that has to cook Jain, an anniversary that wants an empty beach at five in the afternoon. Write those down and we will build the day around them.
The seven that arrive every week.
How do you choose which excursions to list?
We list the ones with a real rating and enough reviews behind it to mean something. The ratings come from Viator and they are not ours to adjust. One product in the same export is not an excursion at all, it is a transport and accommodation booking service, and it is not on this page because dressing it up as a day out would be dishonest.
Do you sell these yourselves?
No. Booking and payment for the listed excursions happen on Viator, a licensed platform. We are a partner and we earn a commission on a booking made through our links, at no cost to you. The adventure day at the top of this page is the exception. That one we arrange ourselves.
Can you arrange an excursion without Viator?
Yes. Every excursion page carries a form for our own team on the island. They confirm the day, the time and the price by letter and you pay there. It is slower than clicking a listing and it is better when the day needs shaping around a family.
How many excursions are worth taking?
Two or three on a two-week trip. The rest of the days are worth more with a hired car, no schedule and a beach you chose from the road.
Are these suitable with children?
Several are, and each page says so plainly under who it suits. The semi-submarine at Sainte Anne is an hour, which is about a small child's limit, and the Curieuse day with the giant tortoises is the one children remember. The Anse Marron scramble on La Digue is not a children's day.
What about vegetarian or Jain food on a boat day?
Say so on the enquiry rather than on the morning. A lunch on an island is cooked to a headcount and a note the day before is the difference between a proper meal and rice.
Which month has the calmest sea?
April to May and October to November, the two windows between the monsoons. From December to March the north-west wind blows, so the calm water sits on the south and east coasts. From May to September the south-east trades blow and the calm water moves to the north and west. There is no bad month, only a wrong coast for the month.
What the other days are for.
Not sure which two to take?
Tell Meera when you are here and who is coming. She will name the two days worth booking and the ones to skip.