Seychelles Discovery Guide

The Seychelles has beaches that appear on more posters than almost anywhere else, and the reason is geological: the inner islands are granite rather than coral or volcano, so the sand is backed by enormous weathered boulders that exist nowhere else in the tropics. It is also manageable -- Mahé, Praslin and La Digue sit within an hour of each other by ferry, and La Digue is largely bicycle-powered. Half the country's land is protected, including the coco de mer forest of the Vallée de Mai.

The main travel issue

Conditions here are set by wind rather than temperature. This is also one of the most expensive destinations in the Indian Ocean.

The solution

Aim for the changeover months between the monsoons -- April and May, or October and November -- when the water is calm and diving visibility is at its best. Book the inter-island ferries ahead, and stay in self-catering guesthouses rather than resorts.

• Mahé

If you have a week

Two nights on Mahé for the mountains and the south-coast beaches, three on La Digue for Anse Source d’Argent and the bicycles, and two on Praslin for the Vallée de Mai and Anse Lazio. The ferries between them take under an hour.

If you came to dive

Base on Mahé or Praslin and aim for April to May or October to November, when visibility is at its best. Aldabra and the outer atolls are liveaboard-only and expensive, and are among the least-dived reefs on earth.

If you want to walk

The Morne Seychellois park on Mahé has trails from the coast into mist forest, Copolia gives the best short climb for a view, and Anse Major is reached only on foot. Start early — it is hot by nine.

If you want it quieter

Silhouette, Curieuse and Bird Island take day visitors or small numbers of guests, and the southern half of Mahé sees a fraction of the traffic of Beau Vallon.

Seychellois culture is Creole in the precise sense: a genuine fusion produced by an island that had no indigenous population and was settled from four directions at once.

Three official languages

Seychellois Creole, English and French all have official status. Creole is what people actually speak, English is the language of government and business, and French of the church and much of the older literature. Most people move between all three.

Where the mix came from

French planters arrived in the 1770s with enslaved East Africans and Malagasy; the British took over in 1814 and brought Indian and Chinese traders; liberated Africans were landed here from intercepted slave ships through the nineteenth century. The food, the surnames and the music all carry those lines.

Sega and moutya

Moutya is drum-and-voice music descended directly from enslaved communities, danced at night around a fire, and it is on the UNESCO intangible heritage list. Sega, shared with Mauritius and Réunion, is the lighter popular form.

A country of a hundred thousand

The whole population is smaller than a mid-sized town, and everyone is connected to everyone. That makes the place informal and unhurried, and it also means reputation travels instantly, which visitors notice in how they are treated and in how quickly word gets around.

These are small islands with a fragile water supply, and almost everything except fish and some fruit is imported. Choosing guesthouses and Creole restaurants over all-inclusive resorts keeps more of the spending in the country and puts less pressure on desalination and landfill.

Marine parks charge entry fees that fund their own management — pay them. Do not touch or stand on coral, which has suffered repeated bleaching here, and use reef-safe sunscreen; several operators now ask to see it. Never buy coco de mer nuts without the official permit label, and never buy turtle shell or shark products at all.

Giant tortoises on Curieuse and elsewhere are wild animals, not attractions: do not sit on them or feed them. On beaches between October and February, turtles nest — keep lights off the sand and stay well back from any tracks you find.

The Seychelles is warm all year, between about 24 and 32°C, and the seasons are defined by wind rather than by temperature.

April and May, and again October and November, are the changeover months between the two monsoons — calm, clear water and the best diving visibility of the year. These are the windows most divers aim for.

December to March brings the north-west monsoon: hotter, more humid, with heavy short rain, and calmer seas on the southern and eastern shores. May to September brings the south-east trades, which are drier and cooler but push seaweed onto the south-east-facing beaches and make some crossings rough.

The busiest and most expensive periods are Christmas and New Year, and July and August. Turtles nest between October and February; whale sharks pass through in August to October.

What a day costs, by how you travel

Relative cost across the islands

Almost everything is imported, so restaurant and shop prices are well above what the surrounding region charges. Self-catering is the single biggest saving available.