Seychelles is an island country placed in the Indian Ocean, approx. 4.5 degrees south of the equator. The currency is the Seychellois rupee (approx. 1.8 CZK, or 0.076 USD). The climate is equable for the whole year - so sometimes there is rainy weather, but it is not a problem since the weather is still warm and rain is not lasting for a long time. Rainy weather can be wonderful there - we experienced it during our trip, and you can see it in the video below:
Rain at Petite Anse
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Because Seychelles is situated very close to the equator, the day has almost the same length for the whole year - quite unusual for me (when you are used to seeing sunset several hours later during summer) to see the sunset at 6 PM.
Night sky - Moon is not lopsided, it is just lying, like the Orion constellation, thanks to its position close to the equator. You can also observe Alpha Centauri from the islands, as well as the Crux constellation - southern sky objects.
Mahe
We spent two weeks there - at the beginning of April 2016, in a lovely Chant Doiseau - a private house for 8 people (we were 5) with a terrace and garden.
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Transportation
We tried to explore the surroundings by walk, but it wasn't so safe, or at least it looked dangerous, because of narrow roads with many curves, usually with no sidewalks. We quickly refused to continue with this kind of exploration.
After that, we tried bus transportation - a cheap kind of transportation (5 rupees per ticket) with old Tata buses. The need to wait for the bus is a drawback because the bus might not arrive at the time (this can happen most probably only at the main bus station in Victoria). The bus ride is sometimes funny, like a ride on a roller coaster, especially in the mountainous inland (see video below). Once our bus even ripped off the rearview mirror of a car - the roads are really very narrow there :-).
Bus rides
Most bus stops are just painted on the road. And if you want to tell a driver to stop, you have to either use a trembler (which is usually situated close to the seats) or call "devan".
Car rental
The best choice. Relatively cheap (around 40-50 euros per day) and you can drive wherever you want, whenever you want. Cars drive on the left side - like in the UK.
We were using one offline map application for navigation - It is not showing sea, so it was slightly confusing during searching for Cat Cocos ferries offices. Roads are perfectly displayed there (except in one, or two cases - for example, rebuilt crossroad) - so it was really useful for us.
Alcohol
Drinking before noon (I don't remember the exact time) is prohibited. Beer is expensive there (50 and more rupees for 0.5l), but on the other hand, you can taste beers from different parts of the world - South Africa, Sri Lanka, India, Australia, Italia, Czech Republic... Anyway, Seychelles holds second place (right below the Czech Republic :-)) in beer consumption per capita. Seychelles Breweries Limited (SBL) stopped beer production during our visit, but I tried at least one local beer:
You can also try the product of one local distillery - famous rum from Takamaka Bay.
Food
Prices of food are similar to Czech prices, sometimes slightly higher (e.g. hot dog at Beau Vallon - 25 SR, or melon ice cream - 9 SR).
You can try local kind of "fast food" if you want cheap cooked food - takeaways - places where you can combine parts of your meal (meat - pork, chicken, fish - with for example rice or potatoes + salad). They are opened around noon and marked with a "take away" label. Here are for example prices which I paid for two meals:
60 SR - rice with curry + chicken with curry
40 SR - rice, chicken, salad
You can also buy really cheap fish at Victoria market - red snapper, or bonito - we paid approx. 300 SR for portioned fish. Other foodstuffs are produced in Seychelles as well, for example, vanilla tea or spice. We also found Czech goods there - cheese and other dairy products and Czech beer - in a mall close to the main bus station in Victoria.
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Victoria
The capital city of Seychelles, the smallest capital city in the world, has cca 26450 inhabitants. You can visit the Hindu temple there, which is situated very close to the city market. Another interesting thing is Victoria Clocktower, staying in the city center for almost 100 years, or a botanical garden.
I am not going to continue with a list of other interesting places, there are a lot of better descriptions and guides on the Internet.
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Animals, Nature
There are no dangerous animals on the land. Any venomous snakes or something like that. You can meet geckos as your roommates. And see bats during the day, flying on the seashore, and hear them screaming and quarreling at night. You can also meet giant tortoises - some of them are in the National Botanical Garden in Victoria (you must pay if you want to feed them). Other ones are at Le Jardin Du Roi Spice Garden - you can feed them for free. Other ones are in a corral at Takamaka Beach.
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Trails
If you want to experience local nature more closely then you can try some of the local walks and trails. Some of them can be very strenuous due to high temperatures and a big height difference.
We tried:
Beaches
Seychelles is well known for its beaches. And they are really gorgeous. We tried to visit as many as possible, and they were awesome, even when we were there during big waves (it was fun to jump into them) and there was a lot of kelp washed up on a shore. Even rain can be nice there as mentioned at the beginning of this article.
Here are some videos from the beaches:
Anse Takamaka
Anse Marie-Louise
Anse Intendance
Petite Anse
Petite Anse II.
Anse Nord D'est
Anse Louis II.
Anse Takamaka II.
Waves at Beau Vallon
Baie Ternay
Anse Marie-Louise
Anse Intendance
Petite Anse
Petite Anse II.
Anse Nord D'est
Anse Louis II.
Anse Takamaka II.
Waves at Beau Vallon
Baie Ternay
We enjoyed snorkeling as well:
Praslin
We have also visited Praslin apart from Mahe. You can reach it quickly and easily with Cat Cocos catamarans - a trip takes just around 90 minutes. Flying fish are making the company during the trip to the island.
We were a group of nine there and we were considering renting a minivan for one day, but we quickly figured out that there are small cars available only. So I recommend arranging your trip there a few days ahead if you are traveling with a bigger group of people. In the end, we were traveling by bus only.
Praslin hosts Vallee de Mai Nature Reserve with the biggest population of the endemic Coco De Mer palm genus and it is also inhabited by endemic black parrots (we just saw only one of the parrots).
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| Coco de Mer nut |
We tried to visit some beaches, but slow traveling by bus was a drawback. But we visited Grand Anse and Anse Volbert beaches.
There was just one problem with accessing one beach - Anse Kerlan - it is surrounded by one hotel resort, so we weren't able to reach it.
Grand Anse
The end of the day was rainy, but with a really beautiful sunset with storm clouds during the trip back to Mahe - see From Praslin to Mahe video.
And that's all.
More videos are available on my youtube channel and the best photos here
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