Two Weeks within the Seychelles: a Seychellois’s 14-day Itinerary, Internal Islands to Fowl Island
I grew up partly on Fowl Island, a low coral island a thirty-minute flight north of the principle Seychelles airport. My mother and father ran the lodge there for a few years, and for an extended stretch of my childhood that one small island, all sand, palms and nesting seabirds, was merely residence. I’m Seychellois, ninth-generation on my father’s facet, and I’ve spent a superb a part of my life in these islands.
I point out this up entrance as a result of it shapes the itinerary that follows. The simple factor to do with two weeks within the Seychelles is to take a one-week journey and stretch it out, extra seaside time and slower mornings on the identical three islands. That makes a beautiful vacation. However two weeks may purchase you a special journey, and that’s the one this information is constructed round.
So this itinerary splits the fortnight like this: 9 nights throughout Mahé, Praslin and La Digue, then 5 nights on one of many smaller outer islands, with Fowl Island because the route I might steer most individuals in direction of (I could also be biased).
When you solely have seven days, our one-week Seychelles itinerary covers these three interior islands daily, and this information leans on it fairly than repeating all of it. Right here, the interior trio is the warm-up. The second week is the principle occasion.
It is a information for somebody who has two weeks and the price range for a Seychelles journey, and who desires to know how one can really use the additional days, which islands are well worth the switch value, and what to e book months forward. It’s written from having lived it.
The 14-Day Seychelles Itinerary at a Look
Two weeks within the Seychelles works finest as 9 nights throughout the three interior islands, Mahé, Praslin and La Digue, adopted by 5 nights on a single outer island akin to Fowl or Denis. That provides you the range and the well-known sights in week one, then an entire change of tempo for the end.
Right here is the form of the journey:
- Days 1 to three on Mahé, the biggest island, with the airport, the capital and the mountains.
- Days 4 to six on Praslin, quieter and greener, residence to the Vallée de Mai and Anse Lazio.
- Days 7 to 9 on La Digue, the gradual, nearly car-free island of bicycles and granite seashores.
- Days 10 to 14 on Fowl Island, a tiny outer island reached by mild plane, with Denis Island as the principle various.
Day ten is a journey day in its personal proper, so the journey is admittedly 9 full inner-island days and 4 to 5 days out on the wilder island of your alternative.
Is 2 weeks within the Seychelles too lengthy?
That is the true query behind a two-week Seychelles journey, so I need to reply it head on. Two weeks just isn’t too lengthy for the Seychelles. It may be too lengthy for 3 islands.
The interior trio of Mahé, Praslin and La Digue is fantastic, and per week there may be near good. Stretch that very same journey to 14 days, although, and someplace round day eight or 9 it’s possible you’ll discover you may have seen the principle seashores, finished the boat journeys and visited the Vallée de Mai, and the times start to blur into one lengthy, nice sameness. For some folks that’s precisely the enchantment. If a fortnight of gradual seaside time is your concept of a dream vacation, you do not want an itinerary to overthink it. Base your self throughout two or three of the interior islands and revel in it.
In case you are the type of traveller who likes a visit to construct in direction of one thing, the second week is the place two weeks earns its place. Spend 9 nights on the interior islands after which fly out to Fowl or Denis, and the journey modifications gear fully. You go from rent automobiles, eating places and different vacationers to a single tiny island with one lodge, no site visitors, and, on Fowl, a sky stuffed with seabirds. That distinction is the journey. The interior islands provide the selection and the sights. The outer island provides you the half you’ll nonetheless be speaking a couple of yr later.
So right here is how I might resolve it. You probably have two weeks and the price range so as to add an outer island, do it. If the price or the additional switch doesn’t enchantment, take a targeted ten days on the interior islands fairly than a stretched fourteen, and spend the remainder of your vacation some place else.
Week One: The Internal Islands
These first 9 days comply with our one-week Seychelles itinerary intently, so I’ll preserve this part transient and ship you there for the complete day-by-day element on the place to cease, eat and swim. Right here is the compressed model, formed to go away you on La Digue on the finish of day 9, prepared for the outer-island flight.
Days 1 to three: Mahé
Mahé is the biggest island and your arrival level. Day one is an arrival day and little extra, so don’t plan a lot past settling in close to Beau Vallon, the lengthy sheltered seaside on the north coast, and discovering dinner. Day two is for the island itself: the small capital, Victoria, with its market and botanical backyard, then a south-coast seaside akin to Anse Intendance or Anse Royale.
A rent automobile earns its place on Mahé, as a result of one of the best seashores and viewpoints are scattered across the coast and the bus, whereas very low-cost, is gradual. We use Discover Cars to match the native rent corporations. Day three can go one in all two methods: a coastal drive and the stroll out to Anse Main, or a ship journey into the Sainte Anne Marine Park to snorkel. Mahé additionally has a few of the finest seashores within the nation, so if the climate is sweet, nobody will decide you for choosing one and staying.
Days 4 to six: Praslin
On the morning of day 4 you catch the Cat Cocos ferry from Mahé to Praslin, a crossing of about an hour and 1 / 4. Praslin is quieter and greener than Mahé. Day 5 is the Vallée de Mai, the UNESCO-listed palm forest well-known for the large coco de mer, adopted by a day at Anse Lazio, which is about nearly as good as Praslin’s seashores get. Entry to the Vallée de Mai is round SCR 450, or rather less if you happen to e book on-line.
Day six is a ship time out to Curieuse Island and St Pierre for large tortoises, snorkelling and a barbecue lunch. You’ll be able to e book that as a guided boat trip from Praslin. Boat days are weather-dependent, so if a squally day lands throughout your keep, that is the one to maneuver.
Days 7 to 9: La Digue
A brief, frequent ferry of about fifteen minutes brings you from Praslin to La Digue, the slowest and most charming of the three islands. There are nearly no automobiles right here. You get round by bicycle, and the island is sufficiently small to cross in half an hour of simple pedalling.
Day eight is the well-known one: Anse Supply d’Argent, the much-photographed seaside of pink granite and shallow turquoise water, reached by way of the L’Union Property, then the wilder string of seashores down the east coast at Grande Anse, Petite Anse and Anse Cocos.
Day 9 is a deliberate gradual day. Cycle as much as the Nid d’Aigle viewpoint, take a snorkelling journey out to the Sister Islands, or do little or no in any respect. This stretch can be the journey’s finest for Creole meals, the fish curries and grilled catch of the day I grew up consuming, offered from small takeaways at much better worth than the resort eating places.
Week Two: The Outer Islands
Right here is the place two weeks turns into its personal journey fairly than an extended model of a one-week one. On day ten you permit the interior islands behind and fly out to an outer island for the final 5 nights. The itinerary under is constructed round Fowl Island, as a result of it’s the one I do know finest and the one I might level most individuals in direction of. Denis Island is the principle various, and I cowl it straight after, with a easy manner to decide on between them.
One factor to know now: day ten is a journey day. You’ll take an early ferry, join by way of Mahé, and catch a lightweight plane out to the island. It isn’t a sightseeing day, and the journey works finest if you happen to deal with it as the value of admission fairly than a day wasted.
Days 10 to 14: Fowl Island
Fowl Island lies on the very northern tip of the Seychelles, the place the granite interior islands give method to flat coral. It’s tiny. You’ll be able to stroll proper round it in a morning, and the very best factor on the island is a coconut palm. As I mentioned at the beginning, my mother and father ran the lodge right here for a few years, and I spent a piece of my childhood on this one small island. Going again as an grownup, with Jess, who had by no means been, is a big a part of why this information exists.
Coming again was unusual in one of the simplest ways. The island is so small, and so little modified, that a lot of it landed precisely as I had left it, the identical seashores, the identical birds, the identical explicit hen sounds, at the same time as I had modified within the years between. Displaying Jess the place that had been my complete world as a toddler, and watching it do its work on somebody seeing it new, is one thing I’m very glad we did.
The flight in is a part of the expertise. Fowl Island is served by a light-aircraft service from the home terminal at Mahé’s airport, departing within the early afternoon. The flights run on set days of the week and are organized collectively along with your keep, and the present flight days are listed on Bird Island’s own site.
From the air the island exhibits you precisely what it’s, a small comma of inexperienced and pale sand ringed by reef after which open ocean in each course, with nothing else in sight. Inside about half an hour of leaving Mahé you step out onto an island with no automobiles, no actual roads and no crowd. The lodge is the one lodging, low picket bungalows set again from the seaside among the many palms.
What you really do on Fowl Island just isn’t very a lot, and that’s the level. There’s snorkelling straight off the seaside, with the island sitting by itself reef, and the lodge can organize kayaks, guided nature and birdwatching walks, and fishing. Fowl has a long-standing repute amongst fishing fans, who come for the flats and the deeper water off the island’s edge. However you may simply as simply spend 5 days studying, swimming and strolling, and loads of company do precisely that.
The only smartest thing to do can be the best. A protracted sandbar shifts off one finish of the island, showing and disappearing with the tide, and strolling out alongside it with clear water on each side is the type of small factor you bear in mind for years. The seaside walks are lengthy and empty, inexperienced and hawksbill turtles nest on the sand in season, and the snorkelling turns up reef fish, rays and the occasional turtle with out a lot effort.
With no roads and nothing resembling nightlife, the island runs on daylight. You’ll probably end up going to mattress early and waking with the solar, and after per week of inner-island sightseeing, that gradual resetting of your physique clock is a part of what makes the place work.
For a couple of months of the yr the island is something however quiet. Fowl Island takes its identify from its seabirds, and the headline occasion is the sooty tern colony. From round April the terns arrive to nest, and by June and July there may be one thing like one million and a half of them, a single dense, deafening, always wheeling colony packed into the island’s inside. I grew up with that sound.
Standing on the fringe of the colony as an grownup, watching Jess take it in for the primary time, is one in all my favorite recollections of the entire journey. The birds skinny out by way of the autumn and the colony has largely passed by the top of October, so if the terns matter to you, time your go to for the nesting months.
Fowl Island can be residence to free-roaming Aldabra big tortoises, which wander the lodge grounds and the sandy tracks at their very own unhurried tempo. The most important and oldest of them is well-known sufficient to have a reputation, Esmeralda, and has been a fixture of the island far longer than any visitor. Esmeralda has lengthy been reputed to be one of many heaviest free-roaming tortoises on the planet. Whether or not or not that file nonetheless stands, Aldabra big tortoises can reside properly past a century, and sharing a small island with creatures that outdated does one thing to your sense of scale.
All of this sits inside an actual conservation effort. Fowl Island is run as a non-public nature reserve as a lot as a spot to remain, and the birdlife and the nesting turtles you see are the results of a long time of affected person safety. A keep right here helps fund that work, and it is without doubt one of the issues that makes a couple of days on Fowl really feel like greater than a seaside vacation.
A phrase on the lodge itself, as a result of it issues and it’s the type of factor a brochure is not going to let you know. Bird Island Lodge is snug, however it’s not a contemporary luxurious resort, and you shouldn’t arrive anticipating one.
The bungalows are easy and slightly dated subsequent to the slick newer properties elsewhere within the Seychelles. There isn’t a air con and no tv, each deliberate, and the wifi is the patchy type you’ll anticipate on a distant coral island. The lodge is run as a wildlife and eco expertise first. Meals are half-board, with dinner and breakfast included and lunch purchased individually from a small island store with a restricted vary, so this isn’t the anything-you-want, all-inclusive set-up some islands supply.
Visitor evaluations are constantly glorious and most of the people go away very blissful, however they’re blissful as a result of they got here for the proper factor: an unplugged few days on a wild little island. If the easy, eco-first fashion provides you any pause in any respect, learn the following part on Denis earlier than you e book.
Denis Island, the Extra Comfy Various
If Fowl Island sounds fantastic however the stripped-back lodge provides you second ideas, Denis Island is the reply to that hesitation. Denis lies an analogous distance out from Mahé, reached the identical manner by a flight of round half an hour, and it presents the identical core expertise: one small island, one lodge, no crowds, no site visitors, and a give attention to nature and quiet.
The distinction is consolation. I’ve stayed on Denis, and it’s the extra polished of the 2 by some margin. The lodging is extra fashionable and extra spacious, the service is full and attentive, and the eating is nearer to what you’ll anticipate of a high-end resort. Denis additionally runs a working farm that provides a lot of the kitchen, so meals lean contemporary and native. The lodging is a selection of particular person cottages and villas alongside the seaside, in a handful of classes, so {couples} wanting a romantic base and households needing extra room each discover a match.
Denis has its personal conservation story, with rewilded native birds and nesting turtles, so you aren’t buying and selling away the wildlife by selecting it. What you commerce is slightly of Fowl Island’s uncooked, stripped-back character. Fowl appears like a wild island with a lodge on it. Denis appears like a fantastically run non-public island that has stored its nature intact. Neither is best within the summary. They go well with barely totally different travellers, which is what the following part is for. You’ll be able to examine present charges and availability for Denis Private Island on-line.
Fowl or Denis: which outer island fits you?
5 nights on an outer island is an actual dedication of money and time, so it’s price choosing the proper one. Right here is how I might resolve between the 2.
| If that is you | The place I’d ship you | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A wildlife or nature traveller | Fowl Island | The sooty tern colony in season is an actual spectacle, and the free-roaming tortoises and nesting turtles are a part of on a regular basis island life. |
| A eager photographer | Fowl Island | The sunshine, the birds and the empty sandbar provide you with way more to work with, and the rawness is the enchantment. |
| Travelling for consolation, quiet and good meals | Denis Island | Extra fashionable rooms, full service and a stronger kitchen, with out giving up the wildlife or the seclusion. |
| Cautious of a country, unplugged lodge | Denis Island | It delivers the private-island expertise with the tough edges smoothed off. |
| A primary-time customer who desires one simple outer-island keep | Denis Island | The gentler introduction to outer-island life. |
If cash isn’t any object there’s a third reply, the ultra-private resorts, which is the following part. For most individuals, although, the selection is between Fowl and Denis, and you may make it properly by being clear-eyed about how a lot consolation you need.
The Extremely-Non-public Islands, and Why Most Journeys Can Skip Them
Above Fowl and Denis sits a 3rd tier of Seychelles island, the unique private-island resorts the place a single evening can value greater than some folks’s total fortnight.
I’ve a household connection to this world. My household constructed and ran the lodge on Cousine Island, a small granite island lengthy managed as a non-public nature reserve as a lot as a resort, with its personal inhabitants of uncommon endemic birds and big tortoises. It’s a lovely place, and rising up round it gave me a transparent sense of what that high tier is and isn’t.
Right here is the model that helps with journey planning. Islands like Cousine, together with Frégate, which is reopening in 2026 after a full rebuild, and North Island, sit at a value level geared toward honeymooners, celebrities and travellers for whom value is just not an element. They’re excellent at what they do. However the coronary heart of the expertise, one small island, wildlife and seclusion in lovely environment, is one thing Fowl and Denis additionally ship, at a fraction of the value.
On the ultra-private islands you might be paying the premium for service, design and exclusivity, not for a greater island. Except that tier sits squarely inside your price range and your style, I might not lose any sleep over skipping it. Fowl or Denis provides you with the outer-island Seychelles with out the eye-watering invoice.
Getting Between the Islands
Two weeks within the Seychelles means a number of island strikes, and getting them proper is the distinction between a clean journey and a irritating one. Right here is how the connections work.
Mahé to Praslin runs on the Cat Cocos catamaran ferry, a crossing of about an hour and 1 / 4 with a couple of departures a day. A one-way grownup fare is round SCR 850. In peak intervals, roughly July and August, the Christmas and New Yr weeks, and Easter, one of the best sailings promote out, so e book forward by way of the Cat Cocos website and intention for a morning crossing. Praslin to La Digue is way simpler, a frequent ferry of about fifteen minutes that runs usually sufficient that you simply not often must plan round it. There are additionally quick inter-island flights and helicopter transfers between Mahé and Praslin if you happen to would fairly not take the ferry, quicker however a superb deal dearer. For many two-week journeys the ferry is the good choice for that leg.
The outer islands are a special matter, as a result of they’re reached solely by mild plane from the home terminal at Mahé’s worldwide airport. Fowl Island has scheduled flights on set days of the week, departing Mahé within the early afternoon, with check-in an hour earlier than. Denis Island flies most days. Each hops take round half an hour. These are small planes, and the bags allowance is strict and weight-limited, so journey mild and be prepared to go away a big laborious case in storage on Mahé if you’re carrying one.
That outer-island flight is the only greatest logistical pinch of the entire journey, and it ought to drive the order by which you e book the whole lot. Guide on this sequence. First, the outer-island lodge and its flight, collectively, as a result of every island has only one small lodge and restricted flights, and so they can refill months forward in excessive season. They anchor your dates, so the whole lot else suits round them. Second, the Cat Cocos ferry on your inner-island legs, particularly in peak season. Third, your inner-island accommodations, which have way more capability and may normally be sorted later. Reserving in that order means the toughest issues to get are locked in first.
Yet one more factor about day ten, the switch from La Digue out to Fowl or Denis. It entails a ferry again in direction of Mahé, a connection on the airport, after which the island flight, and it realistically takes many of the day. Construct in snug margins, don’t schedule the tightest doable connections, and settle for that you’ll not see a lot. The identical goes for day fourteen in reverse: in case your worldwide flight residence leaves early within the morning, fly off the outer island the day earlier than and spend your closing evening close to Mahé airport fairly than playing on a same-morning connection.
The Greatest Time to Go to the Seychelles
The Seychelles is a year-round vacation spot. It sits near the equator, with heat climate and roughly twelve hours of daylight regardless of the month, so there is no such thing as a unhealthy time to go. However there are higher home windows.
The islands have two trade-wind seasons. The northwest season runs roughly from October or November to March, hotter and wetter, with calmer winds. The southeast season runs roughly from Might to September, drier however breezier, with livelier seas. The candy spots are the transitions between the 2: April to Might, and October to November. These shoulder weeks are inclined to carry the calmest seas and the clearest water, which issues for snorkelling, boat journeys and the day-ten flight.
For a two-week journey there may be one additional issue to weigh, and it’s particular to Fowl Island. The sooty tern colony is on the island just for the nesting season, roughly April to October, at its overwhelming peak in June and July.
These peak months fall within the breezier southeast season, so there’s a actual trade-off right here: the calmest, glassiest sea situations don’t line up completely with the loudest, fullest tern colony. April and early Might come closest to having each.
If the terns are the rationale you might be heading to Fowl, lean in direction of the nesting months and settle for slightly extra wind. If flat seas matter extra to you, the shoulder weeks are preferrred, and the island continues to be beautiful with out the complete colony.
The place to Keep Throughout Two Weeks
Throughout two weeks you’ll sleep in 4 locations: one base every on Mahé, Praslin and La Digue, then the outer-island lodge.
On the interior islands, lodging runs from easy self-catering guesthouses as much as full luxurious resorts, with not loads on the true price range finish, because the Seychelles has no hostels and tenting just isn’t allowed. Most impartial travellers do properly within the center, in guesthouses and small self-catering locations, which additionally allow you to cook dinner and eat Creole takeaways fairly than paying resort restaurant costs each evening.
Our one-week itinerary names particular locations to remain on every of the three interior islands, throughout price range, mid-range and luxurious, so I’ll level you there fairly than repeat the entire checklist.
Briefly: Mahé is the simple place to spend rather less, with the widest alternative and probably the most guesthouses, and Beau Vallon makes a relaxed base. On Praslin, the Côte d’Or space is central for seashores and boat journeys. On La Digue, staying close to La Passe retains you near the bikes, the ferry and the eating places.
The outer-island lodge is a class of its personal, and I’ve coated each choices intimately above. Fowl Island Lodge is the less complicated, wilder, wildlife-first keep, half-board and pleasantly dated. Denis Non-public Island is the trendy, snug, full-service possibility. Whichever you select, will probably be the most costly single a part of the journey, and price it.
Entry Necessities: The Seychelles Journey Authorisation
One piece of admin you should not skip. Each customer to the Seychelles, no matter their nationality, now wants a Journey Authorisation earlier than they fly. The Seychelles continues to be visa-free, however the Journey Authorisation is a separate, obligatory on-line step, and airways will examine for it earlier than they allow you to board.
You apply by way of the official Seychelles Digital Border System at govtas.com, as much as 30 days earlier than you journey. You add your passport, flight and lodging particulars, and pay a payment of round €10, slightly extra as soon as the processing cost is added. Approval normally comes by way of rapidly, however don’t go away it to the airport. Apply a couple of days forward on the very least.
One warning. A number of unofficial websites supply to deal with the Journey Authorisation for you and cost a markup for the favour. You don’t want them. The federal government portal is the one official web site, and making use of your self takes only some minutes.
What Two Weeks within the Seychelles Taught Us
A couple of issues we realized from spending a full fortnight out right here, supplied within the spirit of serving to your individual journey go easily.
The transfers are price respecting. Each island transfer prices you a part of a day, particularly the ferries. We discovered the journey flowed finest as soon as we stopped combating that and easily constructed the journey days into the plan, with no sightseeing crammed on high. A relaxed switch day is a pleasing day. A rushed one just isn’t.
Don’t over-programme the interior islands. It’s tempting to fill all 9 inner-island days with boat journeys and seashores and drives, however the Seychelles rewards a slower tempo. Depart gaps within the plan. A few of our greatest afternoons had been the unplanned ones, a seaside we pulled over for, an extended lunch, a swim that become the remainder of the day.
Save your vitality, and your sense of surprise, for the outer island. After 9 busy days on the interior trio, arriving on Fowl with nothing to do and nowhere to be is a present fairly than an anticlimax. The quiet is the entire level, so lean into it. We got here residence from the interior islands blissful and from the outer island restored, and that, greater than something, is the case for giving the Seychelles two weeks fairly than one.
Two Weeks within the Seychelles Itinerary FAQ
What number of days do you want within the Seychelles?
Every week is the lifelike minimal, and the size I might advocate to most first-time guests. Seven nights allow you to settle into the three important islands, Mahé, Praslin and La Digue, with out spending half the journey in transit.
Two weeks is the pure step up. It provides you those self same three islands at a neater tempo and frees up 4 or 5 nights for one of many outer islands, which is the place an extended Seychelles journey begins to really feel totally different fairly than simply longer.
Is 2 weeks within the Seychelles too lengthy?
Not if you happen to change islands. Two weeks solely begins to tug if you happen to spend all of it on the interior three, the place you may run low on new issues to do after eight or 9 days.
Use the additional time to fly out to an outer island like Fowl or Denis and the journey retains shifting, as a result of the outer islands are a totally totally different tempo and setting. When you would fairly not cope with one other switch, a targeted ten-day inner-island journey is commonly a greater match than a stretched fourteen.
Are you able to go to Fowl Island on a day journey?
No. Fowl Island is a fly-in keep, not a day journey. The scheduled flights from Mahé run solely on sure days of the week, the island has a single small lodge, and the entire enchantment is staying put for a couple of nights with only a few different folks round.
Plan on a minimal of two to a few nights, and ideally extra. The identical is true of Denis Island and the opposite outer islands.
How do you get from Mahé to the outer islands?
By mild plane from the home terminal at Mahé’s worldwide airport. Fowl Island has scheduled flights on set days of the week, and Denis Island runs flights most days, each taking round half an hour.
These are small planes with strict baggage weight limits, so pack mild and preserve your important baggage manageable. The flights are organized collectively along with your keep, so that you e book the island lodge first and the flight follows.
Do it is advisable to e book Seychelles island lodging prematurely?
For the outer islands, sure, properly prematurely. Fowl and Denis every have just one lodge, with restricted rooms and restricted flights, to allow them to refill months forward in peak season.
Guide the outer-island keep first, because it anchors the entire journey, then the Cat Cocos ferry, then your inner-island accommodations, which have way more availability and may normally be organized nearer to the date.
Is 2 weeks within the Seychelles costly?
Sure. The Seychelles is without doubt one of the dearer locations I’ve travelled, and a two-week journey with an outer island just isn’t a price range vacation. Lodging and the inter-island flights are the massive prices.
You’ll be able to preserve the inner-island portion extra reasonably priced with self-catering guesthouses, Creole takeaways and a budget public buses. The outer-island lodges and their flights sit at the next value level by design.
What’s the finest time of yr to go to the Seychelles?
April and October are the calmest months, sitting between the 2 trade-wind seasons with heat, nonetheless climate and clear water. Both works properly for a two-week journey.
If seeing Fowl Island’s sooty tern colony issues to you, intention for roughly April to October, when the birds are nesting, with the noise and the numbers peaking in June and July.
