Seychelles Travel Guide

High Season (Dec–Mar & Jul–Aug)

• In July and August, southeast trades usher in cooler, drier weather but winds whip up the waves.
• Spikes in European school holidays push prices up in July and August.
• Extremely humid between December and February.
• Cyclone activity elsewhere in the Indian Ocean may produce heavy cloud cover between December and March.

Shoulder (Apr, May, Oct & Nov)

• Fewer visitors but temperatures still high.
• Easter can be very busy.
• Normally calm and windless periods, great for swimming and boat excursions.
• Best months for diving visibility.

Low Season (Jun, Sep)

• Accommodation prices slightly lower than high season.
• The sea breeze provides plenty of natural air-con.

CURRENCY

The official currency is the Seychelles Rupee which at the time of writing was about 18 to the Pound. Pounds, Euros and Dollars seemed to be widely accepted on the island with all change being given in the local currency of the Rupee.

The Euro was the second most common currency and could be used to book most big excursions. Smaller shops, restaurants and petrol stations only accepted Rupees and many did not have card machines so make sure you keep cash with you at all times. Click Here for current conversion rates.

COSTS

• Tipping is not generallyexpected here.

Costs felt pretty high in the Seychelles. The price of some things can be kept down, especially food by going self-catering or using some of the amazing creole takeaways (you can see a few on the ones we used in the articles above).

Keep an eye on prices in supermarkets as some things are far more expensive than in England (onions and milk for example) whereas others are much cheaper (coconuts, fresh fish!). I imagine this is down to import costs. There is also big variance between supermarkets. We saw a bottle of branded rum at 280Rs for 500ml in one supermarket and the same brand at 270Rs for 700ml just up the road.

Eating out can be expensive as can excursions to other islands.

Below are some ideas of costs:

• Full day excursion to another island with lunch and snorkelling (per person): €90 (£80)
• Car rental (per day): €40 (£35)
• Creole food takeaway: 80Rs per dish (£4.50)
• Bottle of average wine in local supermarkets: 150 Rs (£8.30)
• 1 onion: 16Rs (88p)
• 1 coconut: 10Rs (55p)
• 1l bottle of UHT milk: 42 Rs (£2.30)

DRIVING

• Cars drive on the left hand side
• Speed limit on Praslin is 40 km/h
• Your driving license from country of residence is valid for up to 3 months
• The drink drive limit is 0.08 % of blood alcohol content, exactly the same as in the UK
• The number plates are pretty cool (ahem!), just an S with up to 5 digits on IE S12345. People can keep them and re-register though, so enjoyed spotting the lowest number. We got down to one with 2 digits! If you were wondering (which I’m sure you were!) the red backed plates are government issue vehicles

Buses

Praslin only has three bus lines, but each line covers nearly all of the sites you’ll want to see as there are only a few roads. Tickets are bought from the bus driver, but be the fare stays the same no regardless of how far you travel (the same as using an Oyster Card on a bus in London).

Ferries

Ferries travel between Praslin and some of the other Seychelles islands several times each day. Tickets can be purchased online or in person, and the trips can be as short as 15 minutes, depending on which island you will be traveling to.