Seychelles Tourist Information, a guide to the Seychelles Islands in the Indian Ocean.

Seychelles Tourist Information - Indian Ocean Islands, Africa

The Seychelles consist of 115 islands, all of the type "tropical paradise used in Bounty commercial". The capital of the Seychelles is the bustling and vibrant town of Victoria, named after Queen Victoria in 1942. Victoria is the world's smallest capital and has a miniature replica of London's Big Ben which was built in 1903. It is well worth including some time on Mahe during your stay in the Seychelles to enable you to explore this fascinating town. The friendly craft markets, fresh fish and spice stalls are a good place to begin. If you enjoy oriental cooking then make sure you stock up on saffron, a bargain at around US$1 a bag from the market! In addition to the many excellent local paintings and prints on sale you can find the endemic Coco-de-Mer transformed into any and every type of souvenir you can think of.

North Island is one of the forty inner granitic islands of the Seychelles that are often considered to be the most beautiful on Earth. North Island, and its close neighbour Silhouette Island are both granitic islands but are thought to be considerably younger than Mahé, Praslin and La Digue. Their syenite formation probably dates back to about 90 million years ago when Seychelles and India separated. As such, North Island Lodge is a rare sanctuary for guests seeking a gorgeous, unspoiled tropical haven on a large and private island. With four white sandy beaches located at each end of the compass, North Island is able to offer a year-round tropical beach and island experience. There are just eleven handcrafted guest villas on the entire island, each constructed to combine to create a sensorial experience in surroundings of understated elegance. The new Spa, perched high above the beach with stunning views of the ocean, specialises in personalised holistic treatments to rejuvenate the body, mind and soul. Activities include mountain biking, gym, guided walks, snorkelling, fishing, boating, sea kayaking, and scuba diving. Great care has been taken to rid the island of non-indiginous species and to return the environment to as natural state as possible, hence North Island is the perfect hideaway for guests wanting space to appreciate the simple natural beauty of the Seychelles whilst reclining in luxurious and restful surroundings.

Cousin Island is a beautiful island that has been a nature reserve since its acquisition by the Royal Society for Nature Conservation in 1968, it was declared a Special Reserve by the Seychelles government in 1975 and is managed by BirdLife Seychelles. The island is open to visitors only on certain days and the area is strictly managed. Visitors may hope to see some of the 250,000 birds that come to nest every year, the island is a haven for several rare species including the Seychelles warbler, Seychelles magpie-robin and Seychelles fody. Seabirds include the brown noddie, lesser noddie, wedge-tailed shearwater, audubon's shearwater, birdled tern and fairy tern. A visit to Cousin from Praslin can be combined with the nearby island of Curieuses for a BBQ lunch followed by snorkelling at St. Pierre.

Bird Island is 30 minutes flight from Mahe at the most northern edge of the archipelago, Bird Island is the first landfall of the Seychelles for many species and visitors may often enjoy the sight of rare migrants and windblown vagrants during the northern hemisphere winter. Here the Indian Ocean floor drops 2000 metres and the east and south of the island are protected by a beautiful barrier reef. Year round the island is home to hundreds of thousands of sooty terns, noddies & fairy terns and during the sooty tern breeding season of April to September the area is covered with a million birds when visitors can enjoy some of the best close up bird sightings in the Seychelles! The island is also a nesting site of hawksbill turtles between October and February and green turtles for the rest of the year. Esmerelda, believed to be the world's oldest free ranging Giant Tortoise at over 200 years, is also resident on the island. The one lodge on the island, Bird Lodge, offers a welcoming base and visitors can enjoy the good swimming & snorkelling opportunities as well as perhaps some deep sea fishing.

La Digue has the smallest population of the main granitic islands with around 2,000 inhabitants. This statistic is reflected in the slow pace of life and immediate sense of winding down that visitors enjoy upon landing. Very few cars are allowed on the island an transport is mainly by ox cart or bicycle. Bicycles can be hired easily on arrival and allow visitors to discover the many beaches of the island at leisure. Among the attractions is the l'Union estate, a resorted plater's house that used to be at the centre of a vanilla plantation. The estate offers a rather rambling but interesting insight into settler life on the island. Within the l'Union estate is Anse Source d'Argent, one of the most photographed beaches in the world. With towering granite boulders and the Eagle's Nest Mountain rising into the clouds behind you, the scenery is only surpassed by a dip in the warm, still waters. The waves break on the reef a short distance from the beach creating an area of calm, shallow lagoon. This is a perfect area for snorkelling and visitors can spend hours day dreaming their way through an underwater world of blue coral, a rainbow variety of fish, anenomes and urchins. Afterwards relax on the beach and take a walk across the perfect, powder white sands. You may also have time to visit the flycatcher reserve where you may be lucky enough to see the Seychelles black paradise Flycatcher, one of the rarest birds in the world with less than 100 pairs left.

Curiuese Island is around two miles long and lies approximately one mile to the north-east of Praslin. The island used to be a leper colony and the ruins of the old houses can still be seen, as can the old Doctor's House, a restored colonial villa that was home to the island doctor in the 1870's. A few families still live here but it is now strictly protected as part of the Marine Park. Nature trails wind their way through the extensive mangrove swamps and further inland. Curieuse is home to around 250 Giant Tortoises that were brought over from Aldebra in the 1980's and the Coco-de-Mer palm can also be found here. A visit to Curieuse from Praslin can be combined with the nearby island of Cousin followed by snorkelling at St. Pierre.

Aride Island is home to more breeding species of sea bird than any other island in the region and was bought by the Royal Society for Nature Conservation in 1973. The most northerly of the granitic Seychelles islands, Aride offers the only breeding site in the granitic islands for red-tailed tropicbirds, roseate terns and the world's only sooty tern colony in tall woodland. The island's warden will escort visitors to the breathtaking cliftops from where you may glimpse hawksbill turtles and dolphins in the waters below. Aride is also full of botanical treasures and is the only place in the world that you will see the beautiful Wright's Gardenia, or bwa sitron, and a species of ‘peponium' that may also be endemic. In addition to the above bird species, Aride is also home to the world's largest colony of lesser noddies as well as white-tailed tropic birds, Seychelles magpie-robin, Seychelles fody and Seychelles warbler. The waters surrounding Aride Island Nature Reserve are protected to 200 metres. While the corals are not particularly spectacular, an incredible 449 species of fish have been recorded. These include pelagic species rarely encountered elsewhere, due to the location of Aride which is closer to the edge of the Seychelles Bank than other granitic islands. Visits can be arranged from Praslin but landings can sometimes be difficult during the south-east monsoon months.

Approximately 50% of the Seychelles landmass has been committed to National Parks and nature protection areas including two UNESCO World Heritage Sites. One of these is the beautiful Vallee de Mai, home of the endemic Coco-de-Mer palm. After an attempt in the 1930s & 1940s to introduce non-native flora into this valley, the area was taken over by the government and is slowly returning to its natural state. A small kiosk at the entrance provides maps and information, the site is open from 08h30 until 16h30 daily. Entering the Vallee is like stepping into the land that time forgot, an eerie silence permeates through the dense foliage and the haunting call of the endangered black parrot sends shivers down your spine. It is easy to see why many people believe this to be the original Garden of Eden. The routes are well marked and there are trails that take just half an hour for those with little time to spare, we would definitely recommend spending half a day here though as the atmosphere is amazing. The towering Coco-de-Mer palm trees are perfectly adapted to cope with the tropical climate with broad, string leaves perfectly shaped to funnel rainwater through the highly competitive forest under storey to their roots. Other species in the Vallee include bizarre Jack fruit sprouting out of tall tree trunks, ferns, lataniers, coco marron, screwpines and orchids, all growing around the granite mass. Huge, primeval fruit bats, blue pigeons, bulbuls, lizards, geckos, chameleons, snails and many insects can also be found here.

Aldabra is a large raised atoll located 1150 km southwest of Mahe and 420 km north of Madagascar. The atoll makes up about one third of Seychelles' land mass. Aldabra has been described as "one of the wonders of the world" by Sir David Attenborough as its isolation in a remote area of the Indian Ocean, combined with an inhospitable terrestrial environment, has helped preserve it in a relatively natural state. Increasing levels of stress from human activities are contributing to the decline of the worlds coral reefs, but Aldabra has so far escaped the worst of these stresses and provides an ideal natural laboratory for studying tropical marine ecosystems and related environments (such as seagrass and mangroves). It was declared a World Heritage Site in 1982. The atoll consits of four main islands; South Island (Grand Terre, 116.1 km²), Malabar or Middle Island (26.8 km²), Polymnieli or Polymnie (4.75 km²) and Picard or West Island (9.4 km²) Additionally, there are some forty smaller islands or rocky islets inside the lagoon. Aldabra is formed from late Quaternary raised reef limestones, averaging 2km in width and up to 8m above sea level, and rimming a shallow central lagoon. The atoll is home to the world's largest population of giant tortoises, numbering some 152,000 individuals (that's fiev times as many as the Galapagos!). The islands are also well known for their green turtles, hawksbill turtles, and birds, including the last remaining flightless bird of the Indian Ocean, the white-throated rail. In addition there is the Aldabra drongo and unique varieties of sunbird, foddy, white-eyed bulbul, nightjar, coucal, pigeon and turtle dove. Huge colonies of spectacular lesser and great frigate-birds breed alongside red-footed boobies in the mangroves which border the northern rim of thee huge lagoon. The shallow waters are patrolled by dimorphic egrets, found only on Madagascar and the Aldabra group of islands. Along the shoreline, the Aldabra sacred Ibis together with a whole host of black-napped and crested terns including caspians may be seen. Other birds include the greater flamingo and the malagasy kestrel, which are probably recent colonists. The steep walls around the raised limestone islands of Aldabra atoll have rarely been dived. Fish life is prolific while over 2000 green turtles breed on the beaches each year. Dolphins and occasionally whales can be seen offshore. Until recently, it has only been possible to visit Aldabra by cruise ship or chartered yacht from Mahé. However, an airstrip has been constructed on Assumption Island, which lies to the south of Aldabra. Accommodation will soon be available for limited numbers on both Assumption and Aldabra. Guides, trained by the Seychelles Islands Foundation, which administers the atoll, will soon be able to reveal the treasures of this unique world to those who seek one of the last unexplored corners of the world.

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