October, 2023

The Seychelle Islands are located about 9,000 miles away from Indianapolis, Indiana, or home for us, and about about 300 miles off the coast of Africa. They pronounce their name as Sey Sells, which is a due to the French influence. There are three main islands that tourists, mainly Europeans, visit: Mahé, La Digue and Praslin. So, we will follow suit.

All International flights land in Mahe and you get to the other islands by boat or a small inter-island flight service. We found that taking the early morning flight (20 minute) from Mahe to Praslin was the same cost as the 2 hour boat ride. Easy decision for us since plane ride = no seasick issues.

La Digue

An early morning flight took us to the island of Praslin where we grabbed a taxi across the island to get to the ferry port. From here, we took a 15 minute ferry ride to our first destination – La Digue (pronounced deeg (oh those French and their unused letters)).

In La Digue, we picked a boutique cottage hotel next to the only reserve on the island where you can find their four endemic birds. Within 10 minutes of getting to our cottage we had checked off all four species: Seychelles Paradise-flycatcher, Seychelles Sunbird, Seychelles Blue-pigeon and Seychelles Swiftlet. Great, now we just have to check out the beaches, ride our bikes and snorkel.

L’Union Estate and Anse Source d’Argent

At the southern end of the island is L’Union Estate, formerly a vanilla and coconut plantation. The Estate is also home to the oldest cemetery on the island where the original settlers are buried.

The estate’s entrance also provides access to one of the most famous beaches in the world, Anse Source d’Argent. Its unique granite rock formations and crystal-clear waters make it a favorite spot for photography and relaxation.

The Giant Union Rock, an enormous granite monolith, can be seen as you leave the Praslin jetty heading to the island – it’s pretty impressive. These granite monoliths surround the beach and create some spectacular walking trails along the ocean.

Snorkeling Spots on La Digue

Anse Coco

Anse Coco is located on the southern side of the ocean. It’s about a 2 mile bike ride and then a 1 mile walk to get to this beautiful beach.

Swimming and snorkeling were removed from the schedule once we arrived. The waves were much to large and the weather on this southern side of the island was not very conducive for being in the water. At this time of the year, the winds are coming from the south and heading north. That accounted for the large waves at this beach.

All was not lost on the snorkeling front as there are a couple other beaches we will be checking out in the hopes of doing some amazing snorkeling.

Anse Severe

Anse Severe is a beautiful stretch of beach that is home to multiple fruit and drink stands. It’s also the location where everyone goes to watch the beautiful sunsets over the Indian Ocean.

The water in the Seychelles was the same temperature as the air which was quite a new experience for us. When getting out of the water, you never felt like you had to wrap up in a towel. We certainly gave that experience “two thumbs up”.

Anse Severe provided us with multiple snorkeling excursions and a world of amazing corals, fish and eels. Not to mention the reef sharks that we would watch from the shore.