Adrien Daurenjou · Pexels LicenseCountry Guide № 153 / 194 · Africa
Seychelles
Granite boulders, coco de mer and 115 islands with no visa requirement at all.
“Granite boulders, coco de mer and 115 islands with no visa requirement at all.”
The Seychelles inner islands are granite rather than coral, which is why the beaches look the way they do: enormous weathered boulders sitting in white sand and turquoise water. Anse Source d'Argent on La Digue and Anse Lazio on Praslin are on more magazine covers than almost any beach on earth, and they genuinely do look like that.
It is expensive, and the cost is the main planning constraint. Self-catering guesthouses on Mahé, Praslin and La Digue have made independent travel viable at maybe a third of resort prices, and the ferry network between the three main islands is frequent and reliable. The outer islands - Aldabra's giant tortoises, the atolls - are a different order of expense and access altogether.
Chapter 01
Highlights
Anse Source d'Argent, La Digue
Shallow water between house-sized granite boulders, reached by bicycle through the L'Union Estate. Go at low tide and early - it is the most visited beach in the country by a distance.
Vallée de Mai, Praslin
A UNESCO-listed palm forest holding the coco de mer, whose seed is the largest of any plant on earth, plus the endemic black parrot. An hour's walk through what General Gordon believed was the Garden of Eden.
Morne Seychellois, Mahé
The national park covering most of Mahé's spine, with trails through mist forest to Copolia's granite dome and views across the whole island chain.
Aldabra and the outer islands
The world's second-largest coral atoll, with over 100,000 giant tortoises and almost no human presence. Access is by expedition cruise or research permit and costs accordingly.
Chapter 02
Entry requirements for Seychelles
Checking your passport…
up to 90 days · €10 / $11 · travel authorisation
90 days on arrival
Official portal only
Paid look-alike sites charge for a process that is free or cheap on the government portal. Use the link below and nothing else.
seychelles.govtas.com →Before you fly
The detail
- Maximum stay
- up to 90 days
- Process
- travel authorisation
- Fee
- €10 / $11
- Processing time
- Processing takes 1–5 days - apply with room to spare.
- Passport validity
- Most destinations want validity beyond your stay, and some want six months. Check yours against the return date.
- Onward travel
- Airlines may ask for a return or onward ticket at check-in.
- Health
- No malaria. Dengue and chikungunya outbreaks occur; use repellent. Tap water is treated and drinkable in most places. Victoria Hospital handles routine care; serious cases are evacuated, usually to Réunion.
- Money
- Rupees, though prices are often quoted in euros at hotels. Cards are widely accepted; ATMs on all three main islands. There is no longer any requirement for visitors to pay in foreign currency.
The Seychelles requires no visa from any nationality, which is true, famous, and the reason people arrive at an airport without the thing they actually need. There is no visa. There IS a compulsory Travel Authorisation, applied for online before you travel, and the airline checks it at check-in: without an approved authorisation you are not boarded, and the desk at Heathrow or Dubai or Addis Ababa is where that conversation happens rather than at the Seychellois border. Apply on the government's own authorisation site and on no other. The Seychelles is one of the most heavily imitated authorisation systems anywhere - the sites that rank alongside the real one charge three or four times the fee to submit the same form - so check the address before you enter a card number. The fee is small, of the order of €10 at the time of writing and revised from time to time, paid per traveller including children, and the portal shows the current figure before you pay. Approval is often back within a day and can take several at peak, so do it when you book rather than the night before you fly. What the application and the border both ask for is the same list: a return or onward ticket, confirmed accommodation for the WHOLE stay, and enough money for it. Take the accommodation condition literally - the Seychelles expects a booking with licensed tourist accommodation, and an arrangement made informally is where an otherwise routine arrival goes wrong. The permit granted at the border is normally up to three months and can be extended in-country to a total of twelve. The Seychelles asks for a yellow fever certificate from anyone arriving from a country where the disease is a risk of transmission - the International Health Regulations list, which is wider than the handful of countries people think of as endemic - and the threshold that catches travellers is not the ticket but the layover: a transit of MORE THAN TWELVE HOURS in an airport of such a country brings the requirement with it, while a shorter connection does not. The certificate counts only from ten days after the injection, so it is a fortnight’s job rather than a week’s, and one that has been reissued or replaced should travel with the original. Read your own itinerary for the length of the stop before you decide you do not need one. That is not hypothetical on this route: the connections run through Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Dubai and Doha, and the first two of those are in countries where yellow fever is endemic. Fly the inter-island hops and the ferries as internal movements; nothing about them touches immigration again.
Check another destination with this passport →
Entry details: Editorial synthesis - Seychelles Travel Authorisation conditions and Department of Immigration visitor permit rules (2025–2026) · compiled 18 Sept 2026
Who needs a visa for Seychelles
12 common passports| Passport | Requirement | Stay | Process |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Visa-free | up to 90 days | eTA · €10 / $11 · 1–5 d |
| United Kingdom | Visa-free | up to 90 days | eTA · €10 / $11 · 1–5 d |
| Germany | Visa-free | up to 90 days | eTA · €10 / $11 · 1–5 d |
| India | Visa-free | up to 90 days | eTA · €10 / $11 · 1–5 d |
| China | Visa-free | up to 90 days | eTA · €10 / $11 · 1–5 d |
| Brazil | Visa-free | up to 90 days | eTA · €10 / $11 · 1–5 d |
| Nigeria | Visa-free | up to 90 days | eTA · €10 / $11 · 1–5 d |
| Indonesia | Visa-free | up to 90 days | eTA · €10 / $11 · 1–5 d |
| Philippines | Visa-free | up to 90 days | eTA · €10 / $11 · 1–5 d |
| Vietnam | Visa-free | up to 90 days | eTA · €10 / $11 · 1–5 d |
| Egypt | Visa-free | up to 90 days | eTA · €10 / $11 · 1–5 d |
| Nepal | Visa-free | up to 90 days | eTA · €10 / $11 · 1–5 d |
Holding a passport that is not listed? The picker above answers for any of them. See where your passport takes you. Source: Passport Index, updated 14 Aug 2026.
Chapter 03
When to go
BestApr–May, Oct–Nov.
The turnover month - flat sea, best visibility of the year.
The band above each month is our editorial verdict - it weighs crowds, prices and access as well as weather. The line is average daily temperature, the bars are monthly rainfall. Select a month for the figures. Climate figures: ERA5 reanalysis via Open-Meteo, 2005–2024 normals.
Chapter 04
What it costs
A day in Seychelles
Comfortable · sample day
≈ $194
Line items are real prices we track. The daily budget is an editorial estimate for this level, not their sum.
Where this sits among 244 countries we have costed
Rates peak from mid-December to mid-January and in July–August. May and October are consistently the best value for the best conditions.
Updated Aug 2026 · Editorial synthesis - ferry tariffs, park fees and accommodation sampling (2025–2026) · confidence medium
Excludes international flights - they depend on where you fly from.
Chapter 05
Regions to know
5Mahé
The main island - Victoria, Beau Vallon, the Morne Seychellois trails and the wilder southern beaches at Anse Intendance and Takamaka.
Praslin
Vallée de Mai's coco de mer forest, Anse Lazio and Anse Georgette, and the ferry hub for the inner islands.
La Digue
Bicycles, ox carts, Anse Source d'Argent and the walk over the hill to Grand Anse. The most photographed square kilometre in the Indian Ocean.
The inner island reserves
Cousin, Aride, Curieuse and Bird - day trips to seabird colonies, giant tortoise populations and some of the best restored island ecosystems anywhere.
The outer islands
Alphonse, Desroches and the Aldabra group - remote atolls for fly fishing, diving and expedition cruising, at expedition prices.
Chapter 06
Practical guide
Getting there
Seychelles International on Mahé is served by Emirates, Qatar, Etihad, Turkish, Ethiopian, Air France, Condor, Edelweiss and Air Seychelles. Nothing flies direct from the Americas; almost everyone connects through the Gulf.
Getting around
Cat Cocos ferries link Mahé–Praslin (about an hour) and Praslin–La Digue (fifteen minutes) several times daily. Air Seychelles flies Mahé–Praslin in fifteen minutes for more money. Mahé has a good, cheap public bus network; La Digue runs on bicycles.
Money & costs
Rupees, though prices are often quoted in euros at hotels. Cards are widely accepted; ATMs on all three main islands. There is no longer any requirement for visitors to pay in foreign currency.
Safety
Low violent crime, but opportunistic burglary of self-catering accommodation and theft from beaches are common enough to take seriously. Strong currents at some beaches, particularly on the south of Mahé - heed the flags.
Health
No malaria. Dengue and chikungunya outbreaks occur; use repellent. Tap water is treated and drinkable in most places. Victoria Hospital handles routine care; serious cases are evacuated, usually to Réunion.
SIM & internet
Cable & Wireless and Airtel; tourist SIMs at the airport. 4G covers the inner islands well. Wi-Fi in guesthouses is generally decent.
Chapter 07
Driving
Left-hand traffic. Mahé's mountain roads are narrow, steep and often single-track with blind corners; use the horn. There are no rental cars on La Digue, where bicycles do everything.
Rules change - verify with an official source before you rent.
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Become ExplWorld Verified →Chapter 08
Itineraries through this country
Chapter 09
From the Journal
Chapter 10
Before you go
SeychellesChapter 11
Frequently asked questions
Do I really not need a visa?
Correct - the Seychelles is visa-free for every nationality on earth, which no other country matches. What everyone must do is complete the online Travel Authorisation before departure, currently around €10, and show a return ticket, confirmed accommodation and sufficient funds on arrival. Apply a few days ahead, not at the gate.
How do I keep the cost down?
Self-catering guesthouses rather than resorts, the Cat Cocos ferry rather than domestic flights, the Takamaka and Beau Vallon takeaways rather than hotel restaurants, and the excellent public buses on Mahé. Done that way the Seychelles is expensive rather than absurd - perhaps €120 a day rather than €500.
When is the seaweed season?
The southeast trade winds from May to September push sargassum onto southeastern beaches and can make swimming unappealing there, while the northwest winds from November to March affect the opposite coasts. April and October are the calm turnover months with the clearest water - and the best diving visibility.