Best and Worst Parts of Sailing in Seychelles

Welcome to the land of mountains and fish, sunsets and tortoises… can you guess where?

Seychelles is an amazing country and one we absolutely loved exploring as a family. So I want to share our favourite parts — and not so favourite parts — of exploring Seychelles by boat.

Here we go…

Pros

#1 Tortoises!

I had to start here as I’m a bit of a wildlife fanatic, and seeing tortoises was one of my favourite parts of visiting Seychelles. We even got to pat them! The kids loved trying to feed them leaves and plants.

#2 Anchorages & Beaches

Anchorages in the Seychelles are so beautiful: crystal clear water, perfect beaches, and a backdrop of green mountains. We would wake up each morning, look out the window, and feel in awe of where we were.

There are several anchorages to explore in Seychelles, and you can choose to be among other cruisers and charter boats, or tucked away in a bay all by yourself… which is a pretty cool option.

Oh, and the beaches — glorious! We’d jump off the side of the boat and swim into shore, hang out on the beach, and watch the sunset. The kids would play frisbee and soccer with friends and have an absolute blast. The beaches were 100% a highlight.

#3 Food

Seychelles food is unique. There’s some great local cuisine to try, but the main thing that stood out to us was that they actually had everything!

Coming from the Maldives, where food can be scarce, walking into a Seychelles supermarket was amazing. We ate very well while we were there, and stocking up for the next passage was easy.

Side note: you have to try the homemade sweet potato chips they sell dipped in Greek yogurt — life changing, trust me.

#4 Hiking

Sailing into a place with high elevation after spending time in reef atolls is an experience you always remember, and the Seychelles definitely has elevation!

The mountains are full of hikes, and we didn’t even scratch the surface while we were there… but we did enough to know you can’t visit without doing at least a few.

My favourite one I clearly remember was very spontaneous. We were driving around the island and saw a sign for a hike to the summit of the mountain we were on. We ran up there barefoot and about 800m later were staring out over the whole west coast of Mahé Island.

More

There are many more highlights I could add here — bike riding on La Digue, driving lessons, fishing. But for now, we’ll move on to a few things that weren’t so great (though they definitely didn’t dim the experience).

Cons

#1 Charter Vessels

This wasn’t a huge problem for us but definitely needs to be mentioned.

There are lots of charter boats in Seychelles. The three or four marinas are full of them, and they regularly have new guests. Some have captains, while others are self-chartered.

The key thing with charter vessels as a cruiser is that some lack experience with anchoring. We had a few anchor way too close to us and had to ask them to move, or hope they left by the evening. Others dragged anchor several times.

So just be aware and keep an eye out. Sometimes the danger to your boat isn’t your own driving — it’s someone else’s.

#2 Jet Skis + Tour Boats

A few of the popular anchorages — mainly Grand Anse — have a tourist scene that results in jet skis and tubing during the day.

This is something you see all over the world and get used to. It wasn’t the worst we’ve seen and wasn’t really an issue for us, though it helps to know before you get there.

Other anchorages were remote and had no tourists at all, so you can choose whether to embrace the fun tourist vibes or enjoy the quiet by yourself. At night everything goes flat calm and beautiful, so we didn’t find it to be much of a problem.

#3 Crowded Town Anchorage

The “town” anchorage, as I like to call it — where you anchor off Eden Marina in the channel — is pretty small and narrow, so there isn’t much room for a lot of boats.

There are other anchorages where you can access town, but this one is by far the most convenient. Because of that, everyone wants to find a spot there.

It can get very crowded, and with charter boats and tour boats moving through the channel you need to try and stay out of the way. We were there in the slower charter season, so there was enough room for the few cruising vessels around.

Just be aware that you might need to wiggle into a spot when anchoring in town.

That’s It

I can’t really think of any other major cons! And the ones I mentioned really aren’t a big deal. I just think it’s always nice to know the not-so-great things about a place before you arrive.

Summary

Overall, sailing Seychelles is amazing, and there are very few reasons I can think of that would make you not want to visit.

We would absolutely go back given the opportunity and loved our time there. If you want to see all the things we got up to, go check out this episode.

I hope this post has given you some insight into the best and worst parts of sailing Seychelles and maybe even made you want to visit! If you have any questions or things to add, please comment and let us know.