I grew up partly on Chook Island, a low coral island a thirty-minute flight north of the primary Seychelles airport. My mother and father ran the lodge there for a few years, and for a protracted stretch of my childhood that one small island, all sand, palms and nesting seabirds, was merely house. I’m Seychellois, ninth-generation on my father’s facet, and I’ve spent an excellent a part of my life in these islands.
I point out this up entrance as a result of it shapes the itinerary that follows. The simple factor to do with two weeks within the Seychelles is to take a one-week journey and stretch it out, extra seashore time and slower mornings on the identical three islands. That makes a beautiful vacation. However two weeks may also purchase you a special journey, and that’s the one this information is constructed round.
So this itinerary splits the fortnight like this: 9 nights throughout Mahé, Praslin and La Digue, then 5 nights on one of many smaller outer islands, with Chook Island because the route I might steer most individuals in direction of (I could also be biased).
In the event you solely have seven days, our one-week Seychelles itinerary covers these three interior islands daily, and this information leans on it quite than repeating all of it. Right here, the interior trio is the warm-up. The second week is the primary occasion.
This can be a information for somebody who has two weeks and the price range for a Seychelles journey, and who needs to know tips on how to truly use the additional days, which islands are well worth the switch price, and what to ebook months forward. It’s written from having lived it.
The 14-Day Seychelles Itinerary at a Look
Two weeks within the Seychelles works finest as 9 nights throughout the three interior islands, Mahé, Praslin and La Digue, adopted by 5 nights on a single outer island equivalent to Chook or Denis. That offers you the range and the well-known sights in week one, then an entire change of tempo for the end.
Right here is the form of the journey:
Days 1 to three on Mahé, the biggest island, with the airport, the capital and the mountains.
Days 4 to six on Praslin, quieter and greener, house to the Vallée de Mai and Anse Lazio.
Days 7 to 9 on La Digue, the gradual, nearly car-free island of bicycles and granite seashores.
Days 10 to 14 on Chook Island, a tiny outer island reached by gentle plane, with Denis Island as the primary different.
Day ten is a journey day in its personal proper, so the journey is admittedly 9 full inner-island days and 4 to 5 days out on the wilder island of your selection.
Is 2 weeks within the Seychelles too lengthy?
That is the actual query behind a two-week Seychelles journey, so I need to reply it head on. Two weeks will not be too lengthy for the Seychelles. It may be too lengthy for 3 islands.
The interior trio of Mahé, Praslin and La Digue is great, and per week there’s near good. Stretch that very same journey to 14 days, although, and someplace round day eight or 9 you could discover you could have seen the primary seashores, completed the boat journeys and visited the Vallée de Mai, and the times start to blur into one lengthy, nice sameness. For some folks that’s precisely the attraction. If a fortnight of gradual seashore time is your thought of a dream vacation, you do not want an itinerary to overthink it. Base your self throughout two or three of the interior islands and revel in it.
If you’re the type of traveller who likes a visit to construct in direction of one thing, the second week is the place two weeks earns its place. Spend 9 nights on the interior islands after which fly out to Chook or Denis, and the journey adjustments gear fully. You go from rent vehicles, eating places and different vacationers to a single tiny island with one lodge, no visitors, and, on Chook, a sky stuffed with seabirds. That distinction is the journey. The interior islands provide the selection and the sights. The outer island provides you the half you’ll nonetheless be speaking a few 12 months later.
So right here is how I might resolve it. You probably have two weeks and the price range so as to add an outer island, do it. If the price or the additional switch doesn’t attraction, take a centered ten days on the interior islands quite than a stretched fourteen, and spend the remainder of your vacation someplace else.
Week One: The Inside Islands
These first 9 days observe our one-week Seychelles itinerary carefully, so I’ll maintain this part transient and ship you there for the total day-by-day element on the place to cease, eat and swim. Right here is the compressed model, formed to depart you on La Digue on the finish of day 9, prepared for the outer-island flight.
Days 1 to three: Mahé
Mahé is the biggest island and your arrival level. Day one is an arrival day and little extra, so don’t plan a lot past settling in close to Beau Vallon, the lengthy sheltered seashore on the north coast, and discovering dinner. Day two is for the island itself: the small capital, Victoria, with its market and botanical backyard, then a south-coast seashore equivalent to Anse Intendance or Anse Royale.
A rent automotive earns its place on Mahé, as a result of one of the best seashores and viewpoints are scattered across the coast and the bus, whereas very low cost, is gradual. We use Uncover Vehicles to match the native rent corporations. Day three can go certainly one of two methods: a coastal drive and the stroll out to Anse Main, or a ship journey into the Sainte Anne Marine Park to snorkel. Mahé additionally has among the finest seashores within the nation, so if the climate is sweet, nobody will choose you for choosing one and staying.
Days 4 to six: Praslin
On the morning of day 4 you catch the Cat Cocos ferry from Mahé to Praslin, a crossing of about an hour and 1 / 4. Praslin is quieter and greener than Mahé. Day 5 is the Vallée de Mai, the UNESCO-listed palm forest well-known for the enormous coco de mer, adopted by a day at Anse Lazio, which is about pretty much as good as Praslin’s seashores get. Entry to the Vallée de Mai is round SCR 450, or rather less when you ebook on-line.
Day six is a ship day trip to Curieuse Island and St Pierre for large tortoises, snorkelling and a barbecue lunch. You’ll be able to ebook that as a guided boat journey from Praslin. Boat days are weather-dependent, so if a squally day lands throughout your keep, that is the one to maneuver.
Days 7 to 9: La Digue
A brief, frequent ferry of about fifteen minutes brings you from Praslin to La Digue, the slowest and most charming of the three islands. There are nearly no vehicles right here. You get round by bicycle, and the island is sufficiently small to cross in half an hour of straightforward pedalling.
Day eight is the well-known one: Anse Supply d’Argent, the much-photographed seashore of pink granite and shallow turquoise water, reached via the L’Union Property, then the wilder string of seashores down the east coast at Grande Anse, Petite Anse and Anse Cocos.
Day 9 is a deliberate gradual day. Cycle as much as the Nid d’Aigle viewpoint, take a snorkelling journey out to the Sister Islands, or do little or no in any respect. This stretch can also be the journey’s finest for Creole meals, the fish curries and grilled catch of the day I grew up consuming, bought from small takeaways at much better worth than the resort eating places.
Week Two: The Outer Islands
Right here is the place two weeks turns into its personal journey quite than an extended model of a one-week one. On day ten you permit the interior islands behind and fly out to an outer island for the final 5 nights. The itinerary under is constructed round Chook Island, as a result of it’s the one I do know finest and the one I might level most individuals in direction of. Denis Island is the primary different, and I cowl it straight after, with a easy method to decide on between them.
One factor to know now: day ten is a journey day. You’ll take an early ferry, join via Mahé, and catch a light-weight plane out to the island. It’s not a sightseeing day, and the journey works finest when you deal with it as the value of admission quite than a day wasted.
Days 10 to 14: Chook Island
Chook Island lies on the very northern tip of the Seychelles, the place the granite interior islands give approach to flat coral. It’s tiny. You’ll be able to stroll proper round it in a morning, and the best factor on the island is a coconut palm. As I stated at first, my mother and father ran the lodge right here for a few years, and I spent a piece of my childhood on this one small island. Going again as an grownup, with Jess, who had by no means been, is a big a part of why this information exists.
Coming again was unusual in one of the best ways. The island is so small, and so little modified, that a lot of it landed precisely as I had left it, the identical seashores, the identical birds, the identical explicit fowl sounds, at the same time as I had modified within the years between. Exhibiting Jess the place that had been my complete world as a toddler, and watching it do its work on somebody seeing it new, is one thing I’m very glad we did.
The flight in is a part of the expertise. Chook Island is served by a light-aircraft service from the home terminal at Mahé’s airport, departing within the early afternoon. The flights run on set days of the week and are organized collectively together with your keep, and the present flight days are listed on Chook Island’s personal web site.
From the air the island exhibits you precisely what it’s, a small comma of inexperienced and pale sand ringed by reef after which open ocean in each course, with nothing else in sight. Inside about half an hour of leaving Mahé you step out onto an island with no vehicles, no actual roads and no crowd. The lodge is the one lodging, low wood bungalows set again from the seashore among the many palms.
What you truly do on Chook Island will not be very a lot, and that’s the level. There may be snorkelling straight off the seashore, with the island sitting by itself reef, and the lodge can organize kayaks, guided nature and birdwatching walks, and fishing. Chook has a long-standing popularity amongst fishing lovers, who come for the flats and the deeper water off the island’s edge. However you’ll be able to simply as simply spend 5 days studying, swimming and strolling, and loads of friends do precisely that.
The only neatest thing to do can also be the best. A protracted sandbar shifts off one finish of the island, showing and disappearing with the tide, and strolling out alongside it with clear water on either side is the sort of small factor you bear in mind for years. The seashore walks are lengthy and empty, inexperienced and hawksbill turtles nest on the sand in season, and the snorkelling turns up reef fish, rays and the occasional turtle with out a lot effort.
With no roads and nothing resembling nightlife, the island runs on daylight. You’ll probably end up going to mattress early and waking with the solar, and after per week of inner-island sightseeing, that gradual resetting of your physique clock is a part of what makes the place work.
For just a few months of the 12 months the island is something however quiet. Chook Island takes its title from its seabirds, and the headline occasion is the sooty tern colony. From round April the terns arrive to nest, and by June and July there may be one thing like one million and a half of them, a single dense, deafening, consistently wheeling colony packed into the island’s inside. I grew up with that sound.
Standing on the fringe of the colony as an grownup, watching Jess take it in for the primary time, is certainly one of my favorite reminiscences of the entire journey. The birds skinny out via the autumn and the colony has largely passed by the top of October, so if the terns matter to you, time your go to for the nesting months.
Chook Island can also be house to free-roaming Aldabra big tortoises, which wander the lodge grounds and the sandy tracks at their very own unhurried tempo. The biggest and oldest of them is well-known sufficient to have a reputation, Esmeralda, and has been a fixture of the island far longer than any visitor. Esmeralda has lengthy been reputed to be one of many heaviest free-roaming tortoises on this planet. Whether or not or not that document nonetheless stands, Aldabra big tortoises can dwell effectively past a century, and sharing a small island with creatures that outdated does one thing to your sense of scale.
All of this sits inside an actual conservation effort. Chook Island is run as a non-public nature reserve as a lot as a spot to remain, and the birdlife and the nesting turtles you see are the results of a long time of affected person safety. A keep right here helps fund that work, and it is likely one of the issues that makes just a few days on Chook really feel like greater than a seashore vacation.
A phrase on the lodge itself, as a result of it issues and it’s the type of factor a brochure is not going to let you know. Chook Island Lodge is comfy, however it’s not a contemporary luxurious resort, and you shouldn’t arrive anticipating one.
The bungalows are easy and a bit of dated subsequent to the slick newer properties elsewhere within the Seychelles. There is no such thing as a air con and no tv, each deliberate, and the wifi is the patchy type you’d count on on a distant coral island. The lodge is run as a wildlife and eco expertise first. Meals are half-board, with dinner and breakfast included and lunch purchased individually from a small island store with a restricted vary, so this isn’t the anything-you-want, all-inclusive set-up some islands provide.
Visitor opinions are constantly wonderful and most of the people depart very joyful, however they’re joyful as a result of they got here for the appropriate factor: an unplugged few days on a wild little island. If the straightforward, eco-first model provides you any pause in any respect, learn the subsequent part on Denis earlier than you ebook.
Denis Island, the Extra Snug Different
If Chook Island sounds great however the stripped-back lodge provides you second ideas, Denis Island is the reply to that hesitation. Denis lies an identical distance out from Mahé, reached the identical method by a flight of round half an hour, and it affords the identical core expertise: one small island, one lodge, no crowds, no visitors, and a concentrate on nature and quiet.
The distinction is consolation. I’ve stayed on Denis, and it’s the extra polished of the 2 by some margin. The lodging is extra fashionable and extra spacious, the service is full and attentive, and the eating is nearer to what you’d count on of a high-end resort. Denis additionally runs a working farm that provides a lot of the kitchen, so meals lean contemporary and native. The lodging is a selection of particular person cottages and villas alongside the seashore, in a handful of classes, so {couples} wanting a romantic base and households needing extra room each discover a match.
Denis has its personal conservation story, with rewilded native birds and nesting turtles, so you aren’t buying and selling away the wildlife by selecting it. What you commerce is a bit of of Chook Island’s uncooked, stripped-back character. Chook appears like a wild island with a lodge on it. Denis appears like a superbly run personal island that has saved its nature intact. Neither is healthier within the summary. They go well with barely totally different travellers, which is what the subsequent part is for. You’ll be able to verify present charges and availability for Denis Personal Island on-line.
Chook or Denis: which outer island fits you?
5 nights on an outer island is an actual dedication of money and time, so it’s value choosing the proper one. Right here is how I might resolve between the 2.
If that is you
The place I’d ship you
Why
A wildlife or nature traveller
Chook Island
The sooty tern colony in season is an actual spectacle, and the free-roaming tortoises and nesting turtles are a part of on a regular basis island life.
A eager photographer
Chook Island
The sunshine, the birds and the empty sandbar offer you much more to work with, and the rawness is the attraction.
Travelling for consolation, quiet and good meals
Denis Island
Extra fashionable rooms, full service and a stronger kitchen, with out giving up the wildlife or the seclusion.
Cautious of a country, unplugged lodge
Denis Island
It delivers the private-island expertise with the tough edges smoothed off.
A primary-time customer who needs one straightforward outer-island keep
Denis Island
The gentler introduction to outer-island life.
If cash is not any object there’s a third reply, the ultra-private resorts, which is the subsequent part. For most individuals, although, the selection is between Chook and Denis, and you may make it effectively by being clear-eyed about how a lot consolation you need.
The Extremely-Personal Islands, and Why Most Journeys Can Skip Them
Above Chook and Denis sits a 3rd tier of Seychelles island, the unique private-island resorts the place a single evening can price greater than some folks’s complete fortnight.
I’ve a household connection to this world. My household constructed and ran the lodge on Cousine Island, a small granite island lengthy managed as a non-public nature reserve as a lot as a resort, with its personal inhabitants of uncommon endemic birds and big tortoises. It’s a stunning place, and rising up round it gave me a transparent sense of what that high tier is and isn’t.
Right here is the model that helps with journey planning. Islands like Cousine, together with Frégate, which is reopening in 2026 after a full rebuild, and North Island, sit at a value level aimed toward honeymooners, celebrities and travellers for whom price is just not an element. They’re excellent at what they do. However the coronary heart of the expertise, one small island, wildlife and seclusion in stunning environment, is one thing Chook and Denis additionally ship, at a fraction of the value.
On the ultra-private islands you might be paying the premium for service, design and exclusivity, not for a greater island. Except that tier sits squarely inside your price range and your style, I might not lose any sleep over skipping it. Chook or Denis will provide you with the outer-island Seychelles with out the eye-watering invoice.
Getting Between the Islands
Two weeks within the Seychelles means a number of island strikes, and getting them proper is the distinction between a clean journey and a tense one. Right here is how the connections work.
Mahé to Praslin runs on the Cat Cocos catamaran ferry, a crossing of about an hour and 1 / 4 with just a few departures a day. A one-way grownup fare is round SCR 850. In peak durations, roughly July and August, the Christmas and New Yr weeks, and Easter, one of the best sailings promote out, so ebook forward via the Cat Cocos web site and goal for a morning crossing. Praslin to La Digue is way simpler, a frequent ferry of about fifteen minutes that runs usually sufficient that you simply hardly ever must plan round it. There are additionally brief inter-island flights and helicopter transfers between Mahé and Praslin when you would quite not take the ferry, quicker however an excellent deal costlier. For many two-week journeys the ferry is the good choice for that leg.
The outer islands are a special matter, as a result of they’re reached solely by gentle plane from the home terminal at Mahé’s worldwide airport. Chook Island has scheduled flights on set days of the week, departing Mahé within the early afternoon, with check-in an hour earlier than. Denis Island flies most days. Each hops take round half an hour. These are small planes, and the baggage allowance is strict and weight-limited, so journey gentle and be prepared to depart a big laborious case in storage on Mahé in case you are carrying one.
That outer-island flight is the only greatest logistical pinch of the entire journey, and it ought to drive the order during which you ebook every part. Ebook on this sequence. First, the outer-island lodge and its flight, collectively, as a result of every island has only one small lodge and restricted flights, they usually can replenish months forward in excessive season. They anchor your dates, so every part else matches round them. Second, the Cat Cocos ferry to your inner-island legs, particularly in peak season. Third, your inner-island resorts, which have much more capability and might normally be sorted later. Reserving in that order means the toughest issues to get are locked in first.
Another factor about day ten, the switch from La Digue out to Chook or Denis. It entails a ferry again in direction of Mahé, a connection on the airport, after which the island flight, and it realistically takes many of the day. Construct in comfy margins, don’t schedule the tightest doable connections, and settle for that you’ll not see a lot. The identical goes for day fourteen in reverse: in case your worldwide flight house leaves early within the morning, fly off the outer island the day earlier than and spend your remaining evening close to Mahé airport quite than playing on a same-morning connection.
The Finest Time to Go to the Seychelles
The Seychelles is a year-round vacation spot. It sits near the equator, with heat climate and roughly twelve hours of daylight regardless of the month, so there is no such thing as a unhealthy time to go. However there are higher home windows.
The islands have two trade-wind seasons. The northwest season runs roughly from October or November to March, hotter and wetter, with calmer winds. The southeast season runs roughly from Might to September, drier however breezier, with livelier seas. The candy spots are the transitions between the 2: April to Might, and October to November. These shoulder weeks are likely to carry the calmest seas and the clearest water, which issues for snorkelling, boat journeys and the day-ten flight.
For a two-week journey there’s one additional issue to weigh, and it’s particular to Chook Island. The sooty tern colony is on the island just for the nesting season, roughly April to October, at its overwhelming peak in June and July.
These peak months fall within the breezier southeast season, so there’s a actual trade-off right here: the calmest, glassiest sea situations don’t line up completely with the loudest, fullest tern colony. April and early Might come closest to having each.
If the terns are the explanation you might be heading to Chook, lean in direction of the nesting months and settle for a bit of extra wind. If flat seas matter extra to you, the shoulder weeks are excellent, and the island remains to be beautiful with out the total colony.
The place to Keep Throughout Two Weeks
Throughout two weeks you’ll sleep in 4 locations: one base every on Mahé, Praslin and La Digue, then the outer-island lodge.
On the interior islands, lodging runs from easy self-catering guesthouses as much as full luxurious resorts, with not loads on the true price range finish, for the reason that Seychelles has no hostels and tenting will not be allowed. Most unbiased travellers do effectively within the center, in guesthouses and small self-catering locations, which additionally allow you to cook dinner and eat Creole takeaways quite than paying resort restaurant costs each evening.
Our one-week itinerary names particular locations to remain on every of the three interior islands, throughout price range, mid-range and luxurious, so I’ll level you there quite than repeat the entire record.
In brief: Mahé is the straightforward place to spend rather less, with the widest selection and probably the most guesthouses, and Beau Vallon makes a relaxed base. On Praslin, the Côte d’Or space is central for seashores and boat journeys. On La Digue, staying close to La Passe retains you near the bikes, the ferry and the eating places.
The outer-island lodge is a class of its personal, and I’ve lined each choices intimately above. Chook Island Lodge is the less complicated, wilder, wildlife-first keep, half-board and pleasantly dated. Denis Personal Island is the trendy, comfy, full-service choice. Whichever you select, it will likely be the most costly single a part of the journey, and value it.
Entry Necessities: The Seychelles Journey Authorisation
One piece of admin you could not skip. Each customer to the Seychelles, no matter their nationality, now wants a Journey Authorisation earlier than they fly. The Seychelles remains to be visa-free, however the Journey Authorisation is a separate, necessary on-line step, and airways will verify for it earlier than they allow you to board.
You apply via the official Seychelles Digital Border System at govtas.com, as much as 30 days earlier than you journey. You add your passport, flight and lodging particulars, and pay a payment of round €10, a bit of extra as soon as the processing cost is added. Approval normally comes via shortly, however don’t depart it to the airport. Apply just a few days forward on the very least.
One warning. A number of unofficial websites provide to deal with the Journey Authorisation for you and cost a markup for the favour. You don’t want them. The federal government portal is the one official web site, and making use of your self takes only some minutes.
What Two Weeks within the Seychelles Taught Us
Just a few issues we realized from spending a full fortnight out right here, provided within the spirit of serving to your personal journey go easily.
The transfers are value respecting. Each island transfer prices you a part of a day, particularly the ferries. We discovered the journey flowed finest as soon as we stopped combating that and easily constructed the journey days into the plan, with no sightseeing crammed on high. A relaxed switch day is a pleasing day. A rushed one will not be.
Don’t over-programme the interior islands. It’s tempting to fill all 9 inner-island days with boat journeys and seashores and drives, however the Seychelles rewards a slower tempo. Go away gaps within the plan. A few of our greatest afternoons had been the unplanned ones, a seashore we pulled over for, a protracted lunch, a swim that changed into the remainder of the day.
Save your vitality, and your sense of surprise, for the outer island. After 9 busy days on the interior trio, arriving on Chook with nothing to do and nowhere to be is a present quite than an anticlimax. The quiet is the entire level, so lean into it. We got here house from the interior islands joyful and from the outer island restored, and that, greater than something, is the case for giving the Seychelles two weeks quite than one.
Two Weeks within the Seychelles Itinerary FAQ
What number of days do you want within the Seychelles?
Every week is the life like minimal, and the size I might advocate to most first-time guests. Seven nights allow you to settle into the three principal islands, Mahé, Praslin and La Digue, with out spending half the journey in transit.
Two weeks is the pure step up. It provides you those self same three islands at a neater tempo and frees up 4 or 5 nights for one of many outer islands, which is the place an extended Seychelles journey begins to really feel totally different quite than simply longer.
Is 2 weeks within the Seychelles too lengthy?
Not when you change islands. Two weeks solely begins to tug when you spend all of it on the interior three, the place you’ll be able to run low on new issues to do after eight or 9 days.
Use the additional time to fly out to an outer island like Chook or Denis and the journey retains shifting, as a result of the outer islands are a totally totally different tempo and setting. In the event you would quite not take care of one other switch, a centered ten-day inner-island journey is commonly a greater match than a stretched fourteen.
Are you able to go to Chook Island on a day journey?
No. Chook Island is a fly-in keep, not a day journey. The scheduled flights from Mahé run solely on sure days of the week, the island has a single small lodge, and the entire attraction is staying put for just a few nights with only a few different folks round.
Plan on a minimal of two to 3 nights, and ideally extra. The identical is true of Denis Island and the opposite outer islands.
How do you get from Mahé to the outer islands?
By gentle plane from the home terminal at Mahé’s worldwide airport. Chook Island has scheduled flights on set days of the week, and Denis Island runs flights most days, each taking round half an hour.
These are small planes with strict baggage weight limits, so pack gentle and maintain your principal baggage manageable. The flights are organized collectively together with your keep, so that you ebook the island lodge first and the flight follows.
Do it is advisable ebook Seychelles island lodging prematurely?
For the outer islands, sure, effectively prematurely. Chook and Denis every have just one lodge, with restricted rooms and restricted flights, to allow them to replenish months forward in peak season.
Ebook the outer-island keep first, because it anchors the entire journey, then the Cat Cocos ferry, then your inner-island resorts, which have much more availability and might normally be organized nearer to the date.
Is 2 weeks within the Seychelles costly?
Sure. The Seychelles is likely one of the costlier locations I’ve travelled, and a two-week journey with an outer island will not be a price range vacation. Lodging and the inter-island flights are the massive prices.
You’ll be able to maintain the inner-island portion extra reasonably priced with self-catering guesthouses, Creole takeaways and a budget public buses. The outer-island lodges and their flights sit at the next value level by design.
What’s the finest time of 12 months to go to the Seychelles?
April and October are the calmest months, sitting between the 2 trade-wind seasons with heat, nonetheless climate and clear water. Both works effectively for a two-week journey.
If seeing Chook Island’s sooty tern colony issues to you, goal for roughly April to October, when the birds are nesting, with the noise and the numbers peaking in June and July.
