Tourist Attractions in Seychelles

Travel Services of the Seychelles, TSS, is a good company that works with the government. Great people, too. But their services always include a commission to themselves, which you can sometimes avoid by organising things yourself.

Unique Suggestions: If your are booking a package tour or using services of a travel agent back home (wherever that might be), the chance is that your agent is using the TSS services and that you will be met by TSS personnel at the airport /in your hotel/at the pier. Fine, when all is paid for already, there's nothing extra to be added. TSS will give you further suggestions and options, and these things do not necessarily come cheap.

Fun Alternatives: You might be better off using the services of the hotel or guest house where you are staying directly, hail e.g. a taxi yourself and negotiate daytrips around Mahe or Praslin, get your tickets and excursions to other islands, fishing and snorkelling trips organised directly with the transport companies etc. Our experience was that drivers and boatowners did not try to overcharge, but offered a fair deal.

Please do not waste your time, energy and money going to visit this awful place - and if you are an animal lover or of a sensitive disposition DEFINATELY give this place a wide berth !!! We were DISGUSTED to find animals kept in very inadequate conditions and some obviously desperately in need of veterinary attention - this place is shocking and we are appauled that it is allowed to legally operate as a tourist "trap" (we went only to see the waterfall at first and were unaware that this "zoo" existed at the top of the road where a woman then asked for 25R (£4.00 each !) to walk further along a path to view the waterfall !!! which we are also dissapointed to see was not really that impressive after all, very "murky"and certainly not a place we would choose to swim as was suggested by the woman taking our money ! PLEASE DO NOT VISIT THIS PLACE AS IT SHOULD BE CLOSED DOWN AND THE AMIMALS REMOVED !!

The Tintin bicycle hire in la digue is the nearest to the well known "La Digue Resort".
Due to its previleged location it has rates higher that other bicycle hires in the island although it offers the bicycles in worst shape.
My wife's bicycle gears did not work well, another one had really bad brakes.
Given the state of the bikes you feel like you are buying them not renting.

Furthermore the guy was extremely unfriendly (rude / aggressive / yealling at me) when I asked for to use the bike for 30 more minutes (after I had payed for 3 days).

Unique Suggestions: Check out rates and the state of bikes on other bicycle hires.

Fun Alternatives: Use another bicycle hire.

Don't be sucked into buying a coco de mer....first of all, it will cost you about $5,000 US dollars, because there are only three places in the world where these giant coco de mer palm trees grow, and they are all in the Seychelles. They are under protection but there is a huge black market. The nuts grow in the shape of human 'private parts'--male and female respectively, and are said to be an aphrodesiac. However, if you get caught trying to take one out of the country or stealing or using one even while in the country, you might stay in the Seychelles much lnger than anticipated, up to 5 years in jail! (By the way, we decorated the one hanging in our hotel room with the hibiscus flower...the hotel staff put hibiscus flowers all over our room and we didn't know where to put them. They do NOT grow as a part of the coco de mer, hehe)

While not entirely budget level, Seychelles style, this is the cost of a fairly comfortable life:

Flying there from Europe: 1000 E
1 night in a guest house/3 star and below hotel: 60 E
Breakfast: 10 E
Basic lunch/dinner w/ drinks/dessert: 20 E
Taxi from airport to Victoria 10 E
Snorkeling tour in a boat, half-day w/picnic: 50 E
Full day game fishing w/food and drinks: 200 E
Cat Cocos catamaran boat Victoria-Praslin: 20 E
Bike rental, one day: 8 E
A beer and a burger or pizza: 12 E

Unique Suggestions: You may beat the prices here with organizing your own picnic on the beach, buying your breakfast, lunch, dinner and fruits and drinks out of the super market etc. And no problem, you are supporting the local economy and getting very decent food, too.
You can save on drinks by drinking tap water, which is perfectly safe.
If you gang up a few people and charter a fishing boat you may easily beat the price of a tourist agency or hotel’s offer for a fishing tour. If you rent a bike for several days in a row, you’ll get a discount etc. etc.
To beat the hotel costs, you can look at cheaper guest houses and non-service accommodation. Another way of going about it is to jump on an offer for accommodation and all the food included. That seemed to me to be a very good choice if staying in one place for a while.

The Seychelles tourist authority and state is eager to lay their hands on your cash, cards and cheques. It’s all about keeping currency reserves and viable trading currencies handy for the state. Nobody wants Seychelles Rupees. All said, the Seychellois are very nice when convincing you to part with your money. And they have indeed some very good suggestions.
There is a fixed exchange rate established by the State Bank. This is about 1 USD = 5 SRS.
Since people are rather desperate to leave the islands for holidays and work, and there are restrictions of how much foreign currency they can buy, there is another exchange rate, too. Brought on by the State rules the limited access leads to private need for dollars, euros, pounds and other currencies of key Seychellois’ travel destinations, and quite discreetly you may be offered a rate as much as 1:9, which probably reflects the real value of the rupee.

Unique Suggestions: It is illegal to do black market exchange according to regulations you have signed on entry to the Seychelles, and you should never, never, never push for such a sale.

Fun Alternatives: Smile, pay and check out the beach and waves - that's all for free!!!!

Long before we went to La Digue, I read about the fact, that there were no cars but only bicycles and ox vehicles. That sounded very romantic to me.

Well, unfortunately I succeeded to convince my husband to join one of these ox vehicles on our arrival and must say, that the tremendous high price ruined my romantic feelings very quickly! (We paid approx. Euro 10,- for just 300 metres) That was definitely not worth this price at all!

It is certainly somewhat of an experience (a good one???) - but after having been "trapped ", I must say, looking one of these ox vehicles is probably already sufficient and enough of "experience" ... ?!

Unique Suggestions: I you can't resist (like me) - ask how far they will take you (or how long) and try to bargain a bit!

Fun Alternatives: On our depart, we carried (pulled) our luggage to the port.

Uh! And don't forget to absolutely avoid Takamaka Residence!! The place is widely advertised, with semi-naked winking ladies on the pamphlets, but it's a dump! Filthy rooms, far from the beach (you have to pass through the forest and some dirty ponds full of mosquitos), it's located in a sort of valley where NO wind passes by and you end up gasping all the time.. Better stay home.. By the way, we paid $140 for 1 night!!!!