Seychelles 4 Day Itinerary (No Traps)
Four days finally gives La Digue a proper night, not a photo stop
Four days is the point where La Digue stops being a rushed morning and becomes an actual overnight, which changes the trip. Anse Source d’Argent at 5pm with the day-tripper boats already gone back to Praslin looks nothing like Anse Source d’Argent at 11am. The route is still Mahe to Praslin to La Digue and back, run on the Cat Cocos and Cat Rose ferry schedules and priced in Seychellois rupees (SCR) even though euros are quoted at every counter.
Book these before you go
- A self-catering villa on La Digue, within cycling distance of Anse Source d’Argent: check rates on Booking.com
- Vallee de Mai entry booked online for the 10% discount: reserve via GetYourGuide
- A Curieuse Island tortoise and snorkel day trip from Praslin: browse Viator
Day 1: Mahe
Land at SEZ with your Travel Authorisation already approved, the paid pre-arrival step (about EUR11 via seychelles.govtas.com ) that visa-free framing tends to gloss over. A taxi to Victoria or Beau Vallon runs a commonly quoted SCR300 (~EUR19) flat fare, cash, negotiated before departure. Give Victoria a couple of hours: the 1903 Clock Tower and the Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke Market, at its liveliest before 10am on a weekend.
Spend the afternoon at Beau Vallon, free, developed, and genuinely good swimming, keeping bags in the hotel safe rather than on the sand. Book a self-catering room or guesthouse rather than a resort here; the same fish curry runs SCR40 to 60 at a takeaway against SCR150 to 300 plated at a hotel.
Day 2: Praslin
Cat Cocos to Praslin, roughly 1 hour to 1h15, economy around EUR56 plus a EUR2 port fee (~EUR58 one way). Vallee de Mai, the UNESCO reserve and last wild stand of coco de mer palms anywhere, costs SCR450 (~EUR28 to 30, 10% cheaper booked online through the Seychelles tourism board ); this is meaningfully more than the roughly EUR20 figure still floating around older blog posts, so budget for the current price.
Anse Lazio, free, north coast, is worth arriving at before 10am; the small parking areas fill and it visibly crowds by late morning. Stay overnight in a self-catering chalet near Anse Volbert (~EUR120), which also means a kitchen for a cheaper dinner than the resort strip offers.
Day 3: La Digue, overnight
Cat Rose, the separate operator that runs only the short Praslin to La Digue hop, takes 15 to 20 minutes for about EUR15 one way, up to five times a day. Anse Source d’Argent sits behind the L’Union Estate gate, SCR150 (~EUR9 to 10) covering all-day re-entry plus the old vanilla plantation and tortoise pen. Rent a bicycle at the jetty (SCR150 to 200 a day); it is genuinely how you get around, not the island’s single remaining ox-cart, which is a photo-op for couples rather than practical transport.
Go to Anse Source d’Argent in the late afternoon, after the day-tripper boats from Praslin have already left, for the best light on the granite and the fewest people in your photos. Sleeping over means you get to do this twice, once in the evening and again before the morning boats arrive.
Day 4: Back to Mahe, departure buffer
Take the morning Cat Rose to Praslin, then the Cat Cocos onward to Mahe, or the direct Mahe-La Digue Cat Cocos sailing (~1h45, via a brief Praslin stop) if it lines up with your schedule better. Build in a real buffer given SEZ is the country’s only international gateway; connections often route through Nairobi, Doha or Dubai, so a missed domestic-to-international connection is expensive to fix.
If there is time before your flight, a half-day snorkel trip out to Ste Anne Marine National Park (entry SCR200, ~EUR12, card-only on-site since the SPGA parks do not take cash at the gate) is a better use of a spare morning than another lap of Beau Vallon.
Is 4 days enough to actually relax on Seychelles?
Not really, no. Four days is enough to see all three islands properly, once each, but it is a moving itinerary rather than a slow one; you change beds three times. If unpacking once and staying put on two islands matters more than covering ground, the 5 day itinerary adds the breathing room this one lacks.
Why does the fee for Vallee de Mai keep varying online?
Because older sources quote the pre-increase rate. Vallee de Mai’s entry fee was raised in recent years to SCR450 (~EUR28 to 30) for non-residents, a 10% discount available if booked online in advance through the Seychelles Islands Foundation. A figure closer to EUR20 is stale, not a discount you can still find.
| Day | Island | Ferry / travel time | Rough cost per person |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mahe | Taxi from SEZ, ~SCR300 (~EUR19) | ~EUR60 to 90 |
| 2 | Praslin | Cat Cocos, ~1h, ~EUR58 one way | ~EUR100 to 150 |
| 3 | La Digue (overnight) | Cat Rose, ~15 to 20min, ~EUR15 one way | ~EUR90 to 130 |
| 4 | Mahe (departure) | Cat Rose + Cat Cocos, or direct Cat Cocos ~1h45 | ~EUR50 to 80 |
Book the Cat Rose leg for the morning of day 4 before you leave your La Digue guesthouse, not from the jetty; peak-season sailings fill, and the ferry back to Mahe is not something you want to gamble on same-day.