Praslin, Seychelles: Three Nights, One Hire Car and What It Is Really Like
Our first morning on Praslin, it rained so hard we gave up and worked.
That is not the opening you were expecting from a Seychelles article, and it is exactly why I want to write this one. We had three nights on Praslin in August, and the weather there was comfortably the worst of our entire twelve days in the country. We lost a morning. We ate the most expensive meal of the whole trip sitting indoors because it was too windy to sit outside on a terrace built entirely for sitting outside on.
And I would still go back tomorrow!
Because on the third morning it cleared, we drove to Anse Lazio, and I found the best twenty minutes of our whole Seychelles trip about four hundred metres past the end of it. More on that below.
Praslin is the island people treat as the stopover between Mahé and La Digue, and I think that is a real mistake! It is also the island where I would change where we slept, and I will tell you exactly why.
In this guide: the crossing to get here and why it is the rough one, whether you need a car, what Anse Lazio is really like, where we ate and what it cost, the day we lost to rain, and the two famous things we did not do.
Praslin in Three Nights, My Quick Answer
Three nights is right, hire a car for the whole stay, and stay near Anse Lazio rather than where we did.
Praslin is small enough that three nights gets you the island properly, plus the Curieuse boat day, without ever feeling rushed. Two would work and you would be choosing between the beach and the tortoises.
Getting to Praslin, and Why It Is the Rough Crossing
Mahé to Praslin cost us A$190.33 for the two of us on the 07:30, and it takes an hour and fifteen minutes across open water.
This is the crossing people mean when they warn you about Seychelles ferries. It was genuinely hectic on our sailing in August. Daniel's words at the time were that people were dropping like flies, and he was not exaggerating for the camera.
If you get seasick even slightly, take something before you board. Sit low, sit central, and look at the horizon.
Two practical things that caught us out:
A digital ticket is not enough. You collect and print it at the terminal, then drop your luggage, then board. We arrived an hour and fifteen before departure and were glad of it.
Dropping the hire car is easier than it sounds. The drop-off is about a twenty metre walk from the terminal and you can collect at the airport and leave it here. We just rocked up and it took five minutes.
Once you are on Praslin, the onward hop to La Digue is fifteen minutes and cost A$52.44. Nothing like the first one.
Do You Need a Car on Praslin?
Yes, and it is cheap enough that I would not think about it twice.
We used OLA and paid 145 euro for a Suzuki Swift for three full days, dropping it back on the fourth morning. That is roughly A$78 a day for two people, and it turned the island from a series of taxi negotiations into somewhere we could just drive.
Praslin is not big, but the road goes around rather than over, and the beaches are on opposite corners. Without a car you are on the bus timetable or paying for taxis to Anse Lazio and back, and that adds up faster than the hire does.
Anse Lazio, and the One Thing Everybody Gets Wrong
Anse Lazio has been ranked the third best beach in the world, and it is the reason most people come to Praslin at all.
Do not drive all the way down to it. You pay for parking at the bottom, and the road around the island to get there takes about forty minutes. Instead, drive up to the top point, park there, and hike the fifteen minutes down. It is a better arrival, it is free, and you are not sitting in a car park!
The water when we got there was calm and it was the best swimming of our entire trip, which is not a coincidence at all! Anse Lazio faces roughly northwest, so it sits in the shelter when the southeast trade winds are blowing between May and September. That pattern decides which Seychelles beaches work on which dates and it is the single most useful thing we learned, which we wrote up properly in the best time to visit Seychelles.
And then there is the bit past the end. Walk to the far end of the main beach, turn right, and look for the big boulder rocks. There is a path going up the side of them. Follow it and you come out on a tiny beach with absolutely nobody on it.
Our own private beach, in the third best beach in the world, on a Tuesday! The full directions and what to expect are in our guide to Anse Lazio and the secret beach.
Where We Stayed, and What I Would Genuinely Change
Chez Rona, A$569 for three nights, about A$190 a night.
The host is the story here, not the room. He had thought about everything, and on our last night he cooked us a Creole dinner for nothing: chicken curry with kreol sauce, green papaya and job fish, which is a local fish. He told us the proper way to eat it is to blend the curry through the papaya, and he was completely right!
He also gave us the two best pieces of colour from the whole island. The cinema on Praslin closed because not enough people went, so he flies the twenty minutes over to Mahé to watch a film and comes back the same night. And when we asked whether he would ever finish his half-built basketball court, he said "maybe when I'm in my coffin"!
Here is the honest bit, and it is the one thing I would change about our whole Praslin stay. Chez Rona sits over at Anse Possession, which is a drive from Anse Lazio. It is lovely and I would recommend the host to anyone, but if you are coming here on a proper holiday rather than passing through, I would look at staying nearer Anse Lazio. Being able to wake up and walk straight onto that beach would be a completely different trip!
Chez Rona
About A$190 a night at Anse Possession. The host is genuinely the reason to book it: he cooked us a Creole dinner for nothing on our last night and gave us better stories about Praslin than any guide did. Honest caveat, it is a drive from Anse Lazio rather than a walk.
The Day We Lost to Rain
I said I would be honest about this, so here it is.
Our first full day on Praslin was a write-off. It poured in the morning, stayed heavily overcast, and we sat inside and worked. In August. In Seychelles.
We ended up at a local gym for something to do, which was 75 rupees each for a day pass, and it was a perfectly fine way to spend a bad morning. But it was one day of three, and we did not get it back.
This is not bad luck, it is the season. August is the windiest month of the Seychelles year and Praslin caught the worst of it while we were there. If your dates are flexible, April or October are the changeover months when the wind drops on every coast at once. We have not been in either, so that is research rather than experience, and I explain the whole thing in the seasonal guide linked above.
Where We Ate on Praslin
Three places, at three completely different prices, and I would go back to all of them.
Les Rochers, about A$87 for the two of us. The most expensive meal of our entire trip and still worth it. Daniel called it the best meal we had eaten in weeks of Africa. The views are genuinely amazing, and we ate them through a doorway because it was too windy to sit outside, which still makes me laugh!
Be ready for the prices. A Coke Zero is A$8 and the curries are A$69 to A$72 each. But the sides all come included: papaya salad, a beetroot, cabbage, carrot, tomato, cucumber and rocket salad, rice, and coconut chips with brown sugar.
Roots Juicery, about A$13. At the ferry port. Get the sacred mango. It is a 10 out of 10! Pricey, but it is on par with an Australian smoothie and so worth it.
Village Take Away, about A$13 for both of us. The cheap end, and completely fine.
And Soley Kouse, which we did not eat at. I am including it because our host cooking us that Creole fish curry on the last night was the better version of the same thing, and if nobody offers you that, this is the local Creole place I would send you to rather than another takeaway.
The Curieuse Day Trip, Which Is the Reason to Give Praslin Three Nights
The boat to Curieuse leaves from Praslin, and it was the single best day of our twelve.
Giant tortoises roaming loose under the trees rather than behind a fence, a doctor's house from 1873, coco de mer growing where it actually grows, a Creole barbecue, and snorkelling in the bluest water of our whole trip! A$111 each including hotel pickup and lunch, plus a small park fee on arrival.
There is a tortoise there called Obama who walked to the far side of the island. It takes people thirty minutes. It took him four months!
The whole day, what it costs and whether it is worth it is in our Curieuse Island guide.
What We Did Not Do, and I Am Not Going to Pretend Otherwise
Almost every Praslin guide you will read leads with two things. We did neither, and I would rather say so than write around it.
Vallée de Mai. The UNESCO reserve where the coco de mer palms grow, and the thing Praslin is most famous for. We did not go. I cannot tell you what it is like, how long it takes or whether it is worth the ticket, and I am not going to summarise somebody else's visit and pass it off.
Anse Georgette. It sits inside the Constance Lemuria resort grounds, and from what we read you have to ring ahead because they let a limited number of non-guests in each day. It is on the same corner of the island as Anse Lazio so it pairs easily with it. That is research, not experience. We did not make the call and we did not go.
If both of those are the whole reason you are going to Praslin, read somebody who did them. If you want to know what three nights on the island is actually like, including the rain, that is what this is.
Watch Our Seychelles Vlog
Praslin is the middle stretch, ferry crossing and all.
Watch our Seychelles vlog on YouTube
The full eight day route across Mahé, Praslin and La Digue, with both ferry crossings on the right mornings and every spot pinned, is in our Seychelles itinerary.
FAQs About Praslin
How many days do you need on Praslin?
Three nights. That covers the island itself plus the Curieuse boat day without rushing. Two works if you are choosing between Anse Lazio and the tortoises, which is not a choice I would want to make.
Do you need a car on Praslin?
Yes. We paid 145 euro to OLA for a Suzuki Swift for three full days, about A$78 a day. The beaches are on opposite corners and the road goes around rather than over, so without a car you are on buses or paying for taxis to Anse Lazio and back.
Is the ferry to Praslin rough?
It can be. Mahé to Praslin is an hour and fifteen across open water and ours in August was genuinely rough, with people being sick around us. Take something beforehand. Praslin to La Digue afterwards is fifteen minutes and completely calm.
How much is the ferry to Praslin?
Mahé to Praslin cost us A$190.33 for two on the 07:30. Praslin onward to La Digue was A$52.44 for two.
Where should you stay on Praslin?
Near Anse Lazio if you can. We stayed at Chez Rona at about A$190 a night and the host was wonderful, but it is a drive from the beach and if we came back on a proper holiday we would sleep nearer Anse Lazio.
Is Praslin worth visiting?
Yes, and I would give it three nights rather than treating it as a stopover between Mahé and La Digue. Anse Lazio alone justifies it, and the Curieuse day trip leaves from here.
What is the best beach on Praslin?
Anse Lazio, and it has been ranked the third best beach in the world. Do not drive to the bottom, park at the top point and walk down. Then walk past the far end and over the boulders to the beach nobody goes to.
