Getting Around Seychelles
- Country Seychelles
- Guide Flight Planning
- Reviewed 20 August 2026
- Length 2 min read
Credit A.Savin, Free Art License, via Wikimedia Commons
Last reviewed 20 August 2026
Seychelles is a country of islands, so getting around means three separate decisions: how you move within an island, how you move between them, and whether you drive at all.
The roads are the sharpest warning in the advice
The FCDO is unusually specific here. Mahé is mountainous, and its roads are narrow and winding, often with sheer drops and hairpin bends. Not all such roads have safety barriers. Deep, uncovered storm drains flank many roads.
It adds that drink-driving is a problem, so other road users may behave erratically; that sudden heavy downpours reduce visibility and road surface conditions quickly; and that potholes can appear suddenly after heavy rain, with drivers sometimes veering sharply across lanes to avoid them.
That is a longer list of hazards than the whole rest of the country's safety advice, and it is worth weighing before you take the keys.
If you do drive
- A UK photocard driving license is valid in Seychelles for three months. An older paper license may need replacing or an international driving permit.
- Hire companies are often stricter than the law: a year of driving experience, a higher minimum age, and an international driving permit.
- The Road Transport Act sets the legal requirements and the FCDO links to it.
Buses and taxis
- Buses are cheap but infrequent on some routes. Timetables come from the bus station in Victoria or from the Seychelles Public Transport Corporation.
- Most public buses do not run after eight in the evening. Plan the return leg of an evening out before you set off.
- Taxis are described as generally of a good standard. Meters are increasingly common, and where a taxi has none, agree the fare before the journey starts.
Between the islands, and one Indian Ocean fact
Moving between Mahé, Praslin and La Digue is done by sea or by air, and the sea crossing is the ordinary way. Praslin has a working port, and the inter-island boats run from it.
One thing belongs on this page that would not appear on an Atlantic island guide. The FCDO records that piracy in the region has decreased but that there is still some risk, especially off the coast of Somalia, and it points anyone traveling by sea to United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations and to the Maritime Security Centre for the Horn of Africa. That is not about the tourist ferry between Mahé and Praslin. It is about the wider western Indian Ocean, and it is the kind of thing anyone chartering or sailing should read at source.