Honeymoon in Seychelles: What it is actually like, from People who live here

Let’s get two things out of the way immediately, because they are the first two questions almost every couple asks us.

No, there are no overwater bungalows in Seychelles.

The reef systems here sit inside protected marine parks, and building structures over them is not permitted. If overwater bungalows are non-negotiable for you, the Maldives is your destination. If you can live without them, Seychelles will probably exceed everything else you were hoping for.

No, Seychelles is not an all-inclusive destination.

There are a small handful of half-board packages, and you can sometimes negotiate full-board at certain resorts, but the classic Caribbean-style unlimited buffet resort does not really exist here. What exists instead is more intimate: smaller properties, included breakfast, dinner either at your resort or at one of the local restaurants, and an experience that feels personal rather than processed.

These two honest answers have saved many couples from booking the wrong place. The couples who love Seychelles most are the ones who knew what they were coming to.

Which island suits you?

Seychelles has 115 islands. Three of them account for the vast majority of honeymoons, and each has a completely different character. Choosing correctly makes a significant difference to your experience.

Mahé: the practical base with genuine beauty

Mahé is the main island and where the international airport sits. It is the largest island, home to about 90,000 people, and the most developed. Do not let that put you off: the development is concentrated in and around the capital Victoria. Drive 20 minutes in any direction and you are on empty beaches with no one else in sight.

Mahé makes sense if you want the widest choice of resorts, easy access to day trips to other islands, a variety of restaurants beyond your hotel, and the option to explore. It has over 60 beaches, a national park covering most of the island’s interior (Morne Seychellois), and the best hotel infrastructure in the archipelago.

The honest caveat: Mahé is not the most remote or romantic-feeling of the three main islands. If you want to feel like you have genuinely escaped, you might find Praslin or La Digue delivers that feeling more completely.

Praslin: the sweet spot

Praslin is about 45 minutes from Mahé by ferry or 15 minutes by light aircraft. It is quieter, smaller, and slower. The reason most honeymooners choose it over Mahé is one beach: Anse Lazio. It is a crescent of pale sand flanked by granite boulders and turquoise water, and photographs cannot prepare you for it.

The Vallée de Mai is here too, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where ancient coco de mer palms grow in their original forest. Walking through it feels genuinely otherworldly, not in a touristy way but in a “this is a 6-million-year-old ecosystem and I am standing in it” way.

Praslin is our most common recommendation for first-time Seychelles honeymooners who want the complete experience without the remoteness of La Digue.

La Digue: the most romantic, the most inconvenient

La Digue is where you go when the experience matters more than the logistics. There are no hire cars here. The main transport is a bicycle. The beaches, particularly Anse Source d’Argent, are consistently ranked among the finest in the world. The pace of life is genuinely slow in a way that Mahé and even Praslin do not quite match.

Getting to La Digue requires a ferry from Mahé to Praslin, then another ferry from Praslin to La Digue. It takes the better part of a day. Accommodation options are more limited and tends to run out at the top end. The lack of restaurant variety means you will be eating at your guesthouse or resort more often than on Praslin.

For couples who want the most cinematic, unhurried, and genuinely private honeymoon experience and who are happy to sacrifice a bit of convenience for it, La Digue is often described to us afterwards as the best decision they made.

Silhouette: for couples who want almost nothing around them

Silhouette is the third largest island but feels far more remote than that ranking suggests. Almost no development. Dense tropical forest covering most of the interior. One main resort, the Hilton Seychelles Labriz. If you want total seclusion and do not need variety or flexibility, Silhouette delivers in a way the three main islands cannot.

Quick comparison:

Island	Best for	Travel from Mahé	Vibe
Mahé	Variety, flexibility, day trips	You are already there	Lively but beautiful
Praslin	First-time visitors, beach + nature	45 min ferry / 15 min flight	Relaxed, balanced
La Digue	Maximum romance, photography	1.5-2 hrs via Praslin	Slow, cinematic
Silhouette	Total seclusion	30 min helicopter	Wild, remote

What a Seychelles honeymoon actually costs

Seychelles has a reputation as an expensive destination. It is not cheap, but it is also not as stratospheric as people expect, particularly compared to similar island destinations.

Budget tier: €80-€150 per night Self-catering guesthouses and small local hotels, primarily on La Digue and Praslin. You get a clean, comfortable room and usually a kitchen. Breakfast is often not included. This is genuinely viable for couples who want the Seychelles experience without the luxury price tag. La Digue has excellent small guesthouses within cycling distance of Anse Source d’Argent.

Mid-range: €180-€350 per night Boutique hotels and smaller resort properties. Usually includes breakfast. This is the most common bracket for honeymooners who want comfort and service without paying for a brand name. Properties like Bliss Hotel on Mahé, Carana Beach Hotel, or L’Océan hotel on Praslin sit here.

Luxury: €400-€800 per night The established four and five-star resorts. Typically includes breakfast, sometimes dinner. This bracket covers Constance Ephelia, Kempinski Seychelles, Avani Barbarons, and Raffles Seychelles on Praslin. Service quality at these properties is genuinely excellent.

Ultra-luxury: €1,000-€3,000+ per night Four Seasons, Anantara MAIA, and the private island properties: North Island, Frégate, Denis Private Island. At this level you are buying exclusivity, space, and complete personalisation. North Island in particular is in a category of its own: 11 villas, one beach per villa, a staff-to-guest ratio that is hard to believe.

Practical local note on meal plans: Most Seychelles resorts offer bed and breakfast as standard. We generally recommend half-board (breakfast and dinner) if you are staying on Praslin or La Digue, where restaurant options outside your hotel are limited, particularly in the evenings. On Mahé you have more flexibility to eat out.

Rough total budget for two people, 10 nights:

• Budget: €2,500-€4,000 plus flights
• Mid-range: €5,000-€8,000 plus flights
• Luxury: €10,000-€18,000 plus flights
• Ultra-luxury: €25,000 and above

The best resorts for honeymooners

These are the properties we see work consistently well for honeymooners. Not every five-star resort is right for a honeymoon: some are popular with families, some feel more like conference centres with nice views. The ones below are consistently intimate, well-serviced, and deliver the right atmosphere.

On Mahé:

Four Seasons Resort Seychelles sits on Petite Anse, one of the most private beaches on the island. The villas are scattered across a hillside in the forest, each with a private plunge pool and an ocean view. Golf buggies shuttle you up and down. The spa uses local herbs and spices. This is the address most luxury honeymooners choose when they want to stay on Mahé.

Anantara MAIA is an all-villa property on a rocky peninsula. With only around 30 villas, it never feels busy. There is no beach to speak of, but the snorkelling directly from the rocks is exceptional, and the pool villas are among the most private rooms in Seychelles.

Constance Ephelia sits on 300 acres of land next to Port Launay Marine Park, flanked by mangrove forest and two beaches. It is large by Seychelles standards and more family-friendly than some alternatives, but the spa is outstanding and the wine list has won awards. A good option if you want more facilities without sacrificing the natural setting.

On Praslin:

Raffles Seychelles is on Anse Takamaka, a quiet bay on the northwest coast. Villas are generous in size, the beach is calm and swimmable most of the year, and the service is consistently strong. The L’Indochine restaurant here is the best meal you will eat on Praslin.

Constance Lemuria has the only golf course in Seychelles, which sounds incongruous until you see the setting. Three beaches, including one private one accessible only to guests. The overwater deck at the spa has one of the best views on the island.

On La Digue:

Options at the luxury end are limited here by design: the island does not permit large-scale development. Le Domaine de l’Orangeraie is the best choice, a boutique resort set in a garden above the beach with excellent food and genuinely warm service. It is not the Four Seasons, but it is exactly right for what La Digue is supposed to feel like.

Best time to honeymoon in Seychelles

April, May, October and November are the best months, and the reason is specific: these are the transition periods between the two trade wind seasons, when the wind drops to almost nothing and both coastlines are calm simultaneously.

In practical terms for honeymooners this means:

• Seas calm enough for comfortable boat trips and snorkelling anywhere on the islands
• Photography light is at its best: softer, warmer, and more flattering than the harsh contrast of July and August
• Beaches are quieter than the July-August peak season
• Prices are meaningfully lower than peak, often 20-30% below July rates

October is the sleeper pick. Many honeymooners overlook it because it sits outside the main European holiday window. That is precisely why it works: better hotel availability, competitive rates, and weather that equals or exceeds April. The Creole Festival also takes place in October, a week of music, food, and cultural events across the main islands that is genuinely worth catching.

What about June-September? The dry season is beautiful and popular, but the southeast trade wind makes exposed southeast-facing beaches choppy. If you are on La Digue or the sheltered west coast of Mahé, you will not notice. If you are on the south coast of Mahé or the east coast of Praslin, you will. Know which direction your hotel beach faces before you book in this season.

The wet season (December-March) is underrated for honeymooners on a budget. Rain arrives as short afternoon showers, not week-long grey skies. The vegetation is vivid green, the beaches are emptier, and hotel rates drop significantly. January and February are the most reliable months within this window.

For the full month-by-month breakdown, see our best time to visit Seychelles guide.

What to do

The temptation on a Seychelles honeymoon is to do nothing, and that is a perfectly legitimate choice. But there are a few experiences that are worth building in.

Sunset catamaran cruise Most resorts can arrange this. A two to three-hour private catamaran from Mahé or Praslin costs roughly €150-250 for two. You anchor in a calm bay, snorkel, watch the sun go down. It is the most reliably romantic thing you can do here and the one experience nearly every couple tells us they loved most.

Anse Source d’Argent, La Digue Even if you are not staying on La Digue, take the ferry over for a day. Rent bicycles at the port (€10-15/day), cycle to Anse Source d’Argent, spend three hours there. Then cycle to Grand Anse on the other side of the island for lunch. This is a genuinely extraordinary day out and one of the few genuinely free experiences in Seychelles.

Vallée de Mai, Praslin The entrance fee is around €25 per person. A guided walk takes 90 minutes. The coco de mer palm, which grows nowhere else on earth in its natural state, produces the largest seed in the plant kingdom. The forest has been here for millions of years. It is not a zoo or a theme park. It is just a very old, very beautiful piece of the world.

Whale shark snorkelling Whale sharks gather around Mahé between October and November, feeding on plankton blooms. Organised snorkelling trips run from the north coast of Mahé. They are enormous, completely harmless, and the experience of swimming alongside one is something couples who do it tend to mention in the same breath as their wedding ceremony. Worth timing your visit around if ocean wildlife matters to you.

Giant tortoise encounter Curieuse Island, accessible by boat from Praslin, has a population of several hundred Aldabra giant tortoises roaming freely on the beach and in the forest. You can walk among them. They are old, slow, and entirely unimpressed by your presence. Genuinely wonderful.

Morne Seychellois National Park If you enjoy hiking, the trails above Victoria on Mahé are worth a morning. The path to Morne Blanc is steep but manageable in about 90 minutes. At the top, on a clear day, you can see across to Praslin and La Digue. Bring water, start before 9am before the heat builds, and wear actual shoes rather than flip flops. People still turn up in flip flops and regret it.

Combining your wedding and honeymoon

This is the version of a Seychelles trip that makes the most sense on paper, and the one that couples who do it almost universally describe as the best decision they made.

You fly in, get legally married on the beach, and stay on for the honeymoon. One trip. The wedding certificate is internationally valid with an apostille. The honeymoon follows immediately. The flowers, the photographer, and the set-up are already sorted by us. You add however many nights you want before and after the ceremony.

The practical benefit is real: most couples who come to Seychelles for a wedding already need to factor in accommodation and travel. Adding a honeymoon on top means the fixed costs of the trip are shared across a longer, more meaningful stay. And there is something particular about honeymooning in the exact place where you just got married, on the same beach, with the same water.

See our wedding packages starting from €1,090, all formalities included.

Getting to Seychelles and getting around

Seychelles International Airport (SEZ) is on Mahé, about 10 km south of Victoria. All international flights arrive here.

Direct or one-stop flights from common origins:

• Europe (Frankfurt, London, Paris, Zurich): direct or via Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Nairobi, or Addis Ababa. Flight time from Europe is 10-13 hours depending on routing.
• UAE (Dubai/Abu Dhabi): approximately 4 hours direct. Several flights weekly with Emirates and Etihad.
• UK: no direct service currently. Via Dubai is the most common and usually the most competitive on price.

Between islands:

• Mahé to Praslin: ferry takes 55-65 minutes, costs around €45-55 return. Cat Cocos is the main operator. Light aircraft (Air Seychelles) takes 15 minutes and costs around €150 return, significantly more convenient.
• Praslin to La Digue: short ferry of about 30 minutes, runs frequently, costs approximately €20 return.
• La Digue transport: no hire cars. Bicycles rent for €10-15/day. There are a small number of ox carts and local taxis. You will not need more than a bicycle for almost everything.
• Helicopter transfers: available to most islands. More expensive but spectacular, and useful for Silhouette and the private islands where other options are limited.

Practical details

• Electricity: 240V, UK-style three-pin plugs. European visitors need an adapter.
• Currency: Seychellois Rupee (SCR). Most resorts and restaurants accept major credit cards. Carry some cash for local markets, small shops, and bicycle hire.
• Language: English, French, and Seychellois Creole. English is spoken essentially everywhere tourists go.
• Driving: left-hand traffic on Mahé and Praslin. Roads on Mahé are winding and occasionally steep. Do not attempt them the evening after a long-haul flight.
• Reef-safe sunscreen: Seychelles Marine Park regulations require reef-safe (non-nano, mineral) sunscreen at most snorkel and dive sites. Check before you pack. Standard chemical sunscreens containing oxybenzone are harmful to coral and you will be asked about this.
• Mosquitoes: present, especially in the evenings and during the northwest monsoon season. DEET or equivalent in the evenings is worth it.
• Tipping: not obligatory but appreciated. 10% at restaurants is standard. Guides and drivers are commonly tipped €5-10 for a half-day trip.
• Safety: Seychelles has one of the lowest crime rates in the region. Standard city precautions apply in Victoria. Beaches and resort areas are safe at any hour.