The best things to do in Mahé split between the water and the hills. Take a boat into the Ste Anne Marine Park to snorkel and meet the tortoises on Moyenne Island, walk Victoria and its botanical garden, climb the Copolia trail, visit Mission Lodge, snorkel Port Launay and finish on Beau Vallon or Anse Intendance.
Mahé is where you land, and a lot of visitors treat it as a transit stop on the way to Praslin or La Digue. That is a mistake. The island is about 26 km long and 17 km wide, climbs to 905 m at Morne Seychellois, and has three marine parks within an hour of Victoria. You can snorkel a reef in the morning and be on a mountain trail by the afternoon.
So what are the best things to do on Mahé? The list below starts offshore, with the boat trip we would book first, then works through Victoria, the mountains and the beaches. Each sight with its own guide on this site is linked from its section.
The Ste Anne Marine National Park sits about 5 km off Mahé’s northeast coast, roughly 10 minutes by boat from Victoria. It was the first marine protected area in Seychelles, decreed in 1973, and covers six islands and the reefs and seagrass between them.
Boats leave from Victoria’s harbour and from Eden Island Marina. Most day trips mix snorkelling, a glass-bottom boat stretch and lunch on one of the islands. Entry is Rs 200 per non-resident aged 12 and over (SPGA, checked October 2026), and most tours fold it into the price. The Saint-Anne Marine Park and Moyenne Island Cruise covers this and the next item in one day, with the Moyenne landing fee included.
The stop that makes the marine park trip worth it is Moyenne Island. A Yorkshire newspaperman, Brendon Grimshaw, bought it in 1962 for £8,000, spent decades planting trees and raising Aldabra tortoises, and saw it declared a national park in 2009.
Today a loop trail of about 30 minutes (longer if you stop) takes you past free-roaming giant tortoises, Grimshaw’s grave, a small chapel and two old graves that local legend gives to pirates. There is no jetty, so you wade ashore. Moyenne charges its own landing fee on top of the park fee. Most tours include it, but check, and read how to visit Moyenne before you book.
Victoria had about 30,000 people at the 2022 census, and you can see the centre in a morning. The clock tower dates from 1903. The Hindu temple on Quincy Street was built in 1992. The National Museum of History moved into the restored 1885 Supreme Court building in 2018.
One change to know about: the old Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke Market closed for rebuilding in March 2025 and trading moved to the former STC supermarket nearby. Our Victoria guide has a walking route.
The National Botanical Garden at Mont Fleuri, about 20 minutes on foot from central Victoria, was founded in 1901. Its tortoise enclosure is the main draw, and you can feed them. Look out for the coco de mer palms too, including one planted by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1956.
Entry is Rs 250 for non-residents, and SPGA lists it as open daily from 8am.
Copolia is the best short hike on Mahé for a view, and one of the trails in Morne Seychellois National Park, which covers more than a fifth of the island. SPGA’s trail guide gives it as 1.2 km with a 180 m climb, about an hour and a half there and back. The top is a bare granite dome where carnivorous pitcher plants grow on the rocks.
From the summit you look down over Victoria’s harbour, the airport and the islands of the Ste Anne Marine Park, where Moyenne sits. The trailhead is on the Sans Souci road about 6 km from town, the fee is Rs 100, and it closes at 4pm. Our Copolia trail guide has the details.
Further along the Sans Souci road, Mission Lodge marks the site of Venn’s Town, a school for the children of liberated slaves that opened on 20 March 1876 and closed in 1889. The ruins and foundations of its buildings still stand. The viewing pavilion opened in 1972, on the day Queen Elizabeth II visited.
The site has been on UNESCO’s tentative World Heritage list since 2013. The lodge looks out over the bay and the inner islands, and it is worth the drive for that view alone.
Anse Major is a small beach you can only reach on foot or by boat. The SPGA trail starts at Danzilles above Bel Ombre, runs 2.4 km past granite boulders and wooded valleys with views out to Silhouette Island, and takes about an hour each way. SPTC bus 21 from Victoria ends at Danzilles, a short walk below the trailhead.
The fee is Rs 150. SPGA advises against swimming at Anse Major during the northwest monsoon, when the sea can be rough. See our Anse Major guide for the trail step by step.
On the northwest coast, two small marine parks share one Rs 200 ticket. Port Launay is the only marine park in Seychelles you can drive to, about 30 minutes from Victoria via La Misère, and SPGA says the reefs on both sides of the bay are good for snorkelling from the beach.
Baie Ternay, just north, has no road. You get there by boat from Beau Vallon or Port Launay. SPGA lists hawksbill turtles, moray eels and catfish shoals around the boulders, with whale sharks and dolphins possible. More spots are in our Seychelles snorkelling guide.
Beau Vallon is Mahé’s busiest beach: almost 2 km of sand on the northwest coast, with clear water and enough reef nearby to make it a base for diving and snorkelling. Come on a Wednesday evening for the Bazar Labrin street food market on the beach. More in our Beau Vallon guide.
Anse Intendance, in the southwest about 30 km from Victoria, is the wild one. It is 1.2 km long and faces the open Indian Ocean with no protective reef, so the surf can be strong and swimming needs care, especially between May and September. It is also an important hawksbill turtle nesting beach. Our Anse Intendance guide covers when to swim and when to stay on the sand.
For easy snorkelling from the shore, go to Fairyland at the end of Anse Royale on the east coast. The lagoon is 1 to 3 m deep and sheltered by a reef. Snorkeling Report lists angelfish, groupers and wrasse near the rocks and occasional spotted eagle rays. Stay on the lagoon side of Ile Souris, as the current behind it can be strong. See our Anse Royale guide, and the best beaches in Mahé for more.
On the east coast, 7 km south of the airport, the Takamaka distillery occupies La Plaine St André, a plantation estate built in 1792. Guided tours are free and run several times a day, Monday to Saturday (11:00, 13:00 and 15:00 on weekdays when we checked). A tasting cost SCR 175 in October 2026. Two Aldabra tortoises, Taka and Maka, live in the grounds. Our Takamaka rum distillery guide has the tour times.
If you only have one day for a tour, make it the marine park and Moyenne. It is the one thing on Mahé you cannot do on your own, and it covers snorkelling, tortoises and the Grimshaw story in a single trip. Book a hike on another morning, keep the beaches for afternoons, and see our best time to visit guide for which months bring calm water. For a base close to the boats, read where to stay in Mahé.
For the rest of the country, read things to do in Seychelles, and browse all marine park tours if you want to compare boats and prices.
7 hours
A catamaran day in the marine park with snorkel stops, a Creole lunch and a guided walk among the tortoises on Moyenne, with the island landing fee already paid.
from$158
Check availability7.5 hours
The most-reviewed Mahé island tour: your own air-conditioned car and driver, and you pick the beaches, viewpoints and Victoria sights.
from$180 per group (up to 3)
Check availability8 hours
A shared bus tour that covers the Victoria market and clock tower, the Mission Lodge lookout and a spice garden, with Creole lunch included.
from$129
Check availability4 hours
A private guided hike in the national park on your choice of Copolia, Morne Blanc, Lower Trois Frères or Anse Major, with trail fees paid separately.
from$202 per group (up to 4)
Check availabilityPrices and ratings were taken from GetYourGuide and can change. Booking through these links supports this site at no extra cost to you.
Three full days covers the main things on this list without rushing: one for a marine park boat trip with Moyenne Island, one for Victoria plus a morning hike such as Copolia, and one for the west coast and south beaches. Add a fourth if you want a day trip to Praslin and La Digue, which takes 10 to 11 hours on most tours.
Yes. The National Botanical Garden in Victoria keeps an enclosure of Aldabra giant tortoises, and SPGA lists entry at Rs 250 for non-residents. The Takamaka rum distillery has two more. For tortoises roaming free, take a boat to Moyenne Island in the Ste Anne Marine Park, about 10 minutes offshore from Victoria.
It depends what you want from it. Beau Vallon on the northwest coast has almost 2 km of sand, dive and snorkel operators, and the most going on. Anse Intendance in the southwest is wilder and better looking, but it faces open ocean with no protective reef, so the surf can be strong. Anse Royale suits snorkellers.
Mahé is worth at least two or three days. It has the capital, the only international airport, the highest mountain and three marine parks you can reach in under an hour, including Ste Anne with Moyenne Island. Praslin and La Digue are quieter and have the famous beaches, but both are easy day trips from Mahé by ferry.
Not for everything. Marine park tours collect you from hotels in north Mahé, and public buses reach many trailheads, such as SPTC route 21 from Victoria to Danzilles for the Anse Major trail. A car or a private driver helps for the south coast beaches, Mission Lodge and the west coast in a single day.
Victoria is the capital of Seychelles and small enough to see on foot in half a day.
The best Seychelles snorkeling is inside the marine parks.
Most things to do in Seychelles sit on three islands.
Sainte Anne Marine National Park is a protected area of sea and six islands about 5 km off Mahé, a 10-minute boat ride from Victoria.