Diving in Seychelles: Sites, Season, Costs and Safety

Seychelles is good for diving, and you can dive all year. For the calmest sea, aim for April or November, the two months that fall between the monsoons on the government calendar (our reading of it, see below).

Most dive days start the same way: a short boat ride from a beach and a briefing about the current. At one Beau Vallon centre, DAN Southern Africa puts the closest site 15 minutes away and the furthest 40. Wrecks lie around Mahé and between Mahé and Praslin. Drop-offs wait on the far atolls.

The country has 115 islands: DAN Southern Africa counts 41 granite inner islands and 74 outer islands made of coral atolls and sand cays. Where you sleep decides most of what you can dive.

Who is diving in Seychelles for?

Certified divers get the most out of it, but first-timers and non-divers have good options too. Pick your base by your certificate, not by the prettiest hotel photo.

You are	Do this	Base
Certified, a few dives logged	Book boat dives day by day with a centre. Ask about current before you commit.	Mahé (Beau Vallon) or Praslin
Certified, 30+ dives, want walls and big fish	Look at the outer islands by liveaboard or island lodge. Plan it for a calm month.	Outer islands
Never dived	Take an intro dive (a trial in calm water, not a certificate), or the full Open Water course if you want a certificate.	Mahé or Praslin
Does not want to dive	Snorkel at the marine parks. Park fees apply (see below).	Any inner island

My pick for a first dive trip is Beau Vallon on Mahé. DAN Southern Africa profiles two centres there, Big Blue Divers and Dive Seychelles Underwater Centre, and Equinoxe Diving is a third. More choice means a fallback when one boat stays in port. DAN also says northern Mahé is generally unaffected when the winds are strongest.

Praslin is the quieter alternative. The centre DAN profiles there, Octopus Diver, sits at Côte d'Or, so you have less choice. That is fine if you want a calm base near Curieuse; where to stay on Praslin compares the areas. Other centres will differ from the 15 to 40 minute boat times above, so ask yours.

Inner islands or outer islands?

Start with the inner islands unless you already have plenty of dives. Girls that Scuba, a dive-travel blog, describes granite boulders at inner-island sites, and DAN lists wrecks near Mahé. You sleep on land and dive from day boats.

The outer islands are a different trip. DAN Southern Africa describes dramatic drop-offs and long-distance sites reached only in calmer seas, with boats from land-based centres or liveaboards. It adds that drift diving is common in the southern islands because of stronger currents.

Be honest about your logbook. Koek advises Advanced certification and at least 30 logged dives before you go. Koek's season page also says newly certified divers should stay on the inner islands in the calmer months and skip the outer islands during the southeast trades. OkToDive, an aggregator, rates its Mahé and Praslin listing as intermediate, with 25 or more dives and moderate current. It also warns that the water can be about 4 °C colder at depth. None of this is an agency rule. It is what operators and guides advise, and I would follow it.

Alphonse, for example, is about an hour's flight from Mahé, according to the island's own site. It is not a casual add-on to a Praslin holiday.

One liveaboard, Explorer 1, says its boat carries its own decompression chamber (listed as October 2020) and quotes eight hours of sailing from Mahé to the Amirantes in good weather. That is the operator's own claim. Ask for proof when you book.

When is the best time to dive in Seychelles?

April and November are my picks for calm water, so choose one of them if you can. May and October are shoulder months: they sit inside the government's southeast monsoon, so expect more wind, although Koek counts October as a transition month.

The Government of Seychelles splits the year into a northwest monsoon from December to March, a southeast monsoon from May to October, and two short periods in between. The page does not name the months of the short periods. April and November are my reading. Koek calls April and October the transition months, so the sources do not agree on November.

Period or coast	What to expect	Source
November–May	Lighter trade winds and fairly calm seas. DAN says visibility is best in this period. December–February is the rainiest.	DAN Southern Africa, 2022
June–October	Cooler water and stronger winds. Northern Mahé is generally unaffected. July is the coolest month.	DAN Southern Africa, 2022
March–December	Northwest Mahé sites are diveable the majority of the year, and best from March to December.	DAN Southern Africa, 2022
December–March	Northeast Mahé sites are only accessible in these months (about 15 m average depth).	DAN Southern Africa, 2022

DAN's "visibility is best November to May" does not match the operator guides. They put January and February among the weakest months, even though the sea is calm. If you want clear water, I would skip those two months. Here is what the guides say.

How far can you see?

No one publishes instrument data for Seychelles. These are operator and aggregator figures, and they disagree.

Source	Visibility figure
OkToDive (Mahé and Praslin listing, updated 30 August 2026)	January 9–15 m, February 8–13 m, April 10–19 m, May 10–20 m, July 11–24 m, November 10–19 m (December and March are also 9–15 m)
Koek (booking platform)	Inner islands in the northwest monsoon about 15–20 m on a good day, January–February 10–18 m. Around Mahé and Praslin in June–August as low as 8–12 m
Girls that Scuba (dive-travel blog)	"40 m+" common from November to April, and generally above 20 m the rest of the year

The 40 m figure is far out of line with the other two. I would plan for 10–20 m at the inner islands and treat anything above 25 m as a bonus. Koek says outer-island sites in the transition months can reach 25–35 m.

What will you see, and when?

What	When and where	Source
Turtles (hawksbill and green)	Year-round at the inner islands	Koek, Girls that Scuba, OkToDive
Manta rays	Koek's season page says activity peaks in October–November at inner-island cleaning stations; its guide ties them to the southeast monsoon (about May–October) around Mahé and Praslin	Koek
Eagle rays	Appear regularly at the granite pinnacle sites	Koek
Reef and nurse sharks	Shark Bank and Brissare Rocks (Koek: nurse sharks; OkToDive: grey reef sharks)	Koek, OkToDive
Tuna, wahoo, sometimes sailfish	Outer islands	Girls that Scuba
Hammerheads	Occasionally at deep outer-island sites; not reliable	Koek
Whale sharks	Dates disagree, see below

Do not book a liveaboard to chase hammerheads. Koek says they are not a reliable target.

Which dive sites are worth knowing?

These are the names DAN Southern Africa gives, with its depth ranges.

Area	Sites	Depth
Northwest Mahé	Grouper Point (in Baie Ternay Marine Park), Willy's Rocks	Grouper Point 6–30 m
Northeast Mahé	Beacon Island, Cheedle Rocks	About 15 m average
Mahé wrecks	Twin Barges, Dredger, Aldebaran	14–35 m
Between Mahé and Praslin	Ennerdale wreck	18–30 m
Long-distance sites	Shark Bank, Trois Bancs, Conception Arena	Seas permitting

Sources disagree on how hard Shark Bank is. Koek gives no formal rating and says it tops out at about 20 m with flanks dropping to 30–35 m. OkToDive rates it intermediate with 25 or more logged dives because of the current. Ask the centre before you book it as a first deep dive.

Diving from Praslin and La Digue

Praslin has its own centre. Octopus Diver is a PADI 5-star centre at Côte d'Or that runs daily fun dives, intro dives and courses from Scuba Diver up to Instructor, in English, French and German. DAN Southern Africa places it close to the Curieuse Marine Park.

For sites, I found one source. Girls that Scuba names Booby Island and Aride Bank in the Praslin area, and Channel Rock, Ave Maria and South Marianne near La Digue. It says Booby Island has strong currents and suggests a reef hook there. It gives no depths or levels, and I found no second source, so I will not guess. Ask the centre which sites suit your logbook.

Ile Cocos Marine Park lies near La Digue, and the SPGA charges non-residents over 12 Rs 200 to enter. If you split your stay between Praslin and La Digue, dive from Praslin and spend the La Digue days on bikes and beaches.

Whale sharks: when and how to behave

Use the SPGA dates: September to November. The Seychelles Parks and Gardens Authority (SPGA) is the park authority, and its note says where sharks were seen. In a note dated 4 November 2022, it says the Ile Cocos team had spotted that season's first whale shark. It also says someone reported seeing 12 sharks near Conception Island, close to Port Launay, in October.

Other sources quote other dates:

Source	Season it gives	Note
SPGA (park authority, 4 Nov 2022)	September–November	Inner islands: Ile Cocos, Conception Island
Girls that Scuba (blog)	September–November	Inner islands
MCSS whale shark project page	Tours 1 August–31 October	Conservation group; tours leave from Beau Vallon, and it says sharks usually gather off western Mahé between August and November
OkToDive (aggregator)	October–January	Mahé and Praslin listing
Koek season page	Late March to early June, peak April–May	Centred on the Amirantes
Koek diving guide	About May–October, most reliable June–September	Same site, different dates

I use SPGA because it is the official body, it is dated, and it names places. The others are operator or aggregator figures that disagree even with each other. Some dates may describe the outer islands rather than the inner ones. Whale sharks do not read our calendar, so treat any "guaranteed sighting" as marketing.

The SPGA note also lists the swim rules:

• no more than 10 swimmers in the water;
• boats at least 10 m from the shark;
• no more than 90 minutes of interaction;
• no touching or riding, no blocking its path, no flash.

What does diving in Seychelles cost?

A single boat dive is about EUR 48 at one Beau Vallon centre, and that is the only published list I could confirm. Equinoxe Diving's price page is undated, so read it as a guide and check the live figure. Praslin centres publish no price list in the pages I could reach.

Item	Price (EUR)
Single boat dive	48
Double (twin-tank) dive	92
4 dives	180
6 dives	265
8 dives	345
10 dives	400
Intro dive (adult / child)	90 / 50
Full equipment hire	7 per dive
Long-distance trip (over 1 hour by boat)	+15
Night dive (minimum 4 divers)	+15
Marine park entrance fee (the centre's own supplement)	+15

Here is a worked example. Six dives cost 265 as a package, against 288 for six singles. Add kit hire (6 × 7 = 42), one long trip (15) and one marine park visit (15), and the six dives cost 337 euros. If you own your kit, it falls to 295.

Koek, a booking platform, puts inner-island day boats at about USD 80–120 for two tanks including kit. That is in dollars, so convert before you compare it with the euro list above.

Separately, the SPGA charges non-residents over 12 for park entry: Rs 300 at Curieuse, Rs 200 at Ste. Anne, and Rs 200 at Baie Ternay and Port Launay. The SPGA says that on site you pay by card only, with no cash; it also sells tickets in advance online and takes rupees at its main office. I found no separate SPGA diving permit, so ask your centre who pays what.

Seychelles or the Maldives for diving?

For pure diving, most of what I read rates the Maldives higher. Seychelles wins when the trip is half land.

Koek says Maldives peak-season visibility typically beats Seychelles by 5 to 10 metres and that pelagic encounters are more reliably engineered there. It describes Seychelles granite reefs as vertical in a way that changes how you plan a dive. It also calls whale shark sightings in Seychelles "real but less predictable" and says South Ari in the Maldives has them year-round in one channel. Koek is a Seychelles booking platform, so this is not a Maldives fan talking.

My view is simple. Choose the Maldives if every day is a dive day. Choose Seychelles if you also want hikes, beaches and a choice of islands. I did not compare prices, because I found no Maldives price list I could check.

Do I need to be certified?

No, you can try diving without a certificate, but only in a trial. PADI describes Discover Scuba Diving as a way to try diving "in a pool or calm water environment" before deciding on certification.

For a full certificate, PADI's minimum age is 10 in most areas. Students under 15 earn the Junior Open Water certificate. Everyone fills in a short medical questionnaire, and a doctor must clear you if a condition on it applies. PADI says the limit for recreational diving is 40 m and advises beginners to stay shallower than about 18 m.

DAN Southern Africa counts 10 land-based PADI dive centres in Seychelles. Other agencies such as SSI also train divers, so ask what your centre teaches. Bring your certificate card and a logbook if you have one.

Safety: flying, chambers and insurance

Dive first, fly later. DAN's flying guidance dates from a 2004 workshop. It says to wait at least 12 hours after a single no-decompression dive. After several days of repeated diving, wait at least 18 hours. After dives with compulsory decompression, wait substantially longer.

DAN also notes the trials used dry, resting volunteers, so longer waits may suit divers who were exercising. Seychelles flights home are long, so I would leave a full day. It is the one rule where being lazy wins.

Recompression chambers are limited. DAN Southern Africa says Mahé and Silhouette Island have the only two in the country, but it does not name who runs them. I could not confirm opening hours, staffing or the current evacuation route from an official source.

So ask your centre before you book:

1. Which chamber would you use, and how long to reach it from your dive sites?
2. How is an injured diver moved: by boat, helicopter or plane?
3. Does your boat carry oxygen?

Then buy travel insurance that explicitly covers scuba to the depth you plan and covers medical evacuation. A policy that excludes diving is worth nothing on the day you need it.

FAQ

Is Seychelles good for diving?

Yes. Diving runs all year, with wrecks around Mahé and between Mahé and Praslin, granite boulders at inner-island sites, and drop-offs on the outer atolls. The inner islands suit most certified divers. Operators advise Advanced certification and about 30 dives for the outer islands.

What are the best dive sites in Seychelles?

For Mahé, Grouper Point, Willy's Rocks, Beacon Island and Cheedle Rocks come up in DAN Southern Africa's guide. The Ennerdale wreck lies between Mahé and Praslin. Shark Bank, Trois Bancs and Conception Arena are long trips.

Is Seychelles or the Maldives better for diving?

For diving alone, the sources I read favour the Maldives. Koek, for example, says Maldives visibility typically beats Seychelles by 5–10 m in peak season. Seychelles is the better pick if you want land, hikes and beaches in the same trip.

When is the best month to dive in Seychelles?

April and November are my picks: on the government calendar they fall between the two monsoons (our reading), and DAN counts both in its calm November-to-May window. January and February are the weakest for visibility, according to Koek and OkToDive.

How long should I wait before flying after diving?

DAN recommends at least 12 hours after a single no-decompression dive and at least 18 hours after repeated diving over several days. Longer is safer.

Is there a recompression chamber in Seychelles?

DAN Southern Africa reports chambers on Mahé and Silhouette Island. Ask your dive centre which one it uses and how a casualty would get there.