Fond Ferdinand Park
Vallée de Mai is the most popular spot to see the famous coco de mer palm trees, but it is expensive at $30pp. Instead, we opted for the smaller and less expensive Fond Ferdinand. Unsure about the weather, we bought tickets online the morning of to save $5 and arrived before 9am to an empty parking lot – we were the first people there. The first guided tour started at 9:30am so we decided to just hike on our own, a possibility not mentioned in many reviews. I found out the park actually opens at 8am and closes at 3p (weekends) and 4p (weekdays) so we could have started even earlier. It was drizzling when we arrived and apparently guides do not go out in the rain (buses won’t pick up wet passengers?!) but it slowed down by the time we started our hike. We declined the map at the entrance which was an additional 75scr ($5.50). Considering the high entrance fee of 300scr ($23.50), I thought charging extra for a map was a bit egregious. Once our tickets were confirmed we signed in with the security guard as solo hikers and were directed down the marked paths.
It took us about 30ish minutes to hike to the viewpoint with lots of stops to photograph Coco de mer palms, spiders, lizards, and snails. The views from the top were worth the climb, even in the cloudy weather.
We took a different trail back down to see as much of the park as possible.
Overall, I enjoyed our two hours here but the price is steep, just like a lot of things on the Seychelles. We saw a lot of Coco de mer palms though and it’s ⅓ less pricey than the main park, Vallée de Mai, so if you want to do a hike on Praslin, we recommend this one.
Anse Georgette Beach
Arrived just before 9am and got one of the closest parking spots to the Constance Lemuria entrance gate. The gate guard took down our names and contact info, then instructed us to follow the road to the well-marked path that would take us through the golf course to the beach. From the gate it was a 20 minute walk (~1 mile) with some ups and downs, about half of which was in the shade.
We arrived to a beautiful, wide beach with bright blue water thanks to the first morning sunshine we’d seen in days!
I went in first to cool off after the walk and man, the waves are sneakily strong! Eric went in after me and while he did get some fish photos, the waves were kicking up the sand a lot so underwater visibility wasn’t great. Thankfully there was a good bit of morning shade along the beach here. We hung out for about 1.5 hours and decided to head out as the beach was starting to get more crowded. On the walk back to the car we saw loads of people coming in and cars lined the fence. Definitely recommend an early start.
Grand Anse Beach
A long beach nice for morning walks with local dogs and ghost crabs. Our hotel was situated right on this beach so we had access to loungers and towels. Not sure where you would sit on the beach otherwise as there isn’t a lot of shade outside of the resort sections. Not suitable for snorkeling but a lovely view nonetheless.
Cote D’Or Beach
We stopped for a brief walk on the beach while exploring the north side of the island on Sunday. It was low tide and this sandy beach was massive with tourists and locals alike hanging out in the shade near the road.
General Comment: we were surprised at the lack of sand along the southern coast road. On our visit the water came straight up to the road so it wasn’t possible to walk on any of that stretch or set a towel down in the shade.
