Seychelle Islands - favorite dive sites?

[SFCarey]

Hello,

Packing for a 10 day dive vacation in the Seychelles. We are dividing our time by staying on several different islands; Praslin, Cerf, Mahe and Bird.
Does anyone have any favorite / can't miss, dive sites that they could recommend?
I am a vacation diver (3 years) with previous dive vacations in Borneo, Honduras, Belize, Mexico and the Hawaiian Islands.

Thank you for any suggestions.

 

[tamas970]

Signing up for your thread, posted a similar question in the Africa topic - no response yet, apparently we have to figure...

 

[bqualls]

Seems to be a dearth of information on diving the Seychelles. I went to a couple of european dive websites and looked to see what their take was since they were closer to the seychelles.
Praslin was mentioned more than once as having the better diving of the inner islands.
As far as particular sites, Mariane was mentioned a few times as a good site. But to me,the couple of videos that I found of Mariane didn't seem any better than most of the other vids of Praslin based dives that I was able to find.
From the few dozen vids that I viewed, Seychelles inner island diving looks average at best. Having said that, I'm pretty spoiled by my latest trips to Indo,PNG,Fiji, and Oz. I'm thinking the above water beauty would make the trip worth it--those beaches look great. Plus the chance to see a whale shark the right time of the year.

 

[Wingy]

Seychelles - Wannadive.net - World dive site atlas

 

[eisenhauer]

Wondering how your trip was? We're thinking of going here in Aug. Thanks for feedback,

 

[SFCarey]

The trip was great, I would not hesitate to recommend the Seychelles for a destination vacation. The beaches are spectacular and the water is a beautiful warm turquoise. The diving is good, some days were very good. We dove seven of the ten days we were on the islands. As with most dive vacations some dives were good and some dives were great. We had great dives off of Praslin as well as off the main island of Mahe.

On a previous vacation we spent a few weeks in Borneo diving Sipidan and the surrounding area. Sipidan has such an amazing high concentration of diverse marine life that the experience may have spoiled me. Sipidan has been the standard that I compare all other dives to, which is unrealistic.
Having said that, if comparing the great dives - I would place the Seychelles below Sipidan and above the Caribbean.

Hope this helps -

 

[Rderige]

hi! have you heard of a place called silhouette island or labriz? we are planning to go next month and I just want to know if the place is worth diving to.

 

[SFCarey]

We did have at least one dive near Silhouette Island. If you are going to be there, absolutely take the opportunity to dive. If you have the time I would recommend at least 2 days of diving so you have the best opportunity to explore the area.

 

[tamas970]

A late report: the trip in May was great, I did 6 dives, 2 from La Digue and 4 from Praslin. The best site for me was Shark rock from Praslin: great visibility, a ~1.5m nurse shark, dozens of eagle rays and amazing coral cover.

 

[tamas970]

There is very little "marketing action" around the Seychelles. However, I can full-heartedly recommend La Digue and parts of Praslin. Diving depending on sites can be top notch. What I miss from the possibilities are liveaboards around the atolls in the south. The Maldives are serviced by many liveaboard all around the archipelago, while the Amirantes, Aldabra and Farquhar are completely off the chart, no one goes there.

Seems to be a dearth of information on diving the Seychelles. I went to a couple of european dive websites and looked to see what their take was since they were closer to the seychelles. Praslin was mentioned more than once as having the better diving of the inner islands. As far as particular sites, Mariane was mentioned a few times as a good site. But to me,the couple of videos that I found of Mariane didn't seem any better than most of the other vids of Praslin based dives that I was able to find. From the few dozen vids that I viewed, Seychelles inner island diving looks average at best. Having said that, I'm pretty spoiled by my latest trips to Indo,PNG,Fiji, and Oz. I'm thinking the above water beauty would make the trip worth it--those beaches look great. Plus the chance to see a whale shark the right time of the year.