Vallée de Mai, Praslin, Seychelles — Attraction in Praslin

Vallee’-de-Mai’ National Park – One of the only places in the world to find the “Coco-De-Mer” Tree– Seychelles National Symbol and a World Heritage Site.

There is a free guided tour at Vallee’-de-Mai’ at 10 AM and 2 PM. It is advisable to reach in time for the guided tour. The Ticket price is approx 20 Euros/ Person and the Ticket includes a MAP of Vallee’-de-Mai’ – marking the trails and certain points. There is a small souvenir shop opposite the Ticket Counter, where one can spend some time waiting before the free tour starts. We browsed through some of the stuff, but didn’t find anything interesting to purchase.

One of the people with the Management called for the Guided Tour; everyone waiting in cafeteria or the Souvenir shop, gathered to begin with the tour. There are 3 Trails, from small medium to large one. The Larger trail is 5 kms long.

The entire park has well laid down path and clear markers, which made it easy to connect with the map provided. One can see several “Coco-de-Mer” Trees, right at the entrance and as soon as you enter there are a whole lot of them in different stages of their lifecycle. The guide was pretty fluent in English and had detailed knowledge about the history of coco-de-mer, its connection with Seychellois life and its different types.

The Tour takes about 2 Hours. Thereafter, Cafeteria is a good place to catch some lunch and refreshing...

If I can be brutally honest, I am a bit disappointed being a foreign tourist who decided to include this place in my itinerary with a lot of hopes as part of our honeymoon. Let me tell you why : It is a bit expensive, especially when compared to what is there to see inside, it definitely is a bit overpriced (450 Rp per head) We were made to wait at the ticket counter for more than 10 mins because the ladies there were counting the cash. They kept taking more and more bundles to count even after seeing us wait outside. At the end, they were just like “Excuse me” and didn’t even apologise for making us wait or even greet us which is not expected of a tourist friendly country. Yes, it definitely is a beautiful jungle but we were hardly able to find any species\ reptiles \ birds that was claimed to be there. So either just treat it like a normal jungle trail or making arrangements where visitors can actually experience the beauty of these living beings. So the end of the trail is mentioned to be a view point, however, after walking for almost 2 hours in this hot climate, we were shocked to see that the “view point” is not even half as pretty as 90% of the island. There was only a broken shed and the view wasn’t that awesome.

So, in crux, it is a simple and pleasant jungle trail, nothing more and it is definitely...

We had a fantastic time at Vallée de Mai: it's a must do on a trip to Praslin for its information on, and immersion in, the natural world of the Seychelles forests.

While it's excellent, I'd say the price is a little steep. However, given it's a UNESCO site that doesn't actually receive government funding, I can understand the cost. Despite the outlay, it's absolutely worth taking a tour from a guide there. They wait by the front gate so there's no pre-planning needed. We had the pleasure of going with Julita, the most experienced guide who's been doing tours here for decades.

She's lovely, and full of knowledge that you just can't get from information boards. We went on a Sunday afternoon in early September and there were only a few other couples walking around, but that might be due to the weather being on and off rain.

The tour itself lasted an hour, but you can then spend as long as you like there afterwards on one of several trails of differing durations. During that time, we saw two tenrecs right by our feet - see the video! The trails will all show you the same flora, it's just personal preference as to how long you'd prefer to walk and stay there.

All in all, a lovely day out learning about the unique nature of...