[Worldtrippers home] [Crystal home]
The Republic of Seychelles is comprised of 155 islands. It is the smallest and least populated country in Africa, with a population of about 100,000 people over a total of 176 square miles. It also has Africa’s highest Human Development Index and highest per capita GDP.
We visited three different islands in one day, spending just a few hours on each island.
Praslin is the second largest island in the Inner Seychelles. It is famous for its beaches. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain when we arrived via tender. Most of the offered excursions were cancelled due to not meeting the minimum attendees. We walked around for a bit in the rain, but there is not much here. “Downtown Praslin” is basically an intersection.
La Digue is Seychelles’ fourth largest and third most populated island. We had originally purchased an excursion that included a coconut plantation, giant tortoises, a beach and a hike. Unfortunately, the excursion ended up being overbooked, and the lecturers were all bumped. Fortunately, we were able to purchase an alternate excursion that included everything except the hike.
Mahé is Seychelles’ largest island. Unfortunately, we didn’t arrive here until 9:00 pm. We were informed ahead of time that we would not be able to go ashore this evening. We are due to disembark at 6:20 am tomorrow morning, so all we will see of Mahé will be the drive to the airport.
This was our last night aboard Crystal Symphony, and we spent the remainder of the evening packing. We have to completely reconfigure our luggage to fit the African airline requirements. Gail had a particularly hard time making everything fit. She ended up using her cardboard box again.
We spent the evening saying “good bye” to many of the wonderful people we have met – both guests and crew. This was our first Crystal cruise, but it will not be our last. We are already contracted to lecture aboard the first leg of the Crystal World Cruise in January 2026.
