Seasonal Guide

Best time to visit the Seychelles

There is no wrong month. There are better months for specific things. Here is how we read the calendar.

Understanding the Seychelles climate

The Seychelles sits within four degrees of the equator and has no true dry season. Instead, the year divides into two monsoon periods — the northwest monsoon (November to March) and the southeast trade wind season (May to September) — separated by brief transition months in April and October that are, arguably, the most interesting weeks of the year for active travellers.

The northwest monsoon delivers warm, calm conditions across the inner granitic islands — Mahé, Praslin, La Digue — and is the prime season for beach travel, scuba diving, and yacht charters on the inner archipelago. Sea temperatures hover around 29°C. Visibility on the reefs averages 20 metres. Rainfall occurs, but almost always as short afternoon showers that do not disrupt a morning on the water.

The southeast trades bring stronger winds from May onward. The inner island beaches on the north and east coasts calm right down, while the southwest-facing beaches become less swimmable. For the outer islands — Alphonse, Desroches, the Amirantes — this is peak season. The trade wind chops the surface but clears the flats, and the fly-fishing guide at Alphonse will tell you that May through September is when the bonefish are most active and most visible.

Month-by-month summary

January – March

Northwest Monsoon

Warm, calm, some rain

— Inner island diving
— Beach travel
— Sailing the inner archipelago
— Honeymoons

April

First Transition

Calm, clearing, warm

— Best diving visibility of the year (30 m+)
— Whale shark season begins
— Ideal for all activities

May – September

Southeast Trades

Windier, rougher seas north

— Fly-fishing on outer flats
— Kite surfing on Desroches
— Sailing passages south
— Outer island expeditions

October

Second Transition

Calm again, warming

— Diving
— Whale sharks (second window)
— Island buyouts

November – December

Northwest Monsoon begins

Warm, building humidity

— Family travel
— Yacht charters
— All inner island experiences

April: the exceptional month

If we could choose one month for a guest who had never been to the Seychelles and wanted to understand what makes it genuinely extraordinary, we would choose April. The southeast trades have not yet established. The sea is glassy. The water temperature is at its peak. And the visibility on Shark Bank — the seamount twelve kilometres west of Mahé — clears to 30 metres or more, often revealing whale sharks that have followed the tuna migration northward from the equator.

Whale sharks appear off the east coast of Mahé and around the northern tip of Silhouette from late March through May. They are filter feeders and entirely indifferent to snorkellers. A guide in the water at 5:45am who knows where they are feeding will put you alongside one that morning. We have done this consistently since 2026.

How we plan around the calendar

Every journey we design begins with two questions: when can you travel, and what does the week need to feel like? The calendar shapes everything that follows. A family with school-age children travelling in August will get a very different outer island programme than a couple travelling in April specifically for the whale shark window. A fly-fisher whose only available dates fall in February will be directed to the inner island reefs rather than the Alphonse flats, which are at their least productive in the northwest monsoon.

We do not publish fixed-date packages. We design every week from scratch, calendar first. If you tell us your dates, we will tell you what the Seychelles looks like in that window — and what to do with it.