FAQ & driving guide

Five things, in order of how often they catch people out:

1. We drive on the left. The hard part is not the straight road, it is the first roundabout, the first junction after a petrol stop, and the moment you reach for the gear lever with the wrong hand. Say “left” out loud at every junction for the first day. It feels ridiculous and it works.
2. The roads are narrow and there is often no verge. Two cars meeting on a mountain road is normal and one of you gives way. Hug your own side, slow down, and do not assume there is anywhere to swerve to — there usually is not.
3. Use your horn before blind corners. On the mountain passes this is not aggression, it is the local convention and everyone does it. A short tap.
4. Buses stop anywhere, without warning. The public buses are wide, fast for their size, and will stop in the middle of the lane. Leave room and do not tailgate one.
5. Pedestrians walk in the road. There are very few pavements outside Victoria. Expect people, children, dogs and cyclists in your lane, especially near villages at dusk.

Steeper and tighter than most visitors expect, and perfectly manageable at low speed in a small car.

The crossings over the ridge — Sans Souci (Victoria to Port Glaud) and La Misère (Victoria to the airport side) — are the ones people remember. Continuous hairpins, gradients that will have a loaded small car in first or second gear, sheer drops on one side and rock on the other, and oncoming traffic that cuts the corner. The roads up to Mission Lodge and some of the south-coast beach access roads are the same character.

What actually makes it easy:

• Go down in a low gear, not on the brakes. Riding the brakes for a whole descent will cook them and you will feel the pedal go soft near the bottom.
• Take hairpins wide of the apex and slowly. If a car is coming, the one with the wall on their side usually has somewhere to tuck in.
• Do not do your first mountain crossing in the dark or in heavy rain. Drive it once in daylight first.

A small car is an advantage here, not a compromise. Nobody needs a 4×4 on Mahé — the paved roads reach everywhere worth driving to, and a smaller car fits the lanes and the parking.

It is the single biggest change in difficulty, and worth planning around for your first couple of days.

Most roads outside Victoria have no street lighting at all, no cat’s eyes and no painted edge line in places. Add pedestrians in dark clothing walking in your lane, oncoming headlights on a hairpin, and tropical rain that arrives in minutes, and a road you found easy at 3pm is genuinely demanding at 8pm.

Practical advice: do your long drives and your mountain crossings in daylight, keep to the coast road after dark where you can, drop your speed well below the limit, and dip your lights early for oncoming traffic. Sunset is around 6–6:30pm all year and there is very little dusk — it goes dark quickly.

No. Your valid national driving licence is accepted in Seychelles for the length of a normal visit. You do not need to arrange an IDP before you travel.

One exception: if your licence is not written in the Roman alphabet — Arabic, Japanese, Cyrillic, Thai and so on — bring either an International Driving Permit or an official translation alongside it, so that it can be read at the counter and at a police check.

Bring the physical licence. A photo on your phone, an app, or a photocopy is not accepted, and neither is a provisional or learner permit.

You must be at least 21 years old and have held a full licence for at least 3 years.

This applies to every person who will drive, not just the person who booked. Anyone who might take the wheel has to be added to the agreement and have their licence recorded — someone driving who is not on the contract is not insured, which turns a small scrape into a bill for the whole car.

• Your physical driving licence (plus translation or IDP if it is not in the Roman alphabet).
• Your passport.
• Your booking reference.
• The licence of every additional driver, with that person present.

We photograph the licence and passport page to attach to your hire agreement, and you get a copy of the signed agreement by email immediately. The photographs are deleted on a fixed schedule after your rental ends.

Three numbers cover the whole country:

• 40 km/h — towns, villages and built-up areas. This is most of where you will actually be driving.
• 65 km/h — main roads outside built-up areas, including the coast roads, unless a sign says otherwise.
• 80 km/h — the dual carriageway between Victoria and the airport. That stretch, about 5 km, is the only dual carriageway in Seychelles. There are no motorways.

On La Digue, where the few vehicles share the road with bicycles, signs are typically 25 km/h.

There are speed cameras, and they are concentrated exactly where people speed: the Victoria–airport road, and near schools. A ticket from one reaches us weeks later and is passed on to the driver named on the agreement.

On the mountain roads the limit is almost never the constraint — the corners are. 40 km/h is already too fast for some of those hairpins.

0.08% blood alcohol (0.8 g/l). Roadside breath testing and fixed checkpoints are routine, including at night and at weekends.

Two things worth being blunt about. First, the penalty is in a different league to the other fines — a drink-driving offence runs to around SCR 10,000 and can mean arrest. Second, and this is the part that catches people: driving under the influence voids your insurance entirely. Not reduces it, not raises the deductible — removes it. You would be personally liable for the full value of the car and of anything you hit.

On narrow unlit roads after a beach day, the honest answer is to not drink at all if you are driving.

• Seatbelts are compulsory for everyone, front and rear. Fines are issued per person.
• Phones: hands-free only. No holding the phone, not at a junction, not at a red light. Set your route before you move off — mobile coverage is patchy in the hills anyway, so download the map offline.
• Children: an appropriate child seat is strongly recommended for under-5s, and a proper restraint for anyone under about 12 or under 150 cm. Enforcement is inconsistent; the physics are not. Tell us ages and heights when you book and we will fit the right seats.
• Headlights from dusk and whenever visibility drops — which in a tropical downpour is instant.

Indicative amounts, which change from time to time:

• Speeding — SCR 1,000 to 3,000
• Mobile phone while driving — around SCR 1,000
• No seatbelt — around SCR 1,000
• Illegal parking — around SCR 500
• Drink driving — around SCR 10,000, plus possible arrest

If you are stopped: pull over, stay in the car unless asked, be polite, and have your licence, passport and the hire agreement ready. All three live in the car, so keep the agreement in the glovebox.

Do not pay a fine at the roadside. Fines are issued on an official ticket and paid at a police station. Handing over cash to an officer at the kerb is not how it is done here and you should decline politely. If anything about an encounter seems wrong, call the 24-hour hotline on your booking confirmation and we will deal with it — we know how the process works and you are on holiday.

On Mahé: Victoria (several), Pointe Larue near the airport, Beau Vallon, Anse Royale, Baie Lazare and Port Glaud. On Praslin: Baie Sainte Anne and Grand Anse.

Most close between 7pm and 8pm, and there is nothing open overnight. This is the practical constraint on an evening out: fill up during the day, and never start a mountain crossing on a low tank, because there is no station on the passes and no station in the south-west after dark.

Petrol is sold by the litre and card payment is normal at the larger stations, but carry some rupees in case.

Victoria is the only place parking is genuinely difficult. Street parking in the centre is paid and full during working hours; the multi-storey car park by the market is the reliable option and the one to aim for.

Everywhere else parking is free and informal — roadside, or at the end of the beach access road. Popular small beaches such as Anse Soleil and Petite Anse have only a handful of spaces, so arrive early or be prepared to come back later.

Two things to avoid: blocking a driveway or narrowing an already narrow road, which earns a ticket and deserves one; and leaving anything visible in the car. Opportunistic break-ins at beach car parks are the one property crime visitors do run into. Take your bag to the beach with you.

Longer than the map suggests, by roughly double. Mahé is about 27 km from end to end, but average speeds are low — plan on 30–35 km/h average for anything that is not the airport road.

Rough guides from Victoria: airport 20 minutes, Beau Vallon 15, Anse Royale 30, Baie Lazare or Anse Intendance 45–60, and over Sans Souci to the west coast 30–40. Add time at the start and end of the working day around Victoria, which does have a rush hour.

If you are driving to catch a flight or a ferry, leave a real buffer — a stopped bus or a shower on a mountain road undoes a tight schedule quickly.

Short beach access tracks are fine and a normal car handles them. Driving onto sand is not, and neither are rough construction tracks or unmade roads to remote viewpoints.

This is not a house rule being awkward: undercarriage damage and tyres are not covered by the insurance, on any policy. A sump cracked on a rock or a car bedded into wet sand is paid for by the driver, and a recovery on Mahé is not cheap. If a track looks doubtful, park and walk — on this island it is rarely more than a few minutes.

No. Our vehicles stay on Mahé.

For a day or two on Praslin or La Digue, take the ferry as a passenger and arrange something on arrival — La Digue in particular runs on bicycles and there is very little to drive. If your plans include other islands, tell us when you book and we can line the hire dates up with your ferry so you are not paying for a car sitting in a car park.

In order, and the first two matter most:

1. Check everyone, then make the scene safe. Hazard lights on. If anyone is hurt, call 999 (police) or 151 (ambulance) first — before calling us.
2. Do not move the vehicles until the police have seen them, unless they are creating a real danger. A police report is required and it is built from where the cars came to rest.
3. Call the police on 999 and wait for them. A police report is mandatory for any accident here, no matter how minor, and the insurance claim cannot proceed without it. Settling it privately at the roadside leaves you liable for the whole repair.
4. Call the 24-hour hotline on your booking confirmation. We are reachable around the clock, we will talk you through it, deal with the paperwork, and organise a replacement vehicle.
5. Photograph everything before anything moves: both cars, all damage, number plates, the wider scene showing the road and the positions, and any skid marks. Take more than you think you need.
6. Exchange details — name, address, phone, licence number, insurer and plate — and note any witnesses.

If the other party is at fault, you are not liable for the damage to our vehicle. If you are at fault, you pay no more than the deductible in your insurance package.

Call the 24-hour hotline on your booking confirmation. Our cars are serviced on a schedule and checked between rentals, but things still fail, and when they do it is our problem to solve rather than yours.

Get the car somewhere safe if you can, put the hazards on, and stay with it. We will send assistance or a replacement vehicle as quickly as we can reach you — on Mahé that is usually well under an hour.

Please do not arrange your own repair or recovery and send us the bill, as we cannot reimburse work we did not authorise. One call first and everything is covered.

• Police — 999
• Fire — 999
• Ambulance — 151

Save these in your phone now, along with the hotline number on your booking confirmation. Mobile coverage is good on the coast roads and patchy in the hills, so if you have no signal, move a few hundred metres rather than assuming the phone is useless.

Every rental includes comprehensive cover (CDW) and third-party liability (TPL) as standard. There is no separate insurance to buy at the counter to be legally on the road.

What that means in practice: if the car is damaged, your exposure is capped at the deductible for your package rather than the value of the car.

A deductible (excess) applies per incident and the amount depends on the insurance package you chose when booking. It is the maximum you would pay towards damage, and it is stated in the hire agreement you sign — so if you are unsure what yours is, it is on the copy that was emailed to you.

Per incident, not per rental: two separate incidents in one week means the deductible can apply twice.

No comprehensive policy covers everything. On ours, the exclusions that come up in practice are:

• Undercarriage damage — the sump, exhaust and anything underneath. The usual cause is a rock on an unmade track.
• Tyres and wheels, including punctures and kerbed rims.
• The windscreen and glass.
• Keys — losing them is charged at replacement cost, and a modern key is not cheap.
• Your own belongings in or on the car. Your travel insurance is what covers those.
• Damage caused while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, by deliberate misuse, or by clear negligence — which voids cover completely, not partially.
• Damage caused by anyone not named on the agreement. Letting a friend drive “just to the shop” is the most expensive shortcut available.

Then it is not covered, and this is worth understanding before it happens rather than afterwards.

Damage has to be reported when it occurs. An incident reported at the time goes through insurance, with your deductible as the cap. The same damage discovered at drop-off, with no report and no police report, cannot be put to the insurer — so full payment may be required instead.

So: if you scrape something, call us the same day, even if it looks trivial and even if you are embarrassed. A phone call costs nothing and caps your liability. Staying quiet is what makes it expensive.

We also photograph the car with you at handover and at return, and those photographs are attached to your agreement. That record protects you as much as us — it is how a mark that was already there stays already there.

No. We do not hold a deposit or block an amount on your card for online bookings.

Card or cash, in Euro, Pound Sterling, US Dollar or Seychelles Rupees.

Free cancellation up to 3 days before your rental starts. Plans change, flights move — just let us know.

We deliver anywhere on Mahé, including the airport and your hotel or guesthouse, and collection from our office is free.

Tell us your flight number when you book an airport delivery. If the flight is delayed we will know, and someone will still be there.

Yes, as long as they are added to the agreement and their licence recorded before they drive. Add additional drivers when you book, or when we hand the car over.

Anyone driving who is not named on the agreement is not insured. In that situation the cover is gone, and the person who signed the agreement is liable for the full value of the vehicle — so it is worth the two minutes.