Coral Diving in the Seychelles

If you’re looking for beach-front luxury coupled with Crusoe-esque remoteness in a tropical paradise setting with world-class diving on its doorstep, then the Indian Ocean deserves your attention. While the Maldives may draw the gaze of most divers scrutinising a map of the Indian Ocean’s top diving destinations, its Afri-can sibling to the south, the Seychelles, is equally well-equipped to deliver a superlative dive holiday. The Seychellois landscape may be more rugged, but its resorts and reefs are just as flashy and splashy. The re-mote reefs are cloaked in colourful corals and surrounded by clouds of reef fish, as the bigger denizens of the deep patrol the blue. The island nation is home to an eclectic mix of marine creatures big and small, and you can expect the coral diving in the Seychelles to be some of the most colourful on the planet...

Alphonse Atoll

Geologically, the Seychelles myriad islands are split into two main groups: the granitic Inner Islands and the coralline Outer Islands. And while there's excellent coral cover in the more northerly Inner Islands, the coralline Outer Islands may be best suited to those seeking out the best coral diving in the Seychelles.

The Alphonse Group consists of two atolls that are separated by a deep channel just over a mile wide: Alphonse Atoll in the north and St. François Atoll to the south. These remote islets are surrounded by crystal-clear and pollution-free waters that have allowed the coral cover to flourish. The reefs are covered in beautiful soft corals and an incredible amount of fish life, including manta rays, and are up there with the very best of the coral diving in the Seychelles.

Desroches Island

The Amirante Islands subgroup, to the north of Alphonse, is also part of the Seychelles' coralline Outer Islands grouping. Desroches Island is the largest of the Amirantes and boasts several superb dive sites and miles of unexplored, virgin reefs. Its varied dive sites include coral-encrusted walls, tunnels, deep caves and swim-throughs, and in addition to being among the best coral diving in the Seychelles, Desroches is also good for the big stuff...

With a cast of A-list sharks below the waves - white-tipped reef sharks, tawny nurse sharks, grey reefs, silvertips, silkies, oceanic whitetips and occasional bull and hammerhead sharks - and a healthy population of giant tortoises on land, you can expect impressive animal encounters at every turn. And with 320 species of coral on some of the world's most remote and pristine reefs, you can rest assured that Desroches Island boasts some of the best coral diving in the Seychelles too.

The Aldabra Group

For those who truly want to channel their inner Robinson Crusoe, the remote Aldabra Group is closer to Madagascar than it is to the Seychelles' capital city of Victoria. Sitting almost 500 miles south-west from Desroches Island, just above the entrance to the Mozambique Channel, the twin atolls of Cosmoledo Atoll and Astove Atoll also boast colourful reefs that can also lay claim to the title of being the 'King of the coral diving in the Seychelles.'

With around twenty miles of blue, blue ocean between Cosmoledo and Astove, you can dive both atolls, with Astove Wall on the north-west side of Astove Island and the shallow reef at Petit Astove near Cosmoledo being the pick of the bunch for coral diving. In the Seychelles, there's always the chance of a surprise in the blue, and early morning dives here can reward you with hammerhead sightings as well as with the immaculate coral cover.

As a diver's paradise whose myriad islands and atolls lie strewn across the Indian Ocean, it may not be immediately apparent which island best suits your travel plans. Our team of dive travel specialists have criss-crossed the archipelago, and have first-hand experience of the best private islands and beach-front resorts, and know where to find the best coral diving in the Seychelles...