Seychelles - The Bike Tour Guide: More than 675 Km of cycling routes in Paradise

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And one day you wake up in the Seychelles...
In a nutshell, Seychelles is an archipelago of 115 Islands located in the Indian Ocean, off East Africa, known worldwide for the most beautiful beaches in the world, preserved coral reefs and natural reserves, awesome diving sites, rare wildlife preservation and for the slow paced, relaxing lifestyle called “creole spirit”.
From my experience, there are only three islands where you can cycle and are Mahé, Praslin and La Digue.

You will not find single-tracks or gravel roads in any of the three islands, everything is paved. And well paved indeed – mostly asphalt but if you go deep in the mountains, even the narrowest back roads are cement paved, which makes these roads look a lot like cycling paths. With the difference that they’re seldom flat; instead they’re very steep, both going up and down.
Putting it very clear: the roads are narrow, curvy and normally steep. There are steep rain drains on both sides of the road, but the traffic is light, actually very well behaved compared to other places in the world. The public transportation buses are a bit noisy and smoky but I’ve always found the drivers very courteous with cyclists. However, people are still not used to see and share roads with cyclists, so to cycle in Seychelles it will require lots of attention.
As I’m used to explain to people that look surprised when I tell them that I normally cycle around Mahé, if you go out in early morning, and manage to get away from the Victoria-Airport-Anse Royal axis before the traffic starts to build-up, you’ll find a completely different place to ride around.

Achieving longer rides in Seychelles represent quite a challenge: due to the geography, long distances without repetition the same roads are hard to find and to combine, and always come associated to strong altimetry - for a rider to cycle 80 km in Seychelles, will need at least 5 hours of good pace and strong measure of resistance because of the heat, humidity, wind and sunlight.
If you’re used to do the typical 130+ km on flat km-crunching roads, you’ll see that in Seychelles that will more or less equate in effort, time and calories to the 80+ km.
So, if you’re embarking into this kind of challenge, you’ll need to wake up and get out there riding very early, hydrate often, ensure you eat at periodical intervals to keep the energy and stamina at decent levels, and then just ride and take advantage of the magnificent landscape.
I’ve made sure you would find next to each one of these longer rides description, the QR code in www.gpsies.com where you can not only view the course but also download it to your preferred GPS device.
Very important to take note is that, as with any long rides and not only in Seychelles, if you can, team up to make the ride more fun, a collective effort and to have someone to talk to along the route. Riding with other people also motivates you to wake up early – no one wants to disappoint friends that are waiting for you, right?!
Establish a nice target as point of arrival, maybe a place where you can have a coffee, a cold beer, or just fresh water to celebrate the moment, and here you go!

If you’re staying in Mahé and want to go for a weekend ride to the other islands or just a one day “back-pack”ride away like I did once, put Praslin and La Digue in the equation and here’s your great deal.
Buy your Air Seychelles ticket online and board the quick and comfortable 15 minute flight connecting Mahé to Praslin; the national carrier operates more than 25 domestic round-trip flights a day between the two main islands and will take your bike within your normal baggage allowance; like any other airline, someo