The verdict
Fourteen listings that mostly visit the same protected water, with near-identical titles. The honest ranking splits three ways: the trips that land on Moyenne Island, the trips that are really about the reef, and the private boats.
Quick answer
The best Moyenne Island tour is the seven-hour cruise at $163 — it crosses Sainte Anne Marine National Park, lands on the island and gives you time on the paths and among the tortoises. 568 reviews at 4.6. If you mainly want the reef, the four-hour snorkelling trip at $154 holds the best score on the page.
How we ranked them
Does it land, how much evidence, and in the water or above it.
1. Does it land on Moyenne Island? This is the first filter and it removes several listings straight away. A trip that crosses the marine park and anchors at two snorkelling stops is a good day; it is not a Moyenne Island tour.
2. How much evidence is there? One listing here carries 1,139 ratings and four carry fewer than twenty between them. That does not make the new ones bad, but it does mean they are untested.
3. In the water or above it? Glass-bottom and snorkelling cost about the same and are completely different days. Neither is better; the wrong one is a bad purchase.
The best trip for each kind of traveller
Find the line that matches you and stop comparing.
Seven hours at $163. It lands on Moyenne Island and gives you time among the tortoises and on the paths.
$87 with 1,139 ratings — twice as many as anything else here, and it stops at both Moyenne and Cerf.
$154 for four hours, or $146 for a full day. Both are better in the water than any glass-bottom listing.
A glass-bottom day from $83. The same reef, from above, with nobody having to be brave.
From $535 for four hours, priced per boat rather than per person.
$258 to Cousin, Curieuse and St Pierre. Excellent, and not a Moyenne Island tour.
Nine of the fourteen listings here land on Moyenne Island. The other five are good days out in the same water that never stop on it.
Tickets and booking→Book direct
Best all round, most reviewed, best rated and cheapest.
★ 4.6 · 568 reviews
★ 4.2 · 1,139 reviews
★ 4.9 · 76 reviews
★ 4.5 · 49 reviews
Common questions
The seven-hour cruise at $163. It crosses Sainte Anne Marine National Park, lands on the island and carries 568 reviews at 4.6.
The six-hour trip to Moyenne and Cerf Island with lunch, at $87, with 1,139 ratings.
The four-hour snorkelling trip at $154, with 4.9 from 76 reviews.
No. Nine of the fourteen do. The rest cross the marine park and anchor at snorkelling stops without stopping on the island.
No. The luxury charter at $1,155 covers the same water as trips at a tenth of the price. What it buys is the boat to yourselves.
Glass-bottom if anybody in the group would rather not swim; snorkelling if everybody is happy in the water. They cost about the same.
Go deeper
One man, 16,000 trees and forty years. The story behind the park.
CostFrom $83, and the park fee nobody mentions.
The parkProtected since 1973, and the first marine park in the Indian Ocean.
TortoisesAround fifty of them, and how they got there.
SnorkellingWhat you actually see, and which trips put you in the water.
Glass-bottomThe reef without swimming, from $83.
Mahé: Saint-Anne Marine Park and Moyenne Island Cruise
★ 4.9 · 646 reviews · Free cancellation 24 h