The verdict
A day in Sainte Anne Marine National Park costs between $83 and $163 and takes most of it. The question is fair. The answer turns on something unusual: this is a national park that one man made by hand, and you can walk around it in an hour.
Quick answer
Yes, if you book a trip that actually lands on the island. Moyenne Island is 9.9 hectares of planted forest with around fifty giant tortoises on it, inside a marine park protected since 1973. Nine of the fourteen listings here land; the other five are good days in the same water that never stop ashore. That is the decision, not the price.
What you are actually buying
An hour inside one man’s project, in water protected for half a century.
Moyenne Island was abandoned from 1915 until 1962. A newspaper editor bought it for eight thousand pounds, planted about sixteen thousand trees across nine and a half hectares, cut paths, brought in giant tortoises and lived there from 1972 to the end of his life in 2012. In 2009 the government declared it a national park.
So a Moyenne Island tour is not a beach day with a nice backdrop. It is an hour walking through one person’s forty-year project, among animals that are there because he carried them there, inside a marine park that has been protected since 1973.
The reef around it is the other half of the value, and it is the half most listings lead with. Fifty years of protection means live hard coral and fish that are not afraid of people.
What makes the decision non-obvious is only this: five of the fourteen listings do not land on the island at all.
Who should skip it
It is not for everyone, and the site would rather say so.
Moyenne Island has no facilities, no bar and no long stretch of sand. Beau Vallon on Mahé or Anse Lazio on Praslin is a better day for that.
Then the island is incidental. Book the four-hour snorkelling trip at $154 — best rating on the page — and skip the landing.
Between June and September the crossing is choppy. A glass-bottom day from $83 is shorter and calmer, or wait for the turns.
Every trip, current fare
Every trip on the page, with the kind of boat on each row
| Trip | Length | Price | Kind of boat | Cost per hour | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mahé: Saint-Anne Marine Park and Moyenne Island CruiseSeven hours, and it lands on Moyenne | 7 h | $163 | Cruise & snorkel | $0.39 | 4.6 · 568 |
| Glassbottom boat & Crystalkayak SteAnneMarinePark SnorkelingThe cheapest trip here, and no swimming needed | Full day | $83 | Glass-bottom | $0.20 | 4.5 · 49 |
| St. Anne Marine Park, Moyenne & Cerf Island Tour with LunchThe most reviewed listing in the niche | 6 h | $87 | Cruise & snorkel | $0.22 | 4.2 · 1,139 |
| Glass boat: Marine Park, Moyenne Island & Lunch Boat TourGlass boat, Moyenne and lunch | 7 h | $92 | Glass-bottom | $0.22 | 4.1 · 19 |
| Seychelles Glass Bottom Boat Trip with Lunch & SnorkellingSix hours with lunch and snorkelling | 6 h | $110 | Glass-bottom | $0.31 | New |
| Mahe: Day Trip by Glass Bottom Boat with Snorkeling & LunchA full day by glass-bottom boat | 6 h | $143 | Glass-bottom | $0.40 | 4.4 · 36 |
| Mahe: St. Anne Marine National Park Reef Safari with LunchThe best-evidenced snorkelling day | 7 h | $146 | Cruise & snorkel | $0.35 | 4.6 · 321 |
| Mahe Island: St. Anne Marine Park Snorkeling TripFour hours, and the best rated here | 4 h | $154 | Cruise & snorkel | $0.64 | 4.9 · 76 |
| Mahé: Baie Ternay Park Catamaran Cruise with BBQ LunchA sailing catamaran with a barbecue | 6 h | $156 | Cruise & snorkel | $0.43 | 4.8 · 15 |
| Tour of Cousin, Curieuse and St Pierre island on a CatamaranCousin, Curieuse and St Pierre | 8 h | $258 | Cruise & snorkel | $0.54 | 5.0 · 2 |
| Mahe: Private half-day boat trip at the St.Anne Marine ParkFour hours with a boat to yourselves | 4 h | $535 | Private charter | $2.23 | 4.9 · 43 |
| Mahé: Private full-day boat trip at the St. Anne Marine ParkA full private day in the marine park | 7 h | $658 | Private charter | $1.57 | 5.0 · 7 |
| Seychelles: Private Boat Charter with Customizable ItineraryA charter you shape yourself | 7 h | $924 | Private charter | $2.20 | New |
| Luxury Private Boat Charter Praslin, Seychelles with BBQ.Eight hours of luxury — the price anchor | 8 h | $1,155 | Private charter | $2.41 | 5.0 · 9 |
The line that settles it: nine of the fourteen listings land on Moyenne Island. If the island is why you are going, that is the only line that matters.
Which trip is best→Book direct
Top pick, 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
Yes, if the listing lands on the island. It is 9.9 hectares of planted forest with around fifty giant tortoises, inside a marine park protected since 1973.
The six-hour Moyenne and Cerf listing at $87 has the most reviews; our all-round pick is the seven-hour cruise at $163.
No, and five of the fourteen listings do not. If the tortoises and the paths are the point, check that line before you book.
Very. The glass-bottom listings from $83 show the reef without anybody needing to snorkel, and giant tortoises are an easy sell.
Small, paid on the island in cash, and separate from the boat price. Bring a few notes.
April, May, October or November — the monsoon turns, when the sea is flattest and the water is clearest.
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.
The verdictFourteen listings, and the four worth your day.
TortoisesAround fifty of them, and how they got there.
SnorkellingWhat you actually see, and which trips put you in the water.
Mahé: Saint-Anne Marine Park and Moyenne Island Cruise
★ 4.9 · 646 reviews · Free cancellation 24 h