Eden Island is the definition of luxury and the Victoria market is a MUST. Read on for the WiFi password in the Victoria Market and where to find the best cupcakes!
Since we had rented our car for two days, we decided to spend one of them going around Mahe, and the other – to explore Victoria, the capital city, as well as Eden Island – the most luxurious place in the Seychelles.
Table of Contents
Victoria
The capital city of the Seychelles is a pleasure to walk around, but to be honest – there aren’t that many stunning sites there. You can pretty much see the city in half a day. Be careful, though, everything is closed on Sundays and open only until noon on Saturdays. The normal working hours on a weekday are from 8am to 4pm, so an early start of the day is always a good idea.
The Hindu Temple
Right at the heart of the city, you can see an absolutely stunning Hindu temple. You can go in and enjoy the beautiful interior as well! Just make sure you wear proper clothes and don’t try to enter in your swimwear. If you’re looking for a parking spot – there is a parking right in front of the temple, only about half a euro per hour.
“Little Ben”
If you go down the street from the temple and turn right, you’ll see this cute little clock tower which was made as a copy of Little Ben (Vauxhall Clock Tower in London). The city was established as a French colony originally, but then after a treaty it became a British colony, so understandably, it was named after the Great Queen Victoria.
Victoria Market
DON’T trust the opening times announced on TripAdvisor! The marked is not open on Sundays and closes with everything else at noon on Saturday. Luckily, we managed to go on Saturday morning 🙂 You can find lots of spices, fruits and souvenirs in the market. Don’t forget to always bargain with the merchants, so you can get a good price. There’s a Bistro/Restaurant on the 2nd floor of the market, but I wouldn’t recommend it – really slow services, small portions and pretty bad quality of the food. But having a drink there is just fine! The WiFi password in the Bistro is: victoria (should’ve figured it out beforehand 😀 ), so at least you can do an easy Facebook check-in 🙂
If you feel like spending more time in Victoria, though, here are some more things you could see: the Victoria Botanical Gardens, the Victoria National Museum of History, the Victoria Natural History Museum.
Eden Island
As mentioned in my previous blog post about Ste Anne Marine Park, Eden Island is a man-made island and is incredibly luxurious and expensive (the houses start from $500,000!). If you can afford one of them, you automatically become a citizen in the Seychelles! Yay!
That said, you can’t really go walking around the private areas of the island. However, you can go to the Eden Plaza, which offers great lunch choices, free WiFi in some of the coffee houses, and a stunning view of the port. You could also shop there, as there are a few stores for apparel and souvenirs. Overall, you can spend a great relaxed chilly afternoon on a really hot day.
Bonus:
If you visit the SPAR supermarket in the Eden Plaza, you can find these beautifully decorated muffins! I don’t really recommend the blue one, as after eating it, there’s a good chance you’ll end up looking like you ate a smurf 😀 (won’t share a photo of that, even though I have one 😀 )
