Praslin Things to Do Tips by globetrott Top 5 Page for this destination

a day in paradise

Take a look at this great vegetation, it looks great in the first moment but the climate is also very hot and the worst is the humidity, that makes you a totally wet shirt within quite a short time even without sweating so much. That heat is also not really good for your camera and other electronic devices, so you better keep them inside a bag, when not used.

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There are several banks in Praslin and I saw a total of 3 ATM-machines alone in Anse Volbert Village, there are internetcafes and supermarkets and nobody begging in the streets. Everybody is smiling and friendly to the tourists, it is in fact some sort of paradise !

Anse Volbert Village

Anse Volbert Village is quite a large village around the Berjaya Beach Hotel and some other, smaller Hotels. There are souvenirshops, an internetcafe, a pizzeria, some smaller supermarkets, art-galleries etc. and lots of noble villas with nice parks around of them. Anse Volbert Village is certainly a great place to go for a longer vacation.

the church of Baie Ste Anne

Behind these trees you will see the church of Baie Ste Anne, quite an impressive building dating back to the beginning of the 19th century and walking there will take you about 10-15 minutes to walk from the place in Anse Ste Anne, where the ships-tenders are landing. It is a pity that I did not have enough time to go there after the bustour !

Directions: The church of Baie Ste Anne is about 800 meters from the pier in Anse St. Anne

Anse Gouvernement

Anse Gouvernement is one of the bays with a great sandy beach, when you drive or walk from Baie St. Anne to Anse Volbert Village. You will find just a narrow beach and also no facilities at all at this beach, but it is faster to walk there from St. Anne and might be a good place for a bath, when you dont have enough time.

Directions: Anse Gouvernement is about 2,5 km from Anse Ste. Anne.

The Zak-fruit

The Zak-fruit is another interesting tree that you will be able to see in the national park of Valee de Mai. Zak is pronounced like "Jack" and it is a pity that it is not allowed to taste any of the fruits in the national park. The size of these fruits was like a mediumsized watermelon.

Directions: You will find these Zak-trees in the national park of Valee de Mai.

the beach in Anse Volbert

Anse Volbert is one of the beaches of Praslin and we were taken there during our halfdaytour and were offered a free drink at the hotelbar of Berjaya Beach Resort. Our halfdaytour included also some free time at the beach before we were taken back to the ship. The sand is extrafine and the water is quite flat and there are many places to take nice photoshots.

Directions: Anse Volbert Village is about 4 km from Baie St. Anne. Some of our passengers walked all the way.

St. Anne bay

St. Anne bay is a large bay with a nice village and lots of houses built into the hills. Most of the cruiseships will anker off that bay and their tenders will disembark their passengers there. I also enjoyed a lot to see various catamarans and other sailingships anchored in St. Anne bay. Walking-distance to the village is about 5-10 minutes.

Directions: St. Anne bay is where you will get the ferry to La Dique.

Valee de Mai - the home of the Coco de Mer

Valee de Mai is a National Park, where you will be able to see lots of the rare Coco-de-mer trees, the biggest coconut on earth. You have to pay an entrancefee of 20 euros / 25 US$ for that park and will find many signposts with explanations and a good display of coco-de-mer fruits and the male blossoms, that are also the largest blossoms of all plants on earth.

The national park is open for visitors :
Daily from 08.00 am till 05.30 pm
Smoking is forbidden !!!
And it is forbidden to leave the paths or
take away anything !

Directions: It is best to take a taxi, rental car or bus to the National Park on top of the hill.

Coco de Mer - nature has a lot of humor sometimes

The Coco de Mer got its name by the fact that it was first detected when the nuts were swimming in the ocean and the sailors who never saw these fruits before had the idea that these fruits are growing in the sea. The Koko-D-Mer (there are a lot of different spellings) is a giant tree and there is always a higher male tree and a lower female tree. The male tree has a blossom that looks like a giant thing, that will always be printed like xxx,when you type it in a VT-text, see it for yourself in my 2nd and 4th photo. The female blossoms look more like a bush (4th pic on the very right!)and it needs the wind to take the male blossoms to the females. The fruits of the Coco de mer can be up to 80 kg and of course it is forbidden to take any of them home as a souvenir (except for some that have a certificate by the state).

Directions: Nature obviously had a lot of fun, when creating the Coco-de-Mer !!