Travel Services of Seychelles and other Seychelles Tourist Trap Tips

Travel Services of the Seychelles, TSS, is a good company that works with the government. Great people, too. But their services always include a commission to themselves, which you can sometimes avoid by organising things yourself.

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At Least Do This: If your are booking a package tour or using services of a travel agent back home (wherever that might be), the chance is that your agent is using the TSS services and that you will be met by TSS personnel at the airport /in your hotel/at the pier. Fine, when all is paid for already, there's nothing extra to be added. TSS will give you further suggestions and options, and these things do not necessarily come cheap.
Alternative: You might be better off using the services of the hotel or guest house where you are staying directly, hail e.g. a taxi yourself and negotiate daytrips around Mahe or Praslin, get your tickets and excursions to other islands, fishing and snorkelling trips organised directly with the transport companies etc. Our experience was that drivers and boatowners did not try to overcharge, but offered a fair deal.

The Seychelles tourist authority and state is eager to lay their hands on your cash, cards and cheques. It’s all about keeping currency reserves and viable trading currencies handy for the state. Nobody wants Seychelles Rupees. All said, the Seychellois are very nice when convincing you to part with your money. And they have indeed some very good suggestions.
There is a fixed exchange rate established by the State Bank. This is about 1 USD = 5 SRS.
Since people are rather desperate to leave the islands for holidays and work, and there are restrictions of how much foreign currency they can buy, there is another exchange rate, too. Brought on by the State rules the limited access leads to private need for dollars, euros, pounds and other currencies of key Seychellois’ travel destinations, and quite discreetly you may be offered a rate as much as 1:9, which probably reflects the real value of the rupee.

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At Least Do This: It is illegal to do black market exchange according to regulations you have signed on entry to the Seychelles, and you should never, never, never push for such a sale.
Alternative: Smile, pay and check out the beach and waves - that's all for free!!!!

While not entirely budget level, Seychelles style, this is the cost of a fairly comfortable life:

Flying there from Europe: 1000 E
1 night in a guest house/3 star and below hotel: 60 E
Breakfast: 10 E
Basic lunch/dinner w/ drinks/dessert: 20 E
Taxi from airport to Victoria 10 E
Snorkeling tour in a boat, half-day w/picnic: 50 E
Full day game fishing w/food and drinks: 200 E
Cat Cocos catamaran boat Victoria-Praslin: 20 E
Bike rental, one day: 8 E
A beer and a burger or pizza: 12 E

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At Least Do This: You may beat the prices here with organizing your own picnic on the beach, buying your breakfast, lunch, dinner and fruits and drinks out of the super market etc. And no problem, you are supporting the local economy and getting very decent food, too.
You can save on drinks by drinking tap water, which is perfectly safe.
If you gang up a few people and charter a fishing boat you may easily beat the price of a tourist agency or hotel’s offer for a fishing tour. If you rent a bike for several days in a row, you’ll get a discount etc. etc.
To beat the hotel costs, you can look at cheaper guest houses and non-service accommodation. Another way of going about it is to jump on an offer for accommodation and all the food included. That seemed to me to be a very good choice if staying in one place for a while.