Côte d'Or and Anse Volbert

Côte d'Or and Anse Volbert

The tourism board calls Anse Volbert and Côte d'Or Praslin's main beach resort, with hotels and guesthouses along a coastline that is rarely crowded. It describes Anse Volbert as the longest and most popular beach on Praslin, with clear water for swimming and water sports. Anse Volbert is also one of the island's main settlements.

Boat trips

This stretch of coast is the main departure point for Chauve Souris, St Pierre and Curieuse. The Seychelles Parks and Gardens Authority gives the boat ride from Côte d'Or to Curieuse as about 20 minutes, arranged through local tour operators or boat charters. Curieuse Marine National Park takes in Curieuse and the whole channel between it and Praslin, including St Pierre and Chauve Souris, and the Praslin shoreline forms its southern boundary. St Pierre is a five-minute boat ride from Curieuse, with snorkelling and diving.

On Curieuse, visitors can see Aldabra giant tortoises introduced between 1978 and 1982, walk a boardwalk through the mangroves at Baie Laraie, and follow the trail to Anse José. The park opens from 9:00 to 17:00 daily, and entry is SCR 300 for non-residents over 12 (Seychelles Parks and Gardens Authority, checked 16 September 2026).

Along the north coast

Further west, the tourism board lists Anse Petite Cour as a small bay beside a hotel, with granite boulders, snorkelling and a view of Curieuse.

The beach

Anse Volbert, also known as Côte d'Or, runs for about 2.6 km along Praslin's north-east coast and is the island's main resort strip. Guesthouses, hotels, restaurants, shops, car and bicycle hire, and dive centres line the road behind the sand. SeyVillas notes that the Côte d'Or merges into the quieter north-western part of Anse Volbert without a clear boundary. Tourism Seychelles' guide to family beaches, of June 2025, calls it Praslin's family favourite for its shallow water, wide sand, kayaking and glass-bottom boats.

Getting there

The coastal road runs alongside, with roadside parking and bus stops along the route. Tourism Seychelles' listing for Berjaya Praslin Beach puts the beach 10 minutes' drive from the ferry terminal and 15 minutes from Praslin airport (updated 30 September 2025).

SPTC runs the public buses on Praslin, but the timetables it publishes cover Mahé routes only, so Praslin times come from the SPTC app or from asking locally; its visitor travel card runs from SCR 100 / €5 for a day to SCR 363 / €22 for eight consecutive days, collected at the airport information desk between 6am and 6pm (SPTC, checked 20 September 2026). Côte d'Or Cars delivers hire cars to the airport, the jetty and hotels (Tourism Seychelles, updated 1 October 2024).

What is along the beach

Tourism Seychelles' directory gives the Côte d'Or Esplanade, behind the sand, as the address of Octopus Diving Centre; the boat charters Barracuda, Lyly, Mica and Swell; the Praslin Museum; and the restaurants Café des Arts, which its listing places on the beach, Les Lauriers and La Mer, open 8am to 9pm daily and to 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays. Listed at Côte d'Or rather than on the Esplanade are Eze Charter, Côte d'Or Cars and the Coco de Mer Boutique near the football pitch, and Whitetip Divers is listed at Paradise Sun Hotel on Anse Volbert (listings checked 20 September 2026). Some hotels set out sun loungers for their own guests; SeyVillas asks visitors not to use them without permission.

Whitetip Divers says its boat leaves from the beach in front of the dive centre (listing updated 27 March 2026), and PADI's directory gives Octopus Diving's hours as 8.30am to 4.30pm Monday to Saturday and 8.30am to 3pm Sunday (checked 20 September 2026).

In the water

The water is shallow and slopes gently, with no dangerous coral or cliffs, which makes it popular for swimming and motorised water sports. SeyVillas notes that the tide changes quickly; the Seychelles Meteorological Authority's table for September 2026 gives four tides on most days, at heights between 0.4 m and 2.0 m.

Côte d'Or is one of three beaches in Seychelles with a lifeguard: Tourism Seychelles' Beach and Sea Safety Guide, second edition, names Beau Vallon on Mahé, Anse Lazio and Côte d'Or, and says there are none at any other beach. It gives 2529976 as the Seychelles Life Guard Services number (checked 20 September 2026).

Swimmers share this water with boats. The Beach Control Regulations (Cap 14) keep water skis and motor boats more than 400 feet off the shore, except in a marked lane or when starting and finishing a ski run, and require a licence for commercial ski-boat operations.

Boats to Curieuse and St Pierre

The Seychelles Parks and Gardens Authority says the boat from Côte d'Or to Curieuse takes about 20 minutes and is arranged through local operators; the marine park opens 9am to 5pm seven days a week and charges non-residents over 12 Rs300, with SCR150 more for the nesting sea turtle trail between October and early March (checked 20 September 2026). Barracuda Boat Charter, listed on the Esplanade, runs trips to Cousin, Curieuse and St Pierre (updated 3 March 2026). Measured from the OpenStreetMap outlines, St Pierre lies about 1.6 km off the beach in a straight line and Curieuse about 3.6 km.

Wind, seaweed and erosion

The Seychelles Meteorological Authority's climate guide puts the north-west monsoon from January to April and the south-east trades from May to October, calling June steady for windsurfing and sailing, July and August windy with rough seas, and April and November calm. Sources differ on seaweed: the SeyVillas beach page reports some at the eastern and western ends, its climate notes tie it to the December to February winds and its north-east coast page to the May to October winds. The Climate Change Division said in 2022 that it planned an artificial reef off the Côte d'Or to reduce wave action and erosion.