- Where
- Inner Islands, Seychelles,
western Indian Ocean - Coordinates
- 4.36° S
55.84° E - Area
- 10.08 km²
- Population
- About 2,800 (2014)
- Getting there
- Ferry from Praslin or Mahé;
no airport - Getting about
- Bicycle, ox-cart, on foot
- Best visited
- All year; Canada gives the rainy
season as December to March - Advisory
- Seychelles Level 1 (La Digue
Level 2 for health)
No cars to speak of, only bicycles ringing their bells and a cart drawn by an ox in no particular hurry. The beach was strewn with great grey boulders, smoothed and streaked like elephants left out in the rain, and the water between them was so pale and clear it looked freshly rinsed. A black bird trailing a tail longer than itself crossed the lane.
The short answer
La Digue is an island of the Seychelles with an area of 10.08 square kilometres and about 2,800 people, Wikipedia records; it is the country’s third most populous island and the fourth-largest of its granitic islands, after Mahé, Praslin and Silhouette. Most people live in the west-coast villages, chief among them La Passe, the administrative centre, which the ferries link with Praslin and Mahé. Its highest point, Belle Vue or Eagle’s Nest Mountain, rises more than 300 metres in the centre of the island. Tourism is now its main industry, and it is known above all for its beaches, especially Anse Source d’Argent and Grand Anse.
Why it's worth knowing
An island at bicycle pace. There is no airport on La Digue; visitors fly to Mahé and continue by ferry, usually via Praslin, Wikipedia records. The bicycle is still the primary means of transport, and bicycles can be rented near the ferry pier; the ox-cart, slow and suited to the island, is another. There are a few privately owned vehicles, but most cars and buses belong to hotel companies.
The boulder beach. Anse Source d’Argent lies on the south-west coast inside L’Union Estate, a historic coconut plantation and vanilla farm, and visitors pay a small entrance fee to the estate to reach it, Wikipedia records. The article says its massive boulders have made it “often considered the world’s most photographed” beach. The island’s early colonists made copra from coconuts and planted vanilla, and the tradition has continued.
The field notes
A bird with a long tail
The Seychelles paradise flycatcher, Terpsiphone corvina, is endemic to the Seychelles and native to La Digue, where it lives in the Veuve Nature Reserve in the island’s interior, Wikipedia records; the IUCN lists it as Vulnerable. The males are glossy black, with two long central tail feathers that can reach 30 centimetres. Wikipedia’s two articles give its numbers differently: the island’s says “only about 100” exist, and the bird’s own says numbers are thought to be “in the low hundreds”. In 2008, 23 birds were moved to Denis Island, which has no mammalian predators, and they have bred there. The bird’s article names the main threat as habitat loss on La Digue, from growing tourism and spreading settlement.
A name from a ship
The French navigator Lazare Picault sighted La Digue in 1742, and it was named in 1768 after La Digue, a ship in the fleet of the French explorer Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, Wikipedia records. The first people settled on the island in 1789, when French colonists arrived with enslaved people from Africa; more French deportees followed, and later a large number of liberated slaves and immigrants from Asia, the article records, citing the historian Julien Durup. Visitor numbers on La Digue, as across the Seychelles, rose sharply in the late twentieth century.
A granite boulder at sunset on La Digue's north-west coast, October 2020.
Photograph: Giles Laurent · CC BY-SA 4.0
The granite boulders of Anse Source d'Argent, December 2010.
Photograph: Daria · Anse Source d'Argent - panoramio · CC BY 3.0
La Passe's harbour and jetty seen from the hill, January 2015.
Photograph: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
A tea-dark stream between palms and beach scrub, La Digue, April 2023.
The Seychelles paradise flycatcher, a black male with a long tail, July 2008.
Photograph: Marion Schneider & Christoph Aistleitner · Public domain
- Hire a bicycle by the jetty and ring the bell at everybody. As far as I could tell, that is how good morning is said here.
- Go to the boulder beach early, and walk between the rocks before anybody else has photographed them.
- Ride the ox-cart once and let the ox choose the pace. (I read him the list on the way. He stopped twice to consider items, and the list has since lost all sense of urgency.)
- This is a small island, and the lanes run past people’s homes. Ride slowly through the village, keep to the lane, and say good morning as you pass.
- Walk into the forest reserve quietly and wait for the long-tailed black bird. It comes when it pleases, if at all, and it is worth the wait either way.
An ox-cart. La Digue has no airport and few cars, most of them the hotels’; the bicycle is still the main means of transport, and the ox-cart is another, with a slow pace suited to the island, Wikipedia records. The cart, the ox and the driver are the island’s own; a visitor only rides along.
Tally, in the marginI had it down as the slow way round, and spent the first stretch wishing I had hired a bicycle like everybody else. Somewhere along the second I noticed that every cyclist rang a bell at us going by, and the ox nodded to each in turn, and I understood I had been given the best seat on the island.
Getting there
How to get there. By air to Mahé, then by ferry, usually via Praslin, to the jetty at La Passe, Wikipedia records; the island has no airport. Bicycles can be rented near the pier.
When to go. Canada’s travel advice for the Seychelles (updated 9 June 2026) gives the rainy season as December to March, and says strong currents and riptides are common, particularly near Beau Vallon on Mahé, and that most beaches outside the major hotels lack regular lifeguards.
What to arrange ahead. Two charges fall on visitors: L’Union Estate, the only way to Anse Source d’Argent, charges an entrance fee, given as SCR 150 a day for a non-resident adult by guides checked in September 2026 (indexed; the estate publishes no price we could read); and since 1 January 2026 the Seychelles’ Tourism Environmental Sustainability Levy has been charged by medium and large places to stay, at SCR 75 or SCR 100 a person a night, with establishments of up to 24 rooms exempt and children 12 and under, citizens and residents not charged (Tourism Seychelles and the Seychelles Revenue Commission, indexed; their own pages did not open on 20 October 2026). Ferry timetables are the operators’ own; aggregator pages disagree on how often the boats run.
Safety. The State Department’s advisory for the Seychelles is Level 1, “Exercise Normal Precautions”, dated 9 December 2025, and says some areas have increased risk; its country page, as read for this library on 5 October 2026, places Praslin, La Digue and the outer islands at Level 2 for health, because the smaller islands lack the medical facilities of Mahé, where patients are taken by boat or plane for care. Canada says to take normal security precautions, and notes petty crime at beaches, including Côte d’Or on Praslin.
Mark this place
Common questions
Where is La Digue?
La Digue is an island of the Seychelles in the western Indian Ocean, the fourth-largest of the country’s granitic islands after Mahé, Praslin and Silhouette, Wikipedia records. Its ferries run to Praslin and Mahé.
How do you get to La Digue?
La Digue, in the Seychelles, has no airport: visitors fly to Mahé and continue by ferry, usually via Praslin, to the jetty at La Passe, Wikipedia records.
Are there cars on La Digue?
A few. On La Digue, in the Seychelles, the bicycle is still the main means of transport and the ox-cart another, Wikipedia records; there are a few private vehicles, and most cars and buses belong to hotel companies.
Do you have to pay to visit Anse Source d'Argent?
Yes. Anse Source d’Argent, on La Digue in the Seychelles, lies inside L’Union Estate, which charges an entrance fee, Wikipedia records; guides checked in September 2026 give SCR 150 a day for a non-resident adult.
What is the Veuve Nature Reserve?
The Veuve Nature Reserve, in the interior of La Digue in the Seychelles, protects the Seychelles paradise flycatcher, a black bird listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN, whose males have central tail feathers up to 30 centimetres long, Wikipedia records.
How many Seychelles paradise flycatchers are there?
Wikipedia’s article on La Digue says only about 100 Seychelles paradise flycatchers exist, and its article on the bird says the numbers are thought to be in the low hundreds; 23 were moved to Denis Island, Seychelles, in 2008.
What level does the US State Department give the Seychelles?
The US State Department has the Seychelles at Level 1, exercise normal precautions, in an advisory dated 9 December 2025; its country page, as read on 5 October 2026, places Praslin, La Digue and the outer islands at Level 2 for health, because medical facilities are on Mahé.
How did La Digue get its name?
La Digue, in the Seychelles, was named in 1768 after La Digue, a ship in the fleet of the French explorer Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, Wikipedia records; Lazare Picault had sighted the island in 1742.