Mahé, the largest island and home to the international airport, is often treated purely as a transit point, which undersells it — Morne Seychellois National Park covers roughly a fifth of the island in misty, forested peaks with genuinely excellent hiking, and Victoria, the capital, is worth a half-day even by Seychelles' unhurried standards. Praslin, a short flight or ferry from Mahé, is built around the extraordinary Vallée de Mai Nature Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage palm forest protecting the coco de mer — the world's largest and heaviest seed — alongside some of the archipelago's most photographed beaches, including Anse Lazio. La Digue, reached by a further short ferry hop from Praslin, moves at a deliberately slower pace — ox-carts and bicycles are the primary transport, cars are rare, and the granite boulders of Anse Source d'Argent form one of the most photographed beach scenes anywhere in the world. Most itineraries combine two of the three rather than attempting all of them on a shorter trip, since each inter-island transfer costs the better part of half a day. Our typical recommendation: Mahé for arrival and hiking, Praslin or La Digue (not both, on a trip under ten days) for the beach-and-slow-pace finale.