Copolia Trail

The most rewarding short hike on Mahe. A shaded climb through jungle that opens without warning onto a bare granite dome and a view straight down over Victoria, the Ste Anne islands and half the Indian Ocean.

★★★★★ 4.8 on Google 866 reviews

Hiking trail through dense jungle to a summit with 360-degree views & carnivorous pitcher plants.

The easiest of the great glacis walks

Mahe has three famous granite summits above Victoria, and Copolia is the one to do if you only do one. It sits inside the Morne Seychellois National Park, and the trailhead is a short drive up the Sans Souci road that crosses the island’s mountainous spine. The walk to the top and back takes most people about an hour and a half, and while there is real climbing involved it never turns into a scramble. That balance of low effort and enormous payoff is why it draws walkers of every age and fitness.

The path is well made and easy to follow, with wooden steps and handrails on the steeper pitches and information boards along the way. For much of the climb you are under a thick canopy, so the heat of the coast stays behind you and the air smells of wet forest and leaf litter instead of salt.

Pitcher plants and the granite dome

As the forest thins you step out onto glacis, the smooth bald granite that crowns the Seychelles highlands. This is where you meet the pitcher plant, Nepenthes pervillei, which grows wild nowhere in the world except on these islands and traps insects in its little curved vessels to survive on the thin mountain soil. Look for it clinging to the bare rock near the top.

The summit itself is a wide sloping slab of granite, and the view is the reason everyone comes. Victoria lies directly below, the Ste Anne Marine Park islands sit scattered across a turquoise shelf, Eden Island and the yacht harbour catch the light, and on a clear day Praslin floats on the horizon. It is the single best overview of the capital and its reef you can reach on foot.

Doing it well

There is a small national park entry fee, usually collected at the trailhead. Wear proper shoes because the granite is slick when wet, carry water, and start earlier rather than later so you climb in the cool and reach the top before the midday haze softens the view. The rock at the summit is exposed, so a hat and sunscreen matter once you leave the trees.

Nearby  Trois Freres Trail · Salazie Nature Trail · Morne Blanc

Go first thing in the morning. The climb is far cooler in the shade of the early sun, and the view over Victoria and the marine park is at its sharpest before the day hazes over.