Mauritius is an island in East Africa, in the southwestern Indian Ocean.
There are resorts with snow-white beaches like in the Seychelles and Maldives, as well as underwater waterfalls, colorful dunes, beautiful gorges, parks where tourists observe animals in the wild and can even pet a lion. The island has long been owned by Europeans, but in the 1990s Mauritius became an independent republic. English and French are spoken here, and the inhabitants are very friendly.
I was only on the island for five days. That’s not enough. I recommend spending ten days on vacation: five to relax on the beaches, and another five to explore the island. In this article, I will tell you where you should definitely visit in Mauritius, how to save money on shopping and what to try.
Introductory data
When it’s in season: November through April.
Average seasonal temperature: air – +29 °C, water – +28 °C.
Currency: Mauritian rupee, 1 MUR
Language: English. In everyday life, Mauritians speak French and Creole more often.
When is the best time to go
The best time to go is from November to May: the island has comfortable weather and almost no rainfall. The water and air temperatures are about the same – +28 °C. I am not used to swimming in cold water, and for me it is a pleasure to swim in such an ocean.
In the off-season, temperatures drop to +20 °C. At this time of year there are sometimes tropical rainstorms. They are usually short, but they cause the ocean water to cool down to +22…23 °C.
How to get to Mauritius
Air travel to the island is good. Planes depart from there to Johannesburg and Antananarivo, Madrid and Frankfurt, Australian Perth and neighboring islands – Reunion and Rodrigues. There is only one airport on the island, it is located 46 km southeast of the capital of Mauritius – the city of Port Louis.
You can get from the airport to Port Louis by bus. Travel time is 85 minutes. The quickest way is by cab.
I had pre-booked a shuttle service to and from my hotel on The Island. My hotel was in the fishing village of Post-Lafayette, 64 km from the airport. I was met with a sign at the airport and taken to the hotel and picked up from the hotel on the day of departure. The drive from the airport to the hotel took an hour.
Rules of entry
Upon arrival, travelers fill out a migration card. The forms are available at the counters at the airport. In them you need to indicate your flight number, hotel address, how many days you plan to spend in Mauritius, phone number. Do not forget to take a pen with you.
Money
The Mauritian rupee, 1 MUR, is the most popular currency on the island. You can pay by card in any store and supermarket, but it is better to have cash with you: you will need it on the beach, at the market or if you stop on the highway to buy fruit.
It is most convenient to change money at a favorable rate right at the airport – currency exchange offices are located in the greeting area. It is better to change dollars or euros.
What to see in Mauritius
The underwater waterfalls off the coast of Le Morne-Braban Peninsula look from above as if there is a cliff underwater and water flows downwards. In fact, it is an optical illusion created by the underwater currents and the landscape of the Indian Ocean floor. You cannot swim to the waterfall or see it from the shore, you can only look at it from above – from a helicopter or airplane.
Most air rides start at the foot of Mount Le Morne at La Prairie Beach. The easiest way to get there is by rental car or cab.
You can sign up for a tour at the hotel. Many travel agencies leave booklets with information about their services at the reception. However, such a pleasure is not cheap: for example, in 2024 Corail Helicopteres will organize a 45-minute tour by helicopter for 360 € per person.
Black River Gorges National Park is the largest national park in Mauritius. It is located in the southwestern part of the island. To appreciate its beauty and scale, it is worth climbing up to the free observation deck. It offers a magnificent panoramic view of the emerald from vegetation gorge. I wanted to stay there longer. It is better to leave the food in the car: there are a lot of monkeys on the observation deck and they behave aggressively. The cab driver warned me at once: if I wanted to eat a banana, I better do it in the car, otherwise a monkey might take it away.
A ten minute drive from the viewpoint is the Chamarelle waterfall and the famous multi-colored sands. The waterfall is very beautiful and the seven-colored sands are like sand dunes. They are not destroyed even by tropical downpours. If you mix different shades, then they still separate into colors. How this happens is still unclear.
I don’t recommend going from the other end of the island just for the sands: they smell strange and the picture on the internet is brighter than the reality. There are also a lot of tourists there. And the waterfall and the gorge are worth seeing with your own eyes: the nature in Mauritius is amazing.
Entrance to the Black River Gorges Park is free, but to see the waterfalls and the seven-colored sands, you’ll have to pay 2,500 MUR and 550 MUR respectively.
The easiest way to get to the national park is by car, but you can also take a bus.
Kasela Nature Park is a wildlife reserve on the west coast of Mauritius, near the resort of Flick-en-Flac. In the reserve live different animals: giraffes, hippos, giant tortoises from the Seychelles. I advise you to spend a whole day on the trip.
Most of the animals are in cages. Some are more like enclosures without a roof – tourists come up to touch a giraffe or a camel. Part of the park is dedicated to safari, and the animals are free-range. During the safari park visitors watch rhinos, zebras, ostriches and roe deer. There is no need to buy a separate ticket. To get to the safari, you have to wait for the open bus. It runs several times a day from a stop within the park. At the entrance to the park, along with the ticket, travelers are given a card on which the time and point of departure are marked. The trip lasts no more than 30 minutes, the bus makes several stops for tourists to photograph the animals. It is not allowed to get off: it is dangerous.
Travelers come to Kasela for another entertainment: in the national park, tourists are allowed to walk in the company of lions and even pet them. It is enough to follow the recommendations and know English at a conversational level. For safety reasons, only those over 15 years old and over 150 cm tall are allowed to go on the tour.
I wasn’t scared. Probably because there were a few trained guys around who treated feral cats like pets.
The National Park is a great place for a family vacation, but I didn’t like the queues. For example, to go on a safari, you have to wait for a bus. Most likely, there will be another 50 people in front of you. In the 30-degree heat we had to wait for half an hour. It is good that they sell water on the spot. The same story with lions: if there are 30 people ahead of you, be prepared to wait in line for at least half an hour.
Tickets are bought at the box office or online, it costs 1450 MUR. To interact with the lions, you have to buy a separate ticket for 4,500 MUR.
The quickest way to get to the park from the resort of Flick en Flac is by bus number 69. The park’s website states that a free shuttle service is available to and from the resort hotels.
The Pamplemousses Botanical Garden contains trees from all over the world. There are breadfruit and lotuses in the garden. What struck me most were the giant water lilies – plants with leaves up to two meters in diameter. Deer and turtles live on the territory of the garden. For a leisurely stroll through the garden, I advise you to set aside two hours. Prices for entrance tickets are published on the website, in 2024 it costs 25 MUR.
From Post-Lafayette to Pamplemousse, you can get to Pamplemousse with a transfer: first take bus number 26 and then take bus number 22. Travel time is 1 hour and 25 minutes.
Beaches
Mauritius has beautiful beaches everywhere, but the best ones, in my opinion, are on the northwest coast. I really liked the Tru-au-Biche beach: white sand, turquoise water, no corals. Entrance to the beach is free. Nearby there is a free parking lot. Mauritians, tourists and guests of the hotel Trou Aux Biches Beachcomber Golf Resort & Spa rest on Trou aux Biches. A villa at this hotel costs over 1000 € per night and the beach is shared.
Tru-o-Bish is clean, has free showers and toilets, and rents tubing and catamarans. They sell papaya and mangoes. To get there, for example, from Post-Lafayette by public transportation is problematic: first you need to take bus number 26, then change to number 228. Travel time is 1.5 hours.
Another beach worth visiting is Mont Choisy, or Mont Choisy. It is also free and is surrounded by a pine forest that protects you from the scorching African sun. Mont Choisy was even better than Trou aux Biches: the sand is like flour, the water is crystal clear and warm. There are fewer people there. I don’t really like swimming, but on this beach, for the first time in my life, I didn’t want to leave the ocean.
The beach has free showers with changing rooms and tents with drinking coconuts and exotic fruits. From Trou aux Biches, Mont Choisy is a short walk or a two-minute ride on bus No. 82.
Housing
The capital of Mauritius, Port Louis, is an industrial center. Tourists do not stay there, but go to resorts. The north is chosen by those who want to hide from the waves and wind. The south is preferred by fans of surfing and kitesurfing.
I chose the village of Post-Lafayette on the northeast coast because of a hotel that fit into my budget. Before the trip, I didn’t really know where to stay: I read reviews online, looked at a map and searched for the easiest place to get to the main attractions.
Tourists in Mauritius most often choose hotels with the type of food HB – half board. This is half board – breakfast and dinner. Very convenient: one breakfast is not enough, and many people skip lunch because they are exploring the island. Breakfast and dinner is perfect.
I’m traveling alone and didn’t want to think about where to go for breakfast in the morning and then get out for dinner in the evening. From breakfast I took fruit – an apple, an orange and a banana, as well as a bottle of free water from the room. During the day you don’t want to eat: it’s hot.
I booked the four-star Radisson Blu Poste Lafayette Resort & Spa. I was satisfied: spacious and comfortable rooms, excellent breakfasts and coffee beans, quality housekeeping, stable wifi, daily towel change and two free bottles of water in the room.
Did not like the paid coffee in the room and the beach at the hotel: the bottom is strewn with coral right near the shore. For snorkeling lovers it is just fine, but without special slippers you can’t enter the water: you can slip, hurt yourself or step on a sea urchin. It is better to buy such shoes in advance in any store for sports and recreation.
Transportation
Mauritius is small – you can get from one end of the island to the other in an hour without traffic jams.
A car is the best way to get around the island. You can rent a car directly at the airport. Traffic on the island is left-handed.
I traveled around the island by cab. For 3500-6500 MUR, depending on the class of car, cab drivers organize a tourist itinerary for the whole day: they take you to the sights and tell you about them, wait for you to take 100,500 photos, help you choose fruits. You get three in one: driver, concierge and local guide. The cost depends on the class of car.
“There is no Uber in Mauritius. On the Taxi Service Mauritius website, you can book cabs, airport transfers and package tours around the island – trips to several places at once.
Cabs are easy to catch in any village or near hotels and municipal beaches on the coast. Cab drivers do not charge by the meter, but by agreement, so bargain. Tourists in Mauritius are loved and welcome: I managed to get the price down by 200 MUR on the third day of my trip around the island.
Mauritius has public transportation. Buses run from 05:30 to 20:00, on some routes until 18:00. There is a night route between Port Louis and Kurpip: the bus runs until 23:00. They are mostly ridden by locals. The fare depends on the distance traveled.
I would not recommend traveling around Mauritius by bus. Getting from one end of the island to the other is unlikely to be possible without changing buses. It is a challenge to find the right buses one after the other. The buses are not air-conditioned and most stops do not have roofs: if it rains, there is nowhere to take shelter.
Food
Cafes and restaurants. Mauritian cuisine is somewhat reminiscent of Indian cuisine, with dishes consisting mainly of rice, vegetables, curries and seafood. Tourists mostly dine in hotels, so they rarely go out to local restaurants. I have not been to any.
I was quite satisfied with the food in the hotel. The breakfast buffet served fresh pastries, fruit, meat and sausages, vegetables and cheeses, tea, coffee and freshly squeezed juices. For dinner – dishes from various cuisines of the world. Alcohol is paid additionally.
From the street food I advise you to try Chilli Bites – crispy balls of peas with chili peppers, onions, salt, fried in oil until crispy.
From the local products I advise you to try tropical fruits. They are sold right on the highway, in tents next to pineapple and sugar cane plantations. I advise you to buy there, all fruits are selected and very tasty: papaya, pineapple, lychee, drinking coconut. You finish your drink and immediately ask the seller to break the nut to eat the pulp.
On the way back from the airport, the cab driver who was taking me stopped in the middle of the highway and asked: “Would you like to taste sugar cane?” He cut the stem for me, and I took a bite out of curiosity: it looked like celery generously soaked in sugar.
Stores
Mauritius has an extensive network of duty-free stores, such as Go Duty Free. Duty Free sells alcohol, perfumes, local products – sugar, spices, tea – and other goods at a good discount.
Many guidebooks claim that the island is a good place to buy goods of famous brands: Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Diesel. Don’t expect to find things from the latest collections on the shelves – most likely, you will find an assortment from two years ago at inflated prices.
There are small grocery stores on the island and large chain supermarkets such as Winners. In Winners one buys groceries, fresh baked goods. It is better to keep track of discounts on the official Winners website.
Internet
There is wifi in many tourist areas, including the airport – you can connect for free while waiting for your flight. I didn’t buy a local SIM card: my hotel had wifi even on the beach.
What to bring back from Mauritius
Souvenirs with dodo bird. According to legend, the dodo bird lived on the island until the middle of the 17th century, but it was exterminated by sailors and locals. After 300 years, the dodo became a real brand of Mauritius. Today its image is on magnets, T-shirts and cups. A large selection of souvenirs can be found at the market in the fishing village of Grand Baie. Do not hesitate to knock down the price: in Mauritius bargaining is appropriate.
Model sailboats. It’s best to stop by a workshop that makes them, such as Le Port Ship Models. Local craftsmen will show you how they carve exact replicas of legendary ships from wood.
Cashmere in Mauritius is very high quality. I bought a stole made of 100 percent cashmere, they sell them in stores like Cashmere Polo Club.
Rum is made from sugar cane, which grows in abundance in Mauritius. The price depends on the volume.
Fruit marmalade. A familiar treat with unusual exotic flavors like papaya, coconut and mango. I bought it at the supermarket. Mango and papaya give the marmalade a pleasant sourness, while coconut seemed to me to be sugary.
Safety rules
Mauritius is among the countries with a zero terrorism index. It is one of the safest African countries, even for a girl traveling alone. From the epidemiological point of view, it is safe here. Special immunizations for visiting the island do not need to do. Since 1997, the country has not recorded a single case of malaria and not a single terrorist attack.
- Do not leave personal belongings unattended.
- Do not walk alone in deserted neighborhoods, especially in the evening.
- Buy excursions only from representatives of reputable tour operators.
- If your passport has been stolen, contact the embassy as soon as possible
