Mauritius

What Mauritius actually is

Mauritius is a volcanic island about the size of Luxembourg, sitting a long way east of Madagascar, with a coral reef running almost the whole way around it. That reef is the single most important physical fact about the place. It breaks the ocean swell offshore and leaves a shallow, still lagoon between the reef and the beach, which is why the water photographs turquoise, why children can wade a long way out, and why the sea here almost never has waves.

It also means something people do not always expect. Because the reef is out at the edge of the lagoon, often several hundred metres and sometimes a couple of kilometres from the sand, the good coral and the interesting fish are not where you are standing. Snorkelling straight off most hotel beaches gets you sand, seagrass and a few fish. To see the reef properly you take a boat, and most hotels run those trips daily.

The island itself is green, cultivated and lived-in. Sugar cane covers the plains, mountains rise abruptly in strange shapes in the middle, and there are towns with markets, temples, churches and mosques rather than a resort strip with nothing behind it. Around 1.2 million people live here, and the mix of Indian, African, Chinese, French and British history shows in the food, the languages and the calendar of festivals. Creole, French and English all circulate; hotel staff will handle any of them.

It suits couples and honeymooners, families with children who want safe shallow water, divers, golfers, and travellers who want a beach week with a country attached rather than an island that exists only for tourism. It suits people who like the idea of all-inclusive but want the option of leaving the hotel and finding somewhere good to eat.

It does not suit surfers or anyone who wants an open ocean beach, except in a couple of specific spots. It does not suit anyone expecting nightlife beyond Grand Baie. And it does not suit travellers who want everything within walking distance, because outside a few places the island runs on cars, taxis and buses.

The four coasts

The coast you choose changes the week more than the hotel does. The four sides of the island are genuinely different in wind, water, price and atmosphere.

The north is the sociable side. Grand Baie is the closest thing to a resort town: a bay full of boats, a real high street of restaurants, bars, shops and dive centres, and enough choice that you can eat outside your hotel every night without planning. Just along the coast, Pereybere is a smaller version with a good public beach, and Trou aux Biches and Mont Choisy have long, calm, shaded strips of sand and some of the better snorkelling near shore. Cap Malheureux at the tip has the red-roofed church everyone photographs. The north is sheltered, warm, slightly cheaper than the east, and the natural choice for a first visit or anyone who does not want to be trapped in a resort.

The west is for sunsets, diving and dry weather. Flic en Flac has a very long beach and a wide lagoon, with the island's best wall diving just outside the reef. Tamarin and Black River are drier than anywhere else, with dolphins in the bay most mornings, one of the few places on the island with a real surf break, and a more residential, less packaged feel. The Le Morne peninsula in the south-west sits under a UNESCO-listed basalt mountain, holds several of the best luxury resorts, and is the kite and windsurfing centre because it gets the trade wind straight on. Sunsets on this coast are the best on the island, which sounds like brochure copy but is simply a matter of which way the coast faces.

The east has the widest lagoon and the whitest sand. Belle Mare, Palmar and Trou d'Eau Douce carry the big resorts and the championship golf, and the beaches are wide and beautiful. The trade-off is wind: the south-east trades hit this coast directly, and from roughly June to September it can be genuinely breezy, which is lovely if you sail and less so if you want a still afternoon on a sunbed. There is also very little outside the hotels here, so the east is where half board and all-inclusive make most sense. Ile aux Cerfs, the classic day-trip island, sits just offshore.

The south is the wild side. From Bel Ombre round to Souillac and Gris Gris the reef breaks up, the cliffs start, and you get actual ocean waves crashing on rock. It is greener, wetter, less developed and much less crowded, with a handful of good resorts, the Bel Ombre golf course and the nature reserves inland. Blue Bay, near the airport, is the exception: a marine park with the clearest shallow water on the island and the best shore-based snorkelling.

Inland matters more than most beach destinations. Chamarel has the coloured earths, a waterfall and rum distilleries; Black River Gorges National Park has proper hiking; Trou aux Cerfs is a crater in the middle of a town; Port Louis has a working market and the Aapravasi Ghat; Ganga Talao is a sacred crater lake. You can see all of it from any coast in day trips.

Hotel stock, board basis and what a budget buys

Mauritius has an unusually deep and well-run resort market, dominated by a handful of local hotel groups that have been doing this for decades. Standards are consistent, service is a genuine strength, and there is real choice at every level from small guesthouses to some of the most expensive resorts in the Indian Ocean.

The important structural difference from the Seychelles is that all-inclusive genuinely exists here and is widespread. So is half board, which is arguably the better deal in the north and west where there is somewhere to walk to. On the east coast, where there is not, full board or all-inclusive usually wins.

Around EUR 110 to 140 per person per night is the realistic entry to a good four star with half board, or a solid all-inclusive in the shoulder months. EUR 150 to 220 buys a strong five star on the east or north coast, usually half board with all-inclusive available as an upgrade. Above EUR 250 you are into the well-known luxury properties on Le Morne, at Belle Mare and in the south, where you are paying for beach frontage, space, restaurants and service rather than a fundamentally different lagoon.

Below the resort market there are guesthouses, apartments and small hotels, particularly in the north around Pereybere and Grand Baie and in the south near Mahebourg, from roughly EUR 50 to 80 per person per night. These work well if you hire a car and eat out, and eating out here is not expensive: a Creole main course in a local restaurant runs roughly 400 to 800 rupees, street food such as dholl puri costs a fraction of that, and the food is one of the real reasons to come.

If you take all-inclusive, read the exclusions. Speciality restaurants often carry a supplement, premium spirits and wines are usually outside the package, and water sports are split between free non-motorised and paid motorised.

Getting there

Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport (MRU) sits in the south-east near Mahebourg. Transfer times matter when you choose a coast: Blue Bay and Mahebourg are ten to fifteen minutes away, Bel Ombre and the south around forty-five to fifty minutes, Belle Mare and the east forty-five to fifty-five, Flic en Flac and the west fifty to sixty, Le Morne sixty to seventy, and Grand Baie in the far north sixty to seventy-five minutes on the motorway.

We should be straight about our own role. Our vehicles and drivers operate in Turkey, where we have run airport transfers ourselves since 2016. In Mauritius we quote accommodation through our partner agencies and nothing else. Airport transfers on the island are arranged locally, and every resort will organise one; taxis are also available at the terminal at negotiated rather than metered fares.

On the island, driving is on the left. Car hire is straightforward, roads are decent and the motorway runs from the airport through Port Louis to the north. Buses are very cheap and reach most places but are slow and stop early in the evening. Most guests in resorts use hotel shuttles and taxis and hire a car for two or three days rather than the whole stay.

When to go

Mauritius is in the southern hemisphere, so the seasons are reversed relative to Europe.

May, June, September, October, November and December are the months this page is priced around, and they are the best balance. May and June are the start of the dry season: pleasantly warm at 24 to 27 degrees, low humidity, sea around 25. September and October are the same in reverse and are excellent, with clear water and the whales and dolphins active on the west coast. November and December are warming up, the sea is back to 26 or 27, and prices climb into the Christmas peak.

July and August are the coolest and windiest. Air temperature 21 to 25, sea about 22 to 23, and the south-east trades blowing hard on the east and south coasts. It is a good time for hiking, kitesurfing and low prices, and a poor time for lying still on an east coast beach. If you travel then, the north and west are the sheltered choices.

January to March is the hot, wet, humid part of the year, 28 to 33 degrees with sea at 27 to 29, heavy afternoon rain and the highest cyclone risk. The official cyclone season runs November to May but the real concentration is January to March. A direct hit is not common in any given year, but warnings, closed beaches and cancelled boat trips are entirely possible, and it is the one time we would insist you take travel insurance that covers weather disruption. Rates are at their lowest for a reason.

April is a transition month, still warm and humid but drying out, and often good value.

Practical detail

All beaches in Mauritius are public by law, which means the public beach next to a resort is genuinely open and often has better shade and food stalls than the hotel strip.

The lagoon is shallow and safe almost everywhere, which is the main reason the island works so well for small children. Watch for two things: stonefish and sea urchins on rocky or seagrass patches, so reef shoes are sensible, and the gaps in the reef where currents run out, which are marked locally but not always obviously.

Food is the underrated part of the trip. Creole fish curries, Indian street snacks, Chinese noodles in Port Louis, rum from Chamarel and Saint Aubin, fruit from roadside stalls. Vegetarians do far better here than on most beach islands.

Standard excursions: a catamaran day to Ile aux Cerfs from the east, dolphin watching from Tamarin in the west, Chamarel and Black River Gorges inland, the Sunday market at Port Louis or the daily one at Mahebourg, Blue Bay marine park by glass-bottom boat, and the climb up Le Morne Brabant, which needs a guide and reasonable fitness. Golf is a genuine strength with championship courses at Belle Mare, Bel Ombre and Le Morne.

Currency is the Mauritian rupee. Cards work almost everywhere except small stalls. Tipping is appreciated but not systematic.

Who should skip Mauritius

Skip it if you want ocean waves and surf, because the reef removes them almost everywhere. Skip it if you want nightlife beyond a handful of bars in Grand Baie. Skip it if you want to snorkel spectacular coral straight off the beach without taking a boat, since the reef is far out and the lagoon floor is mostly sand and seagrass. Skip January to March if a week of heavy rain or a cyclone warning would ruin the trip. And skip the east coast specifically if you are travelling in July or August and want still, windless afternoons.

How we quote

Send us your dates, the number of adults and children with ages, which coast appeals or what you want from the week, whether you want half board or all-inclusive, and roughly what you want to spend. A consultant prices the stay with our partner agencies and comes back with a short list of specific resorts and an honest note on wind and transfer time for each, normally within one working day. The quote is free, there is no payment on this site, and nothing is confirmed until you say yes.