Journal
Articles to help plan a stay in Mauritius: where to sleep depending on the coast, what to do depending on the season.
Mauritius has only two seasons, a hot, rainy summer and a cool, dry winter, with two months of transition between them. Temperatures, rainfall, the cyclone season: all you need to choose your dates knowing what they hold.
November 9, 2026
The four Mauritian warning classes do not measure the strength of a cyclone. They measure the time left before gusts of 120 kilometres per hour, and that changes everything for anyone staying on the island.
November 8, 2026
In 2022, nine Mauritians in ten spoke only Creole at home. Three percentages are enough to understand what a visitor will hear all around, and why they will be understood all the same.
November 7, 2026
The emblem of Mauritius is also one of the least understood birds there is. What the bones reveal, what a head preserved in Oxford has yielded, and what the storybook image has distorted.
November 6, 2026
Stamps lit for just ten minutes an hour, a fully covered oceanarium, glassblowers, rum cellars and a poet’s house. When the rain sets in, the island has plenty to fill the day, provided you know on which days everything is open.
November 6, 2026
In 2025, a visitor spent an average of 74,200 rupees on an eleven-night stay in Mauritius. Behind that average stand two trips with nothing in common, one in a hotel, the other elsewhere.
November 5, 2026
Sixteen public holidays in 2027, tips left to each person’s judgement, tap water you can drink: daily life in Mauritius has its rules. Knowing them means knowing which days the island stops, and how to conduct yourself the rest of the time.
November 5, 2026
In Mauritius, a public beach is not simply a beach the public goes to: it is a stretch of coast declared as such in the Government Gazette. The island has 145 of them, spread along a little over 48 kilometres of shoreline.
November 4, 2026
The net stretched between the hulls, the anchor dropped in a cove, lunch served on board or on an island: a day on a catamaran has become a way of seeing Mauritius. Three coasts, three seas, and the rules that keep a hand on the helm.
November 4, 2026
In a Mauritian marine park, the colour of a buoy is anything but decorative: it tells you where to swim, where boats pass and where not to go. A reading of the lagoon, zone by zone, from Blue Bay to Balaclava.
November 3, 2026
The Port Louis bazaar, the great fair at Flacq, the market halls of Quatre Bornes: it is at the market that the island’s fruit is tasted. Victoria pineapples, year-end lychees, jamalacs with chilli: here is what the season brings.
November 2, 2026
Sixty-seven square kilometres of mountain, sixty kilometres of trails, and every one of the endemic birds of Mauritius. The island’s first national park protects what remains of its original forest, and fights to keep it.
November 2, 2026
A valid passport, a return ticket, the means to pay for your stay and somewhere to sleep: arriving in Mauritius comes down to four requirements. The length of stay, however, is decided at the immigration desk.
November 1, 2026
Every year in September, thousands of pilgrims walk to Sainte-Croix, where a priest from Normandy lies at rest. Who was Père Laval, and why do so many Mauritians, of every faith, turn to him?
November 1, 2026
Mauritius has two World Heritage properties: an immigration depot in Port Louis and a mountain in the south-west. Both tell the same story of forced labour, from either end.
October 31, 2026
On 12 March 1992, twenty-four years to the day after independence, Mauritius replaced the Queen with a president. What this change altered, and what the country has become since.
October 31, 2026
In 1974, only four Mauritius kestrels were known in the wild; the echo parakeet and the pink pigeon came close to the same fate. Their return runs through the Black River aviaries and a coral islet in Mahébourg Bay.
October 29, 2026
Water at 30°C in summer and 22°C in winter, a trade wind that strengthens in July, a swell born thousands of kilometres away: in Mauritius, the beach changes with the months. What to know about wind, swell and water to choose your coast.
October 28, 2026
In Mauritius, the coast matters as much as the month. The west stays dry while the east takes the winter rain, and the trade wind that delights kitesurfers is not the one a swimmer is looking for.
October 27, 2026
Above the south-west coast, a plateau of cane and forest hides a hundred-metre waterfall, coloured dunes and a rum distillery designed to be visited. Chamarel reveals itself as you climb, from one viewpoint to the next.
October 26, 2026
More than a hundred dive sites, a sailing centre recognised by the Royal Yachting Association, trade winds that make the south-west a kitesurfing ground, and dolphins off the west coast. A week in the water, from the north to Le Morne.
October 24, 2026
The lagoon sheltered by the reef has a reputation as a swimming pool, and often it is one. But swell from far away, spring tides and the wild coasts of the south are a reminder that in Mauritius the sea should be read before you go in.
October 23, 2026
A national park in 1997, a marine park in 2000, a Wetland of International Importance in 2008: Blue Bay protects 353 hectares of sea south of Mahébourg. You enter it from the beach, mask on, a few steps from the sand.
October 22, 2026
Introduced by the Dutch, revived by Labourdonnais, worked by slaves and then by indentured labourers, sugar cane shaped Mauritius. It still covers a large part of the island, and it no longer yields sugar alone.
October 20, 2026
Five Hindu festivals, two Christian, one Muslim, one Chinese, and six dates that tell the country’s history. The calendar of Mauritian public holidays reads like a portrait of the island.
October 19, 2026
It took twenty years of elections, conferences and reforms to move from a colonial council to sovereignty. On 12 March 1968 London ceased to govern Mauritius, and Seewoosagur Ramgoolam became the country’s first Prime Minister.
October 18, 2026
At Pamplemousses, the oldest botanical garden in the southern hemisphere tells of Poivre’s spices, of palms and of two centuries of botany. At Curepipe, a quieter garden keeps a palm of which no other specimen exists in Mauritius.
October 16, 2026
Around Mauritius, a ring of islets carries the beaches on beyond the lagoon. Some are reached by shuttle for a day on the sand, others can be visited only with a guide, and others still can only be admired from the boat.
October 15, 2026
Beachcomber, Constance, LUX*, Attitude and Heritage have more than twenty hotels on the island between them. Each has its signature, and knowing it helps you guess, before arriving, what a hotel will offer.
October 14, 2026
The longest public shoreline in the north, a calm lagoon facing the sunset and a turtle bay turned marine park. Between Grand Baie and Port Louis, the Pamplemousses coast is lived on foot, along the sand.
October 13, 2026
Three summits, ebony forests, waterfalls where a walk can end in the water: Mauritius is better explored on foot than one might think. A week built as a progression, from the forest trails of the plateau to Le Morne Brabant.
October 11, 2026
Dialling code +230, three mobile operators, a SIM card registered in each buyer’s name: getting a phone working in Mauritius takes a few minutes. What to carry with you to buy a card, and what changes with the announced end of 3G.
October 10, 2026
Eighty-seven hectares with no residents and no hotel, white beaches, a lagoon held calm by the reef and a golf course designed by Bernhard Langer. Île aux Cerfs is a place for the day, from one shuttle boat to the next.
October 9, 2026
In 1770, Pierre Poivre brought nutmeg and clove from the Banda Islands to Pamplemousses. Two and a half centuries later, spices still scent the gardens, the cooking pots and the teacups of Mauritius.
October 7, 2026
Nearly one Mauritian in two is Hindu, one in three Christian, almost one in five Muslim. What the 2022 census tells us about the island’s religions, and the places where they can be seen.
October 6, 2026
Chosen in 1732 for its natural harbour and built from 1735 onwards, Port Louis changed its name three times between the Revolution and the Empire. Its façades tell the island’s story to those who know how to read them.
October 5, 2026
Three to four hours, steep and rocky passages, a final stretch closer to climbing than walking: Le Morne has to be earned. At the top, the reefs and lagoons of the south-west, and the memory of those who hid there to stay free.
October 3, 2026
On weekdays, the beach is a place to read in peace; at the weekend, it fills with families, music and picnics. What you see beneath the filaos, and the rules that allow everyone to share the sand.
October 2, 2026
Kitesurfing at Le Morne, sailing in the north, waterskiing in the south-east, diving on the north-west coast: each Mauritian shore has its speciality, and a few hotels have made it their trade. It still pays to know what is included and what is charged.
October 1, 2026
In Curepipe, Vacoas and Quatre Bornes, the air cools, the rain returns more often and gardens take the place of beaches. The inhabited heart of Mauritius is explored between a crater, colonial houses and forest trails.
September 30, 2026
Cliffs pounded by the swell, waterfalls you can swim in, a poet’s house, tea plantations and a sacred lake: the south of Mauritius is the wildest region of the island. Three days are enough to grasp its character, from Bel Ombre to Souillac and up into the heights of Savanne.
September 28, 2026
British three-pin sockets, 230-volt current, a three-digit fault line: electricity in Mauritius is quickly understood. What to slip into your suitcase, and what to know when the power goes off.
September 27, 2026
Off the northern tip, a handful of islands and rocks closes the horizon. Nature reserves, a former quarantine station, a white sandbank: three of them can be explored from the sea, on a day trip.
September 26, 2026
Other islands have their wine routes; Mauritius has its Tea Route. At Bois Chéri, the island’s oldest plantation, you follow the tea leaf all the way to the cup, and taste vanilla tea.
September 24, 2026
Mauritian sega has two cousins, born like it of slavery, that beat to the rhythm of a large drum. The one from Rodrigues has been on the list of the heritage of humanity since 2017; the one from the Chagos has been on the Urgent Safeguarding List since 2019.
September 23, 2026
Arriving on 4 June 1735 in the service of the French East India Company, this native of Saint-Malo turned a modest trading post into a colony. Hospital, windmill, kitchen garden, sugar mills: his mark can still be read in Port Louis and Pamplemousses.
September 22, 2026
On the north-east coast, Bras d’Eau National Park protects, over 497 hectares, giant ebonies, rare orchids and the coq des bois. An easy loop, a lake for migratory birds, the beach close by, and further south the mountain forests of the east.
September 20, 2026
In Mauritius, a few steps out from the sand are often enough to see the first clownfish. From the coral garden of Blue Bay to the waters around Coin de Mire, the beaches and islets where you can explore the lagoon with a mask and snorkel.
September 19, 2026
In Mauritius, all-inclusive ranges from a round-the-clock package to an option that stops at 23:00 and leaves the spiny lobster as an extra. What it covers changes from one property to the next, and the differences lie in the details.
September 18, 2026
A market that calls out its prices, one of the oldest Chinatowns in Africa, free museums and a fort that looks out over the whole city. The capital can be explored on foot, from morning to sunset.
September 17, 2026
For a long weekend from Réunion, the wisest course is not to cross the island: the airport is in the south-east, and the south-east has enough to fill three days. An ebony islet, a marine park, the oldest inhabited site in Mauritius and a valley of native forest.
September 15, 2026
One number, 114, calls out the SAMU at any hour, and a network of health centres covers the island to within a few kilometres. Hospitals, pharmacies, mosquitoes and stings: the essentials for travelling with peace of mind.
September 14, 2026
Around Mauritius, a volcanic island, deep water begins close to the reef. Blue and black marlin, tuna and dorado are pursued here by the day, and an international competition has brought anglers together since the early 1980s.
September 13, 2026
Molasses rum or pure cane-juice rum, white, aged or arrangé: the island distils its cane in several ways. A tour of the estates where rum is born, from Chamarel to Beau Plan.
September 11, 2026
A drum warmed by the fire, a rattle of seeds, an iron triangle, and songs in Creole that gradually quicken. Sega tipik, born of slavery, has been inscribed as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2014.
September 10, 2026
After abolition, hundreds of thousands of contract workers landed in Port Louis, most of them from India. Their story is held in registers, sugar estate camps, a quarantine island and necklaces of gold coins.
September 9, 2026
North of Mahébourg, at the foot of the Bambous Mountains, a private estate of 3,100 hectares shelters two hundred hectares of native forest. Four waymarked trails, guides who know what time the kestrel feeds, and a valley facing the sea.
September 7, 2026
Behind the coral reef, the Mauritian lagoon often offers calm, shallow water where the youngest can paddle. You still need to choose the right beach, read the buoys and know the hours when the sun is less harsh.
September 6, 2026
Thirteen suites, sixteen units, twenty-four rooms: alongside the large resorts, Mauritius still has properties where the lagoon is shared among a few dozen guests. They do not offer everything, and that is precisely what sets them apart.
September 5, 2026
On the Savanne coast, the ocean pounds cliffs of volcanic rock. Between the beaches of Bel Ombre, the waterfalls of Souillac and the tea plantations, the south reveals itself slowly.
September 4, 2026
Buses, light rail, hotel shuttles, boats and drivers by the day: you can see a great deal of Mauritius without ever taking the wheel. It all comes down to the choice of base, and to knowing a few timetables.
September 2, 2026
Born of a military airfield and renamed in 1987, the international airport of Mauritius saw close to four million passengers pass through in 2019. What to know about the place where every stay begins and ends.
September 1, 2026
At the island’s south-western tip, the winter trade wind fills the kites above a shallow lagoon closed off by the reef. You learn on flat water and then, beyond it, go in search of a famous wave.
August 31, 2026
Sino-Mauritians make up only a small share of the population, but their cooking is everywhere on the island. From the lanes of Chinatown to the Cantonese houses of Port Louis, a portrait of a cuisine that has become Mauritian.
August 29, 2026
After a month of prayer and fasting, families greet one another with “Eid Mubarak”, go to the mosque and give to those in need. Eid ul-Fitr is the only Muslim festival among Mauritian public holidays, and its date depends on the moon.
August 28, 2026
For more than a century, the Isle de France and then Mauritius rested on the labour of enslaved men and women. Some fled to the most inaccessible heights, and their story can be read today in caves, cemeteries and a museum in Port Louis.
August 27, 2026
At Chamarel, a reserve has been pulling up plants from elsewhere since 2006, to give the island’s ebonies and birds back their place. A walkway through the forest, pink pigeon aviaries, the panorama from Sublime Point: every ticket funds the work.
August 25, 2026
On the south coast, the ocean pounds cliffs of volcanic rock, and some beaches do not lend themselves to swimming. Gris Gris, the Pont Naturel, Le Souffleur, Pomponette: a coastline to explore on foot, for the spectacle.
August 24, 2026
The island’s international airport lies in the south-east, far from the big beach resorts of the north and west. For a first or last night, or for an entire stay, the coast around it has serious arguments in its favour.
August 23, 2026
The first settlers set foot on this bay, two squadrons clashed here in 1810, and the Blue Bay lagoon still keeps its coral garden. The south-east of Mauritius is explored in a mask and in walking boots alike.
August 22, 2026
An adults-only hotel on the east coast, dinner aboard a boat built in 1927, a colonial mansion in the evening, Le Morne at first light. A honeymoon in Mauritius is best cut in two: the sunrise side, then the sunset side.
August 20, 2026
From the airport to the hotel, then from one coast to another, a car with a driver remains the simplest way to get around Mauritius. You still need to know whom to ask, and to agree on the price before setting off.
August 19, 2026
More than a hundred dive sites lie within reach of the coast, from the shallow coral gardens of the north to the great underwater relief of the west. A tour of the names that matter, and of the rules that frame every descent.
August 18, 2026
A split-pea fritter with chilli, a shortbread sandwiched with jam, a cup of fruit doused in tamarind: Mauritius snacks at all hours. A short inventory of what is eaten between meals.
August 16, 2026
In January or February, the lion dance, firecrackers and red envelopes herald the lunar new year. In Port Louis, it is in Chinatown and around the Kwan Tee Pagoda that the festival takes on its full meaning.
August 15, 2026
From 1810 to 1968 Mauritius lived under the British flag without giving up its French laws or language. Abolition, indenture, sugar and dressed stone: a century and a half shaped the island visitors see today.
August 14, 2026
At 828 metres, the highest point in Mauritius is reached in five to six kilometres, in Black River Gorges National Park. The final climb is demanding, and the summit, when the clouds allow, shows the whole island.
August 12, 2026
A mountain at the water’s edge, kilometres of public sand, a lagoon crossed by kitesurf sails and, offshore, a waterfall that is not one. The whole south-west of Mauritius revolves around Le Morne Brabant.
August 11, 2026
From a villa of sixty square metres to a residence of more than a thousand, the private pool takes very different forms in Mauritius. Floor area, heated water or not, service: the differences are considerable, and they can be read before booking.
August 10, 2026
A mountain at the end of a peninsula, a lagoon the trade winds keep for kitesurfers’ sails and, offshore, a waterfall that is no waterfall at all. The south-west of Mauritius packs a great many landscapes into very few kilometres.
August 9, 2026
Giraffes at breakfast, a thousand tortoises beneath the trees, a submarine, and a lagoon you can explore without knowing how to swim. A family week is built first on the choice of hotel, then on a few well-paced days.
August 7, 2026
The bus goes everywhere; the light rail runs from Port Louis to Curepipe through the towns of the plateau. Two networks, two ways of working, and a few habits to know before you board.
August 6, 2026
Every southern winter, humpback whales travel north to the Mascarenes to calve and mate. Off Mauritius, they are watched for from July to November, while the sperm whales never leave the west coast at all.
August 5, 2026
Rice, meat, potatoes and spices measured by eye: Mauritian biryani resembles no other. It tells of the island’s Indian heritage, from the wood-fired pot to the Indian restaurants of its hotels.
August 3, 2026
In October or November, Mauritian homes light up, kitchens prepare festive sweets and floors are covered with rangolis. Divali, the Hindu festival of lights, is one of the great moments of the island’s year.
August 2, 2026
In August 1810, in the bay of Grand Port, a British squadron sent to take the Isle de France saw most of its ships surrender or burn. A rare French victory, which delayed the conquest by only a few months.
August 1, 2026
From the village of Henrietta, seven waterfalls follow one another in Black River Gorges National Park, the tallest dropping forty-five metres. See one or all of them, as time and legs allow.
July 30, 2026
The west coast is the driest on the island and the only one to see the sun sink into the ocean. From Flic en Flac to La Preneuse: beaches long and tiny, a red-striped lighthouse, a watchtower and dolphins offshore.
July 29, 2026
Mauritius has more than a dozen courses, and several hotels have one within their grounds or five minutes away by shuttle. What really sets them apart is what the stay includes: one round per day, per night or per stay, the buggy, the transfer.
July 28, 2026
A long beach lined with casuarinas, dolphins off Tamarin and salt pans still at work. The west of Mauritius sets its clock by the setting sun.
July 27, 2026
Forty-five kilometres from east to west, sixty-one from north to south: Mauritius can be seen in full in ten days, without rushing, provided you change hotels two or three times. A clockwise tour, from Pamplemousses to Le Morne.
July 25, 2026
Drive on the left, give way to the right, and the island can be crossed in a little over an hour. What to know before leaving the airport car park, from the rules of the road to the points-based licence passed in 2025.
July 24, 2026
Off the west coast, dolphins live year-round in the waters of Tamarin, Black River and Le Morne. Approaching them is governed by precise regulations, which set the hour, the distance and the number of swimmers.
July 23, 2026
A base of tomato, onion, garlic and ginger, and whatever one cares to add: rougaille is the family dish par excellence. With curry and vindaye, it makes up a Creole cuisine designed to be shared.
July 21, 2026
Every year, between February and March, devotees from all over the island walk to a crater lake in the uplands of Savanne. Maha Shivaratree is the great night of Shiva, and Ganga Talao is its sanctuary.
July 20, 2026
From 1715 to 1810 Mauritius was called the Isle de France. A trading company, then the king, then an almost autonomous colony made it a naval port, an acclimatisation garden and a society founded on slavery.
July 19, 2026
The island’s second-highest peak, the Pieter Both can be recognised from afar by the enormous boulder that crowns its summit, which many liken to a human head. It can be seen from almost everywhere; it is climbed only with a guide and the right equipment.
July 17, 2026
The east coast holds the island’s longest public shoreline: long white beaches and a vast lagoon cooled by the breeze almost all year round. From Poste Lafayette to Trou d’Eau Douce, then on to the coves opened to the public in 2024, a coast that rises with the sun.
July 16, 2026
Some hotels in Mauritius admit no children at all; others close a wing, a pool or a restaurant to them. The minimum age ranges from twelve to eighteen, and it is the first thing to look at.
July 15, 2026
On the Flacq coast, the sun rises over kilometres of public sand, a lagoon enclosed by the reef and an island where nobody sleeps. This is the coast of long beaches and grand hotels.
July 14, 2026
The north of Mauritius fills a week without ever taking the same road twice: islands offshore, a garden born in the eighteenth century, a sugar planter’s mansion, a temple, and a beach to end each day. From Grand Baie to Cap Malheureux, day by day.
July 12, 2026
The Mauritian rupee is used nowhere else, and the island is where you obtain it. From the bureau de change in the arrivals hall to the VAT refund before boarding, this is how money moves over the course of a stay.
July 11, 2026
A hundred and fifty kilometres of reef enclose the lagoons of Mauritius and shelter its coast. In eighteen years, the share of living coral has shrunk by almost two thirds, and the island has taken to farming it.
July 10, 2026
A flatbread made from yellow split peas, filled and often served with a curry: dholl puri is where Mauritian street food begins. From the Port Louis bazaar to the market at Flacq, here is where and when to eat it.
July 8, 2026
At the full moon, between January and February, devotees carry a flower-covered arch and consecrated milk to the temple. Thaipoosam Cavadee is the great Tamil festival of Mauritius, and one of the country’s public holidays.
July 7, 2026
From 1598 to 1710 the island bore the name of a prince of Nassau without ever becoming a true colony. At Vieux Grand Port, a fort buried fifty centimetres underground keeps the memory of this century of landfalls and abandonment.
July 6, 2026
Above Port Louis, a spur of rock raises its thumb to the sky. On 2 May 1836, Charles Darwin reached its summit; today a waymarked trail leads there in three to four hours, there and back.
July 4, 2026
From Baie du Tombeau to Roches Noires, the north lines up forty-one public beaches, from broad sandy bays to coves a few dozen metres long. A lively coast, turned towards the offshore islands, where every stretch of shore open to all has its own story.
July 3, 2026
In Mauritius almost every large hotel runs a kids’ club, but the ages, the hours and what is on offer vary from one property to the next. It is these details, far more than the size of the pool, that make a family holiday a success.
July 2, 2026
A horseshoe bay, some fifty tables stretching to Pereybère and, offshore, five islands that are sailed around more often than set foot on. The north of Mauritius is lived at sea by day and ashore by night.
July 1, 2026
The guide to Mauritius: where to stay, what to do