Behind the wheel in Mauritius

In Mauritius, traffic drives on the left and gives way to vehicles coming from the right. For anyone used to driving on the right, these are the two reflexes to acquire. The rest comes down to the size of the island: 2,030 square kilometres, about 45 kilometres from east to west, crossed in an hour and a quarter, and some 61 kilometres from north to south, reckoned at an hour and twenty minutes. Everything is within driving distance; nothing is quite next door.

A visitor holding a valid driving licence, issued by the competent authorities, is entitled to drive during their stay. Hiring a car is straightforward. Some rental firms deliver the car to the hotel, and the terminal at Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport has a row of twelve rental desks on the arrivals level, where several major international names are represented. It only remains to bring a map or a GPS, and to remember, at the first roundabout, which way round to go.

AI-generated image

The rules of the road

The Mauritian highway code has a few rules best learnt before setting off. The driver wears a seat belt. Holding a phone or a microphone while driving is an offence. A child under ten does not sit in the front seat of a moving car, buses excepted. You do not cross a continuous white line, you follow the lane-selection arrows, you give way to a pedestrian already on a pedestrian crossing, and you neither stop nor drive on the central reservation of a motorway. On a dual carriageway, lane discipline is a legal obligation, not a mere courtesy.

Two-wheelers have their own requirements. A helmet is compulsory for anyone riding a motorcycle or a moped, as is high-visibility clothing, and you never carry more than one passenger. At night, headlights and rear lights stay on. In the event of an accident, a breakdown or an emergency, a warning triangle must be set out.

The light rail adds another element to the road between Port Louis and Curepipe. On the approach to a junction it crosses, markers warn the driver: three bars at 240 metres, two at 160 metres, one at 80 metres. You obey the lights, never block the junction and do not stop in the prohibited zones.

A law passed by the National Assembly on 12 December 2025 and promulgated on 15 December reinstates the points-based driving licence. It covers holders of a Mauritian licence and, expressly, holders of an international one. For the latter, the ceiling is set at fifteen points over thirty-six months. Anyone who exceeds it is banned from driving in Mauritius for six to twelve months. The law also provides that an offence carrying points obliges the driver to appear in person before the court, licence and passport in hand.

The schedule appended to the law says a good deal about its priorities. Speeding by more than 15 and up to 25 kilometres per hour, not wearing a seat belt, crossing a continuous line or ignoring a traffic light is worth two to four points. Using a phone while driving, handset in hand, is worth three to six. Each point stays attached to the driver for thirty-six months at most.

Mauritian roads claim on average some 145 lives a year: 139 in 2015, 144 in 2016, 157 in 2017, 143 in 2018 and 144 in 2019. That amounts to around three deaths per 10,000 vehicles, or thirteen per 100,000 inhabitants, a rate three times that of the safest European countries. In 2019, 40 per cent of the victims were riders or passengers of motorised two-wheelers, 24 per cent pedestrians, 17 per cent drivers, 14 per cent passengers and 6 per cent cyclists. The most exposed road users, motorcyclists and pedestrians, thus accounted for 64 per cent of deaths.

For the visiting driver, the lesson is a practical one: a motorbike may appear on the left, a pedestrian may be walking along the edge of the road, and it is up to the driver to anticipate. The Tourist Police, created on 29 September 2003 to look after the safety of visitors, also carry out targeted operations, breath tests among them.

One last rule has to do with the climate. In the cyclone season, traffic is prohibited three hours after a Class III warning is issued. A traveller who has to reach the airport that day would do well to leave early, and to call the airline before taking the road.