Le Morne as a backdrop: where to stay facing the mountain

Le Morne Brabant closes off the south-western tip of Mauritius. The mountain is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, and the peninsula it dominates brings together, along a few kilometres of beach, several of the island’s large hotels. You can sleep at its foot, but you can also look at it from further away, from the beach at Flic-en-Flac or from the heights of Tamarin, across the bay.

The eight addresses that follow divide between these two approaches. Five are on the peninsula itself, at the foot of the mountain; three look at it from the other shore, from the beach or from the flank of another mountain. One practical point applies to those on the peninsula: it is at the other end of the island from the airport, and the drive has to be reckoned with.

On the Le Morne peninsula, the Dinarobin spreads its pavilions through a twenty-hectare garden, along a fine-sand beach and a lagoon known for kitesurfing, with seven kilometres of beach to walk. Rated five stars in the Luxury sub-category, it offers only suites and villas, and the Dinarobin villa, of three hundred and fifty square metres, stands at the edge of the beach.

The spa is housed in thatched pavilions at the foot of the mountain, and the sports centre stands at the edge of the golf course, facing Le Morne. A crescent of Zen suites is reserved for adults, with its own pool, and the neighbouring hotel on the same peninsula opens its four restaurants to Dinarobin guests, bringing the number to eight.

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LUX* Le Morne

★★★★★Le MorneSee the hotelBook on Booking.com →

LUX* Le Morne stands at the foot of the mountain, facing the lagoon, and a few steps separate the rooms from the white-sand beach. The mountain can be climbed from the hotel, and kitesurfing takes place on the Le Morne Kite Lagoon, with shallow waters protected by the reef.

Fifteen Le Morne Junior Suites, of sixty-three square metres, have an outdoor shower in volcanic stone, a freestanding bath and wide sliding shutters. Near the sea, a wooden cabin perched in the trees serves as a dining room for breakfast or a cinema for an evening, and KAWAII, an omakase sushi bar, has just eight seats.

The St. Regis occupies the Le Morne peninsula, at the foot of Le Morne Brabant, on the seafront of Le Morne beach. Rated five stars in the Luxury sub-category, it is all suites, and each one has the butler service particular to the brand.

The mountain gives its name to a category: the ten Le Morne suites, of one hundred and fifty square metres, have a separate sitting room and a wide terrace or balcony, and the St. Regis Bar carries a hand-painted fresco of Le Morne. Every day champagne is sabred at sunset, and the hotel arranges the Le Morne hike as well as stargazing.

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Riu Palace Mauritius, Adults Only

Le MorneSee the hotelBook on Booking.com →

On the Le Morne Brabant peninsula, the Riu Palace is for adults aged eighteen and over and runs on an all-inclusive basis twenty-four hours a day. All suites, it has eight restaurants, among them an Asian table, an Indian one and a grill.

Five of the seven categories measure exactly thirty-three square metres, and the difference lies in the view and in membership of the Elite Club, which gathers the rooms with the best views. The two Elite Club Swim Up categories, of forty and fifty-five square metres, have their own private pool.

Next to the Riu Palace on the peninsula, the Riu Turquoise is its family counterpart, on the beach and likewise all-inclusive twenty-four hours a day, with no hour after which drinks and snacks stop being included.

The rooms come in only two sizes, twenty-nine square metres, or forty-five for the Family room, and all have a balcony or terrace; the Double Sea View is the category to ask for if you want the water. The pool has its swim-up bar, and the Riu Land programme keeps the children busy.

Legend Hill is not on the seafront, and that is what gives it its view. The estate is built on the flank of the Tourelle mountain, above Tamarin Bay, and the eye takes in one hundred and eighty degrees over Le Morne and the bay. Fifty-two properties, villas, apartments and penthouses of three to four bedrooms, open onto terraces facing the ocean, with infinity pools.

A separate hotel section offers sea-view rooms and suites, and shares the estate’s services: spa, sports club, restaurants. Le 1812, the gourmet restaurant, has a menu designed by the French chef Glenn Viel, holder of three Michelin stars. The sea, for its part, is reached by going down.

On the beach at Flic-en-Flac, the Sands looks out over the lagoon of Tamarin Bay and the rock of Le Morne. Ninety of its ninety-one suites measure 52.5 square metres and differ only in floor and view: the twelve beachfront suites have the best position on the bay.

The Exclusive suite, the only one of its kind, of one hundred and forty-five square metres, has two bedrooms and two balconies offering the hotel’s finest views of the Indian Ocean. Ten water sports are included, from water skiing to wakeboarding, and the eighteen holes of Tamarina can be played, at extra cost.

At Wolmar, in Flic en Flac, La Pirogue lines up two hundred and forty-eight single-storey bungalows and pavilions beneath thatched roofs inspired by fishing pirogues, along more than a kilometre of beach, on the sunset coast. Its Magenta restaurant looks out over the lagoon and Le Morne mountain, and works with the culinary heritage of Mauritius, Rodrigues and Réunion.

The Van Der Stel wine bar serves sixty wines on tap, with a sommelier. For a view of the water, the Beach Pavilion, of thirty-five square metres, has its private terrace on the lagoon.

Two ways of seeing the mountain, then: at its foot, where it can be climbed, or from the other shore, where it is taken in at a single glance. It is for each traveller to decide whether to touch it or to look at it.