Rackets, strides and gyms: the hotel as playing field

For many travellers, a holiday in Mauritius is a pause. For others, it is a chance at last to play tennis every morning, to take up running again or to try padel, the racket sport played on a court enclosed by walls. These travellers look less at the size of the pool than at the number of courts, the gym’s opening hours and what is included.

The seven hotels that follow have made sport a visible part of what they offer, on land as much as on the water. Golf and kitesurfing have their own addresses; this is about rackets, weights, running and team games, and what can be done without leaving the estate.

In Grand Baie, the Royal Palm, a palace of sixty-nine suites and a member of the Leading Hotels of the World, devotes seven hundred square metres to its sports centre, open from 7.30am to 7.30pm: a cardio room, a weights room, a multi-purpose room, a hammam and coaches. Outside there are two tennis courts, a squash court and a padel court, the last chargeable, as are tennis lessons, individual or group.

A free daily programme runs through meditation, mindfulness, aqua aerobics, sunset yoga and volleyball and pétanque tournaments. At the boathouse, water-skiing, wakeboarding, sailing and windsurfing are free.

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Shandrani Beachcomber Resort & Spa

★★★★Blue BaySee the hotelBook on Booking.com →

At Blue Bay, in the south-east, the Shandrani occupies a private peninsula of fifty-three hectares, and sport has room to breathe. Five floodlit tennis courts, pickleball, beach volleyball, power walking and a nine-hole pitch and putt share the dry land; the fitness centre, from the age of fifteen, offers weights, aerobics, cardio and group classes.

On the water, water-skiing, sailing and wakeboarding are free, and a water-ski academy gives private lessons at extra cost. Padel is chargeable. The Beachcomber Sports & Nature programme adds, at extra cost, kayaking, abseiling, cycling and boat trips.

Along its two kilometres of beach at Belle Mare, in the east, Constance Belle Mare Plage lines up four floodlit tennis courts, a nine-hole mini-golf course, table tennis and pétanque. The included water sports make a long list: water-skiing, windsurfing, wakeboarding, kayaking, Hobie Cat catamarans, Laser dinghies and pedal boats, with snorkelling trips, equipment provided.

Diving, to PADI and CMAS standards, big-game fishing, parasailing and bicycle hire are chargeable. The hotel has two hundred and seventy-eight rooms and suites.

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Shangri-La Le Touessrok

★★★★★Trou d’Eau DouceSee the hotelBook on Booking.com →

At Trou d’Eau Douce, the Shangri-La Le Touessrok spreads across thirty-four hectares. On land there is a floodlit padel court, three floodlit tennis courts, archery, beach football, beach volleyball, billiards and pétanque; electric bikes can be hired, and the hotel runs guided outings.

On the water, the list covers almost everything the lagoon allows, from sailing to kitesurfing, from water-skiing to wakeboarding, from scuba diving to big-game fishing. A kayak trip into the mangrove links effort and landscape.

At Balaclava, in the north-west, the Westin has made running a speciality: it draws up its own route maps, and a group run sets off twice a week, as does a bike ride. The WestinWORKOUT gym is open around the clock, with TRX straps, a personal trainer, group classes and loan of Bala and Hyperice equipment.

All of this is included, as is access to the spa’s sauna, hammam and hot tub, beach football, beach volleyball, aqua aerobics, kayaks, Laser dinghies and windsurfing. The one hundred and ninety suites look onto the Turtle Bay lagoon.

In Grand Baie, LUX* Grand Baie has put its sport on the roof. Muscle Up, an open-air fitness area, has a thirty-metre running track built to Olympic standards, next to the Bisou rooftop with its bar and infinity pool.

Further down, the LUX* ME spa, of one thousand six hundred and twenty-five square metres, houses an indoor cycling studio and the Niyama studio for body and mind, as well as a hydrotherapy circuit. At the boathouse: water-skiing, wakeboarding, sailing and windsurfing.

At Flic en Flac, on the west coast, the Anelia, a four-star hotel of one hundred and forty-one rooms and bungalows, lacks the scale of the great estates, but sport holds a special place there. Its air-conditioned gym combines multimedia cardio, weights and free weights, with a personal trainer at extra cost; there is also a tennis court, beach volleyball, aqua aerobics, pétanque and yoga classes.

Above all, the entertainment team organises weekly competitions in land and water sports. It may be the oldest recipe for a sporting holiday, and it still works: a scoreboard, a few week-long rivals and a reason to get up early.