A first trip: six hotels that open onto the island

A first trip to Mauritius often begins with a gentle mistake: one chooses a beautiful hotel, stays in it, and leaves without having seen the island. The lagoon, the pool and the buffet are enough to fill a week, and that is precisely the risk. Mauritius also lives in its markets, its fishing villages, its cane fields, its temples and its Creole tables, and sometimes it takes a hotel to show the way.

The six addresses that follow share a habit of sending their guests out. They arrange dinners in local homes, trips to the market at Flacq, cycling routes and included park entries, or simply set their guests down in the middle of a town. They are spread across three coasts, which also gives a first idea of the island’s variety.

On the beach at Belle Mare, in the east, the adults-only Sunrise Attitude has chosen to take the television out of its rooms. In its place come workshops led by Mauritian artists: pottery with Nadine, drumming, intuitive dance with Daphné. Every week, the Sand and Sound experience gathers guests, headphones on, on Belle Mare beach, led by a host.

The programme then leaves the hotel: walks through the cane fields, a bike ride to the market at Flacq, a tasting of local rum, dinner in a local home. For a first stay, it is a way into the island through its people rather than its landscapes. The airport is fifty-five kilometres away.

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Tropical Attitude

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

At Trou d’Eau Douce, the adults-only Tropical Attitude has just fifty-eight rooms, all with sea views, and Île aux Cerfs lies just opposite, reached by a free boat shuttle. The fishing village is two kilometres away, the market at Flacq ten.

The hotel builds its programme around them: a walk among the fishermen of Trou d’Eau Douce, the market at Flacq, dinner in a local home. In the evening, a sunset campfire, open-air cinema and a show of séga, the island’s music and dance, round off the discovery.

At Calodyne, facing the northern islands, Zilwa Attitude introduces the island through its food. Its seven restaurants cover as many styles: a Mauritian and international buffet, North Indian cooking with naans made in front of guests, Thai cuisine in a restored Creole house, reinvented Mauritian dishes for sharing at Kot Nou, street food from a food truck, and a barbecue on a private islet reached by boat. From half board and for stays of three nights or more, the Dine Around lets guests dine at four of them at no extra cost.

Its two hundred and fourteen rooms are decorated by a Mauritian artist. The Like a Local programme adds dinner in a local home and a sunrise outing by pirogue.

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Long Beach Mauritius

★★★★★Belle MareSee the hotelBook on Booking.com →

At Belle Mare, Long Beach has mapped out two electric-bike routes for its guests. The first, eighteen kilometres long, stops at the market at Flacq; the second, twenty-two kilometres long, leads to Bras d’Eau national park and the Sagar Shiv Hindu temple. In a single morning one passes from the beach to a protected forest and to one of the island’s places of worship.

At the hotel, two hundred and fifty-five suites each have their own outdoor space, and the estate’s beehives can be visited. The kids’ club is free for two- to eleven-year-olds and open from 9.30am to 10pm.

In the heart of Grand Baie, in the north, the Veranda Grand Baie sets its guests in the middle of a lively town: shops and nightlife are within walking distance. The decoration draws on colonial codes, white walls and carved woodwork, and the hotel is designed throughout for wheelchairs, from the rooms to the public areas.

Every guest receives one entry per stay to the World of Seashells museum, transfers not included. On half board or all inclusive, the sixty-five-square-metre Privilège rooms add a day’s catamaran cruise with lunch on board, for stays of at least seven nights. The main bar has a rum bar and a list of aromatic teas.

On Tamarin Bay, in the west, the Tamarina has fifty rooms, all of thirty-nine square metres. What the stay includes makes it a gateway to the west coast: entry to Casela park is free, once per guest per stay from two nights, shuttle included, and access to the SPARC sports complex is open.

Green fees at the Tamarina Golf Club are free, subject to conditions, and Tamarin Bay shelters a dolphin sanctuary nearby. For a first trip, that is the advice these six hotels give together: sleep beside the lagoon, and spend the days elsewhere.