As a couple: hotels that make room for two

Travelling as a pair does not always mean looking for a hotel closed to children. Many couples prefer a lively house, with several restaurants and a busy beach, as long as they can find moments and places for themselves alone. In Mauritius, a good number of hotels have understood this and set such spaces aside within an estate open to all.

The form varies from one address to the next: an entire wing reserved for adults, a room category limited to two people, a double treatment room at the spa, a restaurant with a handful of covers, a dinner laid on the beach. The seven hotels that follow each offer at least one of these, and often several.

At Turtle Bay, in Balaclava, where a river meets the sea, The Ravenala offers only suites, two hundred and fifty in all. It is the Attitude group’s family address, which is exactly what makes its reserved part worthwhile: an entire wing is closed to under-eighteens, with its Adult Executive Beachfront suites of sixty-four square metres and its two restaurants. In the rest of the estate, the Couple Junior suite, of seventy-two square metres, is limited to two adults, with an indoor sitting room and a furnished terrace.

Riviera, a Franco-Mauritian restaurant for adults only, is charged as an extra and depends on the weather. At the spa, two of the twelve massage rooms are doubles, each with its own private hot tub, and the Dine Around formula opens five of the eight restaurants from half board upwards.

AI-generated image

Outrigger Mauritius Beach Resort

★★★★★Bel OmbreSee the hotelBook on Booking.com →

In the Bel Ombre nature reserve, on the south coast, the Outrigger opens straight onto the beach and spreads its estate around four pools, one of them for adults only. The Navasana spa opens onto the ocean, with an area at the water’s edge and a room reserved for couples.

For the evening, Rouben’s Wine Room is a wine cellar where private dinners are held around tapas. The Voyageur47 club, reserved by day for suite guests, with its private pool, opens to everyone for dinner, with Mauritian fusion cooking. The list of included activities is long, from the glass-bottom boat to stand-up paddleboarding, by way of snorkelling.

The Pearle Beach lines Wolmar beach, in the heart of Flic en Flac, with seventy-six rooms, all of thirty-five square metres. For a hotel of this size it keeps two spas: Serenity, which won an award at the World Luxury Spa Awards in 2017, has three treatment rooms, one of them reserved for couples, a hammam and a sauna; the Cabane extends the spa onto the beach.

Oceanic, à la carte, has only thirty-two covers, in a structure that recalls an ocean liner. The twelve Deluxe Club rooms are the only ones to look straight out to the ocean from a furnished balcony: that is the category to ask for.

AI-generated image

Laguna Beach Hotel & Spa

★★★Grande Rivière Sud-EstSee the hotelBook on Booking.com →

At Camp des Pêcheurs, in Grande Rivière Sud-Est, the Laguna Beach faces the island’s largest lagoon on one side and the Grand Port mountain range on the other. Its sixty-four rooms are designed for couples as much as for families, and the Standard Sea View room, intended for two people, opens its terrace or balcony onto the sea.

The Seazen spa gives massages on the beach, under gazebos, and offers mud baths and honey baths; it has only two treatment rooms, so it is best to book on arrival. A free shuttle runs to Île aux Cerfs, and fishing in a local boat, with fishermen from the village, is available as an extra.

In the heart of Flic-en-Flac, the Aanari gathers fifty rooms in two wings, a few steps from the beach. The Standard room, with a mountain view, is designed in an intimate format for two people, and the Club room, with an ocean view, includes access to the spa.

The Amrita spa has a massage pavilion reserved for couples, alongside a Finnish sauna and a steam bath; it closes at 17:00 and has only one other treatment room. The end of the day is therefore spent at the Colonial Bar, whose happy hour, from 16:00 to 19:00, puts every drink at half price, before a Cantonese dinner at Mei Yan.

AI-generated image

Wonders Beach Boutique Hotel

Trou-aux-BichesSee the hotelBook on Booking.com →

On the Trou-aux-Biches lagoon, a short walk from Mont Choisy beach, the Wonders Beach has only eighteen rooms, in a newly built property, and does not accept children under twelve. Every category but one is limited to two people.

The four Garden villas, of seventy-five square metres, each have a private pool on the ground floor. The Deluxe suite, of forty-six square metres, has large windows facing the ocean and the sunset. An electronic concierge, reached from your phone, opens up the hotel’s services.

At Flic-en-Flac, facing the lagoon of Tamarin Bay, ninety of the Sands’ ninety-one suites measure exactly 52.5 square metres. At the spa, two of the four treatment rooms are designed for couples, and the private sauna and hammam are free for guests; booking is recommended.

Pink Peppercorn, a beach restaurant of just twenty seats, serves seafood at dinner beneath two trees, beside a pink pepper tree, and the hotel lays romantic dinners on the beach. A formula also allows guests to dine in the three restaurants of the Maradiva, its sister hotel.

For a couple, then, the question is not only whether the hotel takes children. It is where you will dine, where you will be massaged, and which room will truly remain your own.