Mauritius at a child’s height

A family trip to Mauritius is decided first at the hotel. The youngest will spend part of their days there, and the island’s hotels are not all equipped in the same way. Once that choice is made, the rest falls into place around a few big days, to be measured out to suit everyone’s age and patience: a wildlife park, an oceanarium, a risk-free outing at sea, a forest to explore from up high.

For the very young, the Preskil Island Resort, on the south-east coast, facing Île aux Aigrettes, takes children from three months old in its Baby Club, up to the age of three, with staff trained in caring for infants; its next club separates the 3 to 5s from the 6 to 12s, until 9.30pm. In the north-west, the Casuarina, opened in 1973 facing Trou aux Biches beach, houses families in ten two-room cottages, one room for the parents and the other for the children, with a kitchenette; its club takes children aged 3 to 11 from 9am to 4pm, and a glass-bottomed boat goes out twice a day, at 10.30am and 2.30pm. At Trou d’Eau Douce, the Friday Attitude has fifteen family rooms out of fifty and rents out baby equipment on site, so you can travel light. At the Victoria Beachcomber, in Pointe aux Piments, a club also caters for teenagers, and a room for preparing babies’ bottles stays open day and night.

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A whole day at Casela

Casela Nature Parks, at Cascavelle on the west coast, has been open since 1979: 350 hectares, more than 1,800 animals, five worlds. The safari is done by bus, or in an electric off-road vehicle for an hour-long outing, among wildebeest, impala, giraffes and rhinoceroses. Early risers book breakfast on the giraffe platform, served at 7.45am, before the park opens. Older children try the Tulawaka, a 760-metre summer toboggan run with views of the coast; younger ones have the educational farm, the mini-golf and the little train. Seeing all five worlds takes the whole day, and the Blue Bird, the park’s restaurant, has a children’s menu.

In the south, at Rivière des Anguilles, La Vanille Nature Park has protected more than a thousand Aldabra giant tortoises since 1985; they live free beneath a dense tropical forest. You can watch the crocodiles being fed, feed the lemurs, wander through the interactive farm, and the fossil museum brings together hundreds of pieces from Madagascar. Arriving before 3pm leaves time to see it all.

In Port Louis, the Odysseo Oceanarium presents 300 species from the Indian Ocean and 3,500 specimens, from lagoon to reef, along a fully covered route that is accessible with pushchairs. Feeding time at the tanks, in front of the public, is the liveliest moment of the day, and an audio guide in French accompanies the visit.

The sea itself can be discovered without taking risks. At Belle Mare, a guided undersea walk takes place on the floor of the lagoon and calls for no swimming ability at all. At Blue Bay, the glass-bottomed boat shows the corals to those who would rather stay dry. Lastly, Blue Submarine has two submarines, one with five seats and the other with ten, which descend to 35 metres among fish, corals and rays, and go as far as the wreck of the Star Hope.

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Forests, a crater and coloured earth

At Chamarel, the Seven Coloured Earth can be visited in about an hour: the waterfall seen from two viewpoints, the dunes in seven shades, and Aldabra tortoises beneath the trees, which the team feeds in the morning. Close by, Ebony Forest takes families along the Flycatcher walkway, some three hundred metres of it above an old ebony forest, more than four metres off the ground; a child who suffers from vertigo should be mentioned to staff before the visit.

In the north-east, Bras d’Eau National Park, created in 2011, is usually quieter than Black River Gorges. The Coq du Bois Loop, a gentle circuit within reach of any walker, crosses an orchard of some two thousand mango trees and two hundred lychee trees, and picnic tables wait in the park. On the edge of Curepipe, Trou aux Cerfs, a dormant crater at an altitude of 605 metres, is seen from above, with a small lake at the bottom.

Port Louis has two museums made for them. At the Natural History Museum, the oldest on the island, a dodo skeleton is assembled from the bones of one and the same bird, and an entire gallery is devoted to marine life. At the Postal Museum, in the old General Post Office on the waterfront, a postman character, Sam Le Facteur, tells the youngest visitors the story of the mail. And up on the plateau, at Phoenix, The Mauritius Glass Gallery casts each visitor’s handprint in recycled glass, to be taken home.

A week is enough for all this, provided you do not try to do everything at once: one big day, then a day of beach and kids’ club, then another big day.