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Coverage / Mauritius

Mauritius

Eastern Africa

A volcanic island nation in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar, ringed by lagoons and one of the world's most complete coral reefs. Mauritius pairs world-class kitesurfing and diving with a mountainous, forested interior that holds the last of its endemic wildlife, and a Creole, Indian, Chinese and French culture whose festivals and street food have no equal in the region.

6 activities · 6 pairings · 10 verified providers

What you can do in Mauritius

Culinary / Cooking

Port Louisyear-roundPort Louis is the best place in the Indian Ocean to eat your way through a whole society in an afternoon. Mauritius was settled by French planters, enslaved Africans and Malagasy, indentured Indian labourers and Chinese traders, and their descendants still cook side by side in the capital's markets and back streets. The island's unofficial national dish is street food: dholl puri, a soft turmeric flatbread stuffed with ground yellow split peas and served with bean curry, pickles and chilli, sold from handcarts by vendors who move thousands a day. Around it swirls a whole world of gateaux piment chilli fritters, Indian farathas with rougaille, Sino-Mauritian boulettes and fried noodles, samosas, and French-rooted pastries and pain maison. The Central Market and Chinatown pack it all into a few walkable blocks, and because so much of the good eating is cheap, fast and hidden behind which stall the locals queue at, a guided food walk is the shortcut: it gets you to the right vendors, explains what you are tasting and why these communities cook the way they do, and does it without the language and hygiene guesswork of going in cold.

Kitesurfing

Le MorneMay Jun Jul Aug Sep OctLe Morne is the reason kitesurfers put Mauritius on the map. From roughly May to October the south-east trade winds blow steady and side-shore across a huge shallow lagoon at the foot of the UNESCO-listed Le Morne Brabant, giving beginners a safe, waist-deep flat-water classroom and freestylers a mirror to train on. Out at the reef pass sits One Eye, a fast, hollow left-hander that peels for hundreds of metres over shallow coral and is spoken of in the same breath as the best wave-riding spots on earth, strictly the preserve of expert strapless and wave riders. The peninsula packs several distinct zones into one bay: the protected inner lagoon, the choppier open water, the Manawa channel, and the reef breaks beyond, so the same trip can carry you from a first water start to riding a genuine ocean wave. Add warm water, reliable wind and a mountain backdrop, and it is one of the few places that suits a total beginner and a world-tour freestyler on the same afternoon.

Scuba Diving

Flic en FlacJan Feb Mar Apr Nov DecFlic en Flac is the diving capital of Mauritius, and its signature dive, the Cathedral, is one of the most photographed sites in the Indian Ocean. A short boat ride off this west-coast town, the reef drops into a cavern of arches, chimneys and grottoes where sunlight pours through the roof in shafts, and lobster, moray and lionfish shelter in the shadows. The whole leeward coast here sits in the lee of the trade winds, so the water is calm and the visibility long, and the sites stack up within minutes of the beach: the wall at La Cathedrale, Snake Reef, Rempart Serpent with its scorpionfish and stonefish, and the deliberately sunk wrecks off the coast that now grow coral and shoal with fish. It suits a first open-water course in the sheltered lagoon just as well as an experienced diver chasing the deeper cavern and the drop-offs, and from roughly November to April the offshore water carries the chance of passing dolphins and, in the right season, humpback whales.

Trekking / Hiking

Black River Gorges National ParkMay Jun Jul Aug Sep OctBlack River Gorges is where you walk through what is left of the real Mauritius, the wet upland forest that once covered the island before the sugarcane. Trails thread more than sixty kilometres of native woodland across the park, from short walks to the Black River Peak, the island's highest point at 828 metres, down into the gorge itself and its river pools. This is the last refuge of species that exist nowhere else: the Mauritius kestrel, once down to four wild birds and now hunting over these ridges again, the soft-pink pink pigeon, and the noisy green echo parakeet, alongside flying-fox colonies and endemic ebony and tambalacoque trees. The most walked routes run from the Petrin and Black River visitor centres, taking in the Macchabee forest ridge and viewpoints that drop away over the whole south-west of the island to the sea. Come in the dry winter months and the trails are firm and the panoramas clear; the forest is quiet, birdsong-heavy and, for an island better known for its beaches, a completely different Mauritius.

Wine / Spirits Education

Chamarelyear-roundMauritius grows more sugarcane than almost anything else, and Chamarel is where you learn what the island does with it beyond sugar. In a green valley above the south-west coast, La Rhumerie de Chamarel presses juice straight from its own hand-cut cane and distils rhum agricole, the French-Caribbean style made from fresh cane juice rather than molasses, a category that most rum-drinkers have never knowingly tasted. A tour walks you from the field through fermentation, column and pot stills and oak ageing to a guided tasting of white, aged and spiced rums, so you leave understanding why cane-juice rum tastes grassy and floral where molasses rum tastes of toffee. Half an hour east, the far older Rhumerie de Saint Aubin has been distilling on its colonial estate since 1819 and runs its own Atelier du Rhum tasting workshop, so the two make a proper southern rum route. This is the island's stand-in for a wine region: a producer landscape you can taste your way through, with the added local twist of vanilla, coffee and spiced rums you will not find at home.

Witness / Attend

Maha ShivaratriGrand BassinFeb MarMaha Shivaratri at Grand Bassin is the largest Hindu gathering outside India, and one of the most extraordinary things to witness in the Indian Ocean. For three days around the February new moon, close to 400,000 pilgrims, most dressed in white, walk from every corner of Mauritius to Ganga Talao, a crater lake believed to hold water from the Ganges, many carrying tall decorated timber arches called kanwars on their shoulders. They come to make offerings at the lakeside shrines beneath a 33-metre statue of Shiva, in a devotion that has run for more than a century, since a local priest dreamt the lake was joined to the sacred river. There is no ticket and no organiser, only a slow river of people, chanting, drumming and small roadside stalls where volunteers press food, tea and water on the walkers. To witness it with respect, dress modestly, consider walking a stretch of the pilgrim route rather than driving straight to the lake, keep to the edges of the ceremonies at the water, and ask before photographing anyone at prayer. It is a rare chance to see a whole society on the move, on foot, for something it believes in.

Best months at a glance

	J	F	M	A	M	J	J	A	S	O	N	D
Culinary
Kitesurfing
Scuba Diving
Trekking
Wine & Spirits
Witness / Attend