All activities / Scuba Diving / Flic en Flac
Scuba Diving in Flic en Flac
A long west-coast beach town facing a sheltered lagoon and the best-known wall and cave dives in Mauritius. Five minutes offshore lies the Cathedral, a cavern-and-grotto dive famous for its shafts of light, alongside drop-offs, reefs and wrecks that make Flic en Flac the island's main diving base.
Why here
Flic 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.
Best months
The west coast is the sheltered, leeward side of Mauritius, so Flic en Flac dives year round with generally calm seas and good visibility. Conditions and clarity are usually best from around November to April, the warm austral summer, though this is also the cyclone-risk window; the cooler months bring stronger trades on the exposed coasts but leave the west relatively protected. The Cathedral is a deeper cavern dive with some current and is best suited to divers with an Advanced certification, while the lagoon and shallower reefs are fine for beginners and courses.
Getting there & around
Flic en Flac is on the central west coast, about a 40 minute drive from the airport and close to Tamarin and the Black River. Dive centres run from the hotels along the beach and from Wolmar at the south end, and most sites are a five to fifteen minute boat ride out, so dives are short-transfer and easy to fit into a day. Centres offer pickups along the coast. Book a two-tank morning to reach the Cathedral and a second site on the same trip.
Skill levels: beginner, intermediate, advanced
Schools & guides (2)
SeaUrchin Diving Center
SchoolSeaUrchin Diving Center was founded in 2006 by Katharina Dohmann and sits on Royal Road in the middle of Flic en Flac, under German management. It is one of the few schools in Mauritius teaching SSI, PADI and CMAS courses, and it runs an SSI Instructor Trainer programme on site. Dives leave twice each morning for the Cathedral and the west-coast reefs, and courses are offered in English, French, German and Danish.
Sundivers Mauritius
SchoolSundivers is a PADI and SSI dive centre based at La Pirogue hotel in Wolmar, at the south end of Flic en Flac, and takes divers who are not hotel guests as well as resort guests. It runs the west-coast sites daily, including the Cathedral cavern and Snake Reef, and teaches courses from first-time try dives to professional level in English and French. The centre is closely tied to Mauritian underwater photographer Gerald Rambert, who has documented these reefs for years.