Unlike a trip to any Asian or European country, a Trip to Mauritius does not require months of planning. Its a small island country with a total area of nearly 2000 square kilometres having a length of 60 kms and width of 45 kms. Thus Mauritius’s circumference can be traversed within a single day by road if you want!
Coming to the history of Mauritius, it had been inhabited by many foreign countries. First the Portuguese came but did not stay for long as this piece of land had nothing to offer that time. Then the Dutch stayed for about 70 years and introduced sugarcane and domestic animals. After the Dutch abandoned, the French took control and stayed for a
TIME TO TRAVEL:
If you are planning for a trip to Mauritius, keep an eye on the air ticket prices. As and when you get a good deal go for it. This is because the weather here is more or less same throughout the year. Though they have a “so” called summer and winter, the difference between the average temperatures between summer and winter is negligible!
If you are planning for a budget trip, the best way for choosing accommodation is via AirBnB. For those who want to stay in resorts, one piece of advice would be- not to book via online portals like Makemy Trip, Tripadviser etc. After doing lot of research we have concluded that the online portals can never give deals as good as travel partners. The scenario is very different for Mauritius than other countries. I first tried booking through Travel Triangle and then switched to Antilog Vacations who gave me a steal deal for my 7 day trip with half board stay (breakfast+dinner), all sight
You can broadly divide the tour as East, South, South-West, North and North-west. It is better to rent your vehicle rather than take the sight seeing package unless its included with your accommodation. Let me come one by one to the places of interest in each direction. Roughly, 1 direction attractions can be covered in 1 day.
- Ile aux Cerfs- Ile Aux Cerfs is famous for its sandy beaches, beautiful lagoon and big selection of activities and facilities. Ile Aux Cerfs is a highly recommended location for snorkelling. The coral reef is beautiful and full of marine life, and together with the large black rocks that protrude into the water
- Belle Mare beach- long stretches of sandy pristine white, turquoise sea with crystal clear water surrounded by large casuarina trees. The beach is surrounded by unspoilt nature as there has been little development on this side of the island. Recommended for diving and deep sea fishing.
- Le Morne Brabant
- Chamarel Waterfall
- Curious Corner
- viewpoint over Black River Gorges National Park
- Ganga Talao/ Shiva statue
- viewpoint at enormous volcanic crater Trou aux Cerfs
- Ship Factory at Curepipe
- Casela World Park
- Flic n Flac beach
- Port Louis- Citadel Fort, Central Market, Caudan Water Front Shopping Complex.
- SSR Botanical Park
- Sugar Estate and Museum
- Château de Labourdonnais
- Mont Choisy Beach
- Trou Aux Biches beach
- Grand Baie- Shopping malls and beach
- Cap Malheurex Red Roof Church
FOOD, SHOPPING, CULTURE & MISCELLANEOUS:
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| Air Mauritius |
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| Our Resort Lobby |
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| Coral Azur Resort Entrance |
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| Coral Azur Resort Lobby |
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| Private beach in our resort |
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| Sunset at the Pier at our Resort |
On our way back we took a shower and changed clothes at the changing room as we were completely wet.
We reached hotel after a long one hour drive and were too tired to sneak peak at the resort activities. After a power nap, went for dinner straight. And thus ended day 2!
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| Bella Mare |
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| On the way to backwaters |
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| Backwaters Journey |
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| GRSE Waterfall |
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| lle Aux Cerfs |
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| lle Aux Cerfs |
DAY3:
Today’s trip was dedicated to my son as we were going to Casela Nature Park. After a hefty breakfast at our resort, we started at 10:00 am. An hour long drive took us to Casela. Mauritius has great roads and amazing views both sides of vast sugarcane fields and hills. At Casela, they provide us with maps and we are to follow the map and proceed. The zoo ia very nicely maintained and very green. Though it was very hot and humid, were were able to enjoy because of the shade provided by trees. We saw several variants of birds, monkeys, hippos, horses, zebras, cubs, giraffe, lion and so many other animals. There are activities inside the zoo like giant slides and roller coaster ride. We had a quick lunch at a restaurant inside the park. The dholpuri was amazingly good and I suggest everyone to try it. Post lunch we went for jungle safari. Our Safari van was animal printed and had a good view. Safari experience was very good and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing the wild animals. We took 5 hours to traverse through the nature park. There is a souvenir shop at the exit from where we purchased a few fridge magnets. The sun had already set when we reached our resort.
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| Casela Nature Park |
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| Casela Nature Park Map |
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| Casela Nature Park |
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| Casela Nature Park |
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| Casela Nature Park |
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| Casela Nature Park |
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| Casela Nature Park |
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| Casela Nature Park Safari Vehicle |
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| Casela Nature Park Safari Vehicle |
DAY4:
Day 4 was our trip to the capital, Port Louis. A 45 mins drive took us to the capital. Unlike other days, we experienced huge traffic jam few miles before touching the city. The city beholds lovely sight surrounded by mountains and sea. Our first stop was at citadel fort from where one can get a 360 degree view of Port Louis. Next one was Caudan Waterfront and the main shopping mall of Port Louis. The caudan waterfront is very picturesque and we clicked numerous pictures. The Mall lobby had very interesting decorations. One of them was an umbrella decor on the roof. We spent an hour there and then started for Cap Malheurex towards the north.
It took another 45 mins to reach there and we were simply mesmerised seeing the crystal clear sea with turquoise coloured water. With the beautiful sea at the backdrop stood the beautiful Red Roof Church. I just felt to just stay there and not go anywhere else, it was so peaceful! A lady was selling chicken and rice (Creole food) beside the church. It was lunch time and we were hungry. The food was pure bliss and I think everyone who visits cap Malheurex should eat from this small shop. We returned back to our hotel post lunch and took a short nap.
After a power nap, we took a stroll to Trou Aux Biches beach and watched the sun set from there.
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| Citadel Fort, Port Louis |
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| View From Citadel Fort, Port Louis |
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| Citadel Fort, Port Louis |
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| Le Pavillon Mall, Port Louis |
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| Caudon Waterfront, Port Louis |
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| China Market, Port Louis |
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| Port Louis |
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| Port Louis |
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| Cap Malheurex |
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| Red Roof Church, Cap Malheurex |
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| Sunset from our resort |
DAY5:
On Day 5 we toured the southern part of the island. We started a bit early (at 9:00) as it was going to be a long day. A 1.5 hours ride took us to our first stop which was at ADAMAS diamond duty free shop. It had a small museum which displays the whole life-cycle of diamond from ore to jewellery. The next stop was at a ship making factory at Curepipe. I have made a video of the process of ship making.
Adjacent to the factory they have an emporeum where you can purchase souvenirs, miniature ships, and jewellery. I purchased a couple of bracelets and some fridge magnets but felt that they were unnecessarily expensive.
The Next stop was at Trou Aux Cerfs- an extinct volcanic crater. It now had dense forest overgrown on it and just a mere view point. After clicking a few pictures, we again started travelling towards south. By the time we reached Grand Bassin, it started raining in cats and dogs. We somehow managed to take few pictures beside the gigantic Shiva statue and got back into the car.
Our Final destination of the day was Valley of Colours Nature park. It was going to be activity filled second half so we had power packed lunch at the beautiful in-house restaurant inside the park. The restaurant had great view and the Indian Food was quite tasty. My first activity was walking through 350 meter Nepalese Bridge. It was 3rd largest Nepalese bridge in the world. An experience to remember for lifetime- an amalgamation of fear, hope, achievement, joy and so many feelings as I was on the middle of the dwindling bridge, taking baby steps on the meagre planks! I missed to bring any camera so I missed a selfie on the bridge below which was deep dark valley.
I was escorted back from the other end of the bridge to the main office in a quad bike. Rain wasted some precious time. Then we went for boogie ride across the valley. A boogie was a quad bike for the entire family. After a quick practice session, my husband became a confident driver and we traversed through the up-down terrains efficiently. We stopped by a waterfall, giant tortoises and 23 coloured earth during our boogie ride. We got drenched in torrential rains towards the end. A piping hot coffee was the need of the hour and after the coffee we felt better. There is a souvenir shop beside the coffee shop at the park which was priced quite reasonably. We grabbed couple of mementos from there. It was quite dark when we reached our resort that day.
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| ADAMAS Diamond Museum |
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| Trou’ Aux Cerfs, Volcanic Crator |
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| Trou’ Aux Cerfs |
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| Handmade 2 meter long ship |
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| Shiva Statue at Ganga Talao |
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| Lunch at the beautiful restaurant at Valley of Colours |
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| Nepalese Bridge Walk! |
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| Boogie Ride |
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| Inside Valley of Colours Nature Park |
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| 23 Coloured Soil, WaterFall, Giant Tortoises inside Valley of Colours Nature Park |
DAY 6:
Day 6 was our leisure day and no sight seeing was included for that day. So, we took a public bus to Grand Baie from our resort. It was a very cheap means of transport and reached within 20 mins. The grandeur of Grand Baie is way beyond words. A very beautiful establishment of modern shops and malls beside the turquoise sea. We enjoyed in the sea for a long time and then walked towards one of the malls. There is a supermarket on the ground floor where we were astonished to find dirt cheap fridge magnets! Bye that time we had already purchased enough souvenirs so did not buy much. Only if this serendipity was earlier, we could have saved a lot of money 🙁
We had local food on the sea-shore from a small street vendor, tempted to try with our Cap Malheurex experience. However, this one was not that great. Post Lunch we took a bus to Mont Choisy Beach. Mont Choisy beach was the broadest beach which I saw in Mauritius. It was too heavily crowded. We somehow managed to settle on one corner, took a nap under the trees. There were lots of vendors selling food, toys, beach-wear, clothes across the beach and it seemed like a huge open air fair. After spending some more time, we went back to our resort. Afternoon spent on swimming at our resort. Every evening there were beautiful music and dance performances by artists in our resort. Day 6 had Indian menu at dinner along with bollywood numbers presented by artists. We enjoyed thoroughly and went to bed early.
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| Grand Baie Beach |
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| Grand Baie Beach |
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| Grand Baie Beach |
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| Local Food at Grand Baie Beach |
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| Grand Baie Main Market place |
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| Mont Choisy Beach |
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| Trou’ Aux Biches Beach |
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| Sunset at Trou’ Aux Biches Beach |
DAY7:
It was another leasure day for us. We chose not to go anywhere but relax in the resort and make use of the resort amenities. We also had 1 free lunch which we availed on Day 7. We bid adieu to our resort at 5:00 pm in the evening. Our flight was delayed for 3 hours which we had to spend at the airport, unfortunately.
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| At our Resort |
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| At our Resort |
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| At our Resort |
EXPENSES Breakup for our Mauritius Trip:
| Item | Details | USD | INR |
| Flight | For 3 Pax | 98000 | |
| Package | 6N-7D Half board+ pvt transfers+ entrance fees | 74000 | |
| Activities | Casela (included in our package) | 67 | |
| Under-sea-walk Photos | 76 | 5092 | |
| Under-sea-walk | 30 | 2010 | |
| Speedboat waterfall (2 pax) | 56 | 3752 | |
| Speedboat lle aux cerfs (2 pax) | 56 | 3752 | |
| Nepalese Bridge (1 pax) | 22 | 1474 | |
| Buggy (per family) | 150 | 10050 | |
| Water | for 3 Pax for 7 days | 2000 | |
| Food | for lunch for 3 Pax for 7 days | 7500 | |
| Shopping | Souvenirs, bracelet, fridge magnets | 10000 | |
| Transport | In bus to/from resort to Grand baie via Mont Choisy | 300 | |
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Car rentals are available nearby to big hotels or supermarkets. Renting out a car is surely a better option both financially as well as convenience point of view. Petrol prices are quite high (Rs100/litre) and car rentals vary between Rs 1500 – Rs 3000 per day.
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