Mauritius is a very diverse island destination and actually offers a lot more to do than just enjoy the beaches. Putting together an itinerary of what to do on your holiday will depend a lot on what sort of holiday you want. In this blog post, I will include the must do’s for everyone visiting Mauritius. I will include links to other blog posts with more ideas for your holiday if you are a foodie, or you like adventure, etc. Like I said, Mauritius has a lot to offer.
1. Visit a local market
To get a feel for Mauritius, visit one of the markets. Most are only open on selected days and some have a specific clothing day and fruit and veg day. Check the reviews on Google and you will see where someone has explained the particular market that interests you. Detailed market blog to follow… You can read about bargaining, parking, toilets and what is available at which market.
You will always find some sort of foods to eat on offer at the markets but some definitely have a wider selection than others. One of the best markets because of it’s amazing food court is Flacq, check out the video below.
Our favourite markets if you want to visit for a browse and then eat some great foods are Flacq in the East, Rose Belle in the South, Triolet in the North, actually most of them except Goodlands which only has roti at the market! Hopefully with the market relocating to new premises this will improve.
If you want to buy clothing Goodlands market in the North and even Goodlands main street is for you. Check out the Goodlands clothing market video below. St Pierre in the centre also has a good selection of reasonably priced clothing. For buying fresh fruit and veg I suppose whichever is closest to you would make sense. The Port Louis market has the most complete and best priced meat selection though.
Not many of the local markets sell curios for tourists apart from Flacq and Port Louis but for souvenir shopping you will find Mauritian t-shirts, spices and the ever present dodo in all markets.
2. Go to an island off an island
Mauritius is an island but it is also surrounded by small islets, many of which you can visit. This is usually done by organising a catamaran or speed boat trip through a tour operator or directly from the company offering the tour.
Typically an island trip is full day and includes snacks, lunch on the boat or on the island (usually a fabulous barbeque) and drinks. You particularly get plied with quite a bit of island rum punch, no complaints here.
Be aware that most of the islands do not have toilet facilities so you need to go in the bushes or take some swimming and snorkelling breaks 🙂
Some island outings will provide additional activities such as scuba diving or swimming with dolphins. Most offer snorkelling but check if they have the gear or you must bring your own.
Some of the islands you can visit:
Flat island – often combined with scuba diving and including a lunch on the island. You can also often hike to the lighthouse and the cliffs.
Gabriel island – usually by catamaran and includes lunch on the island.
Isle aux cerfs, usually by speed boat with lunch and snorkelling offered. Sometimes combined with a trip to see the GRSE waterfalls.
Benetier island – usually combined with swimming with dolphins. There are market stalls on the island selling rums and clothing and a fabulous roti shop in case you are hungry before lunch is ready.
Coin de Mire – no landing on the island, best place for snorkelling and scuba diving in Mauritius
Round Island – 1 to 1 1/2 hours boat trip in the open seas, no landing on the island, scuba diving with sharks for qualified divers.
3. Visit a Temple - Grand Bassin / Ganga Taloa
Mauritius is multi cultural and has many temples, mosques and churches all across the island. Many times these different places of worship are situated right next to each other. The most sacred Hindu site on the island is Grand Bassin, also know as Ganga Talao.
You are welcome to enter a temple, just take your shoes off where the sign says ‘place shoes here’ and of course, be respectful. At Grand Bassin you will usually find a devotee who will gladly explain the religion and the gods.
Most temples and churches have parking facilities nearby and usually toilets. Generally no food is permitted inside unless as an offering. At Grand Bassin you can eat at the lake but only vegetarian food.
If you are fortunate to come to Mauritius when there is a religious festival occurring make a plan to witness it. Cavadee is one of the easiest to follow as the devotees walk down the streets carrying the Cavadee to the temple.
4. See the underwater world
Image and video below courtesy of Ocean Spirit Scuba Diving in Pereybere
Mauritius is the largest oceanographic state in the world. Yes, the land might be tiny but the sea belonging to Mauritius is huge. Mauritius is mostly surrounded and protected by a coral reef which makes seeing the fish really easy.
I love scuba diving and Mauritius has some of the best diving in the world with beginner sites, wrecks, dramatic drop-offs, turtles ad tons of tropical fish life. If you have never tried scuba diving before, Mauritius is the place to try it.
If scuba is not your thing, try snorkelling. Pereybere beach and many of the others have great snorkelling that you can easily swim out to. You can snorkel safely within the yellow buoy markers at the beach as no boats can enter this area. Outside of this, make sure you are visible.
If you don’t fancy getting wet at all, Mauritius has you covered! You can go on a glass bottom boat trip to go see the corals and fish. This is a great experience but usually they don’t provide snacks so bring your own water and nibbles.
Even if you are a complete land lover, you can see some of the magic of underwater Mauritius by visiting the Odysseo Oceanarium. So there you go, no need to miss out on seeing the most beautiful attraction of Mauritius, the underwater world.
5. Try some street food
Unless you are staying in a remote resort, you will find street food everywhere. Make sure you try dahl puri (the best is at Triolet market but any that are made fresh are wonderful). As with most street food, is it not chilli hot but you can have chilli added (you will be asked).
Mauritius has really delicious street foods and the health standard is quite high. You are generally not going to find anything strange, about the most out there is liver.
Here is a checklist: Dahl puri, Roti, briyani, boiled / fried noodles, boulette, salty fried snacks such as Gato pima and chana puri, halim, faratha (general thicker than roti and stuffed with wonderful curries), pani puri. I’m sure I have missed a bunch.
You will also find some sweet items on the street. An absolute must eat when in Mauritius is the fresh fruit cups served with tamarin sauce and chilli (if you want – but get just a little for the full experience).
You can also go on a guided food tour in Port Louis, Grand Baie and Mahebourg. We haven’t done this yet but it looks great.
6. The mountains
Mauritius is a volcanic island and has beautiful rugged mountain ranges to show for it. Whatever your fitness level, you can go and discover the amazing views.
My personal preferences as we are not into serious mountaineering are exploring from viewpoints that are accessible by car! I will add some links below to some great hiking resources. https://www.exploremauritius.org/
La Laura Malenga viewpoint is stunning, you can see from Peter Both Mountain (right next to you) all the way to Coin de Mire Island. There are a few parkings on site and you can take an easy walk down the path to another viewpoint and do some guava picking, in season, along the route.
Drive around through La Laura while you are there to get stunning views of the Moka mountain range with lush vegetable plantations in front. This is where the ‘proper’ hiking up the Moka range begins. Also don’t forget to take a classic Peter Both selfie through the La Laura ‘wheel’. There is a lot to explore if you are in this area, check out the video link below.
Drive the backroad through Congomah. This road offers many scenic views down the valley. Stop at Zananas restaurant for one of the best views on the island (that you can drive to). Check out the video link below.
It is possible to visit Port Louis on numerous occasions as there as so much history, culture, food and shopping available. Now with the new Victoria urban station, there is a new parking area (as well as the Caudan Waterfront). I suggest find a parkade and take a few walking trips around Port Louis.
Some highlights: The market, Aapravassi ghat to learn about indentured labourers, a walk down Place d’Arms and onwards to see all the historic buildings, The company gardens, China Town, tour the street art in China Town and throughout Port Louis and the Caudan waterfront.
There is an online map made by MyMoris.mu of the historic buildings: Click here
The National Heritage Fund now has a very useful app for all the heritage sites in Mauritius: Mauheritage play store.
There is a cool app that makes the street art come to life: App on play store App on Apple
Mauritius has some fabulous destination restaurants where the journey is really worth it. Many of these locations are on old sugar estates. Check out Bois Cheri, St Antoine (Goodlands), St Aubin (South) and Domaine des Aubineaux (Curepipe). All are set in historic buildings with grounds that you can walk around.
Of course you could always combine an amazing lunch stop with one of the other activities suggested. Hmmm, I’m probably going to have to write another blog post setting out a 1 week tour of Mauritius schedule.
There are also some amazing places that were not old sugar estates although you wouldn’t think that at Domaine Anna. It is beautiful with a pond, loads of fish and many secrets to find. (map location)
Domaine Vale is uniquely Mauritian with quirky décor and an absolute charm. This is the most reasonably priced of the destination restaurants we have found so far. (Map location)
There is nothing quite like planning a road trip and Mauritius has some great scenic roads. My favourite is a drive through Black River gorges with a visit Bois Cheri Tea estate, lunch at Palais de Barbezon (map location) and stops for waterfalls and temples along the way.
I would recommend doing this as your trip while going to the North or back to the South. Or just take a day out and round trip it, it is really good.
One of the least discovered areas of Mauritius can be explored with a drive along the South East coast. Start from Bel Air (get some snacks) and head towards GRSE, Grand River South East. From there, follow the coastal road down to Grand Port
In the centre of Mauritius you have the populated areas of Curepipe, Quatre Bornes, Phoenix and Vacoas. Parking and driving around these areas is quite a mission at times so I recommend taking the metro from Port Louis, if possible. This in itself is a great experience and much quicker than driving (trust me, much quicker).
Why visit the central areas, well there is Trou Aux Cerfs volcanic crater and a lot of local markets, plus you get to see where most of Mauritius lives and experience the local culture.
In the centre you also have the impressive Ebene. This is like nothing else in Mauritius with it’s modern high rise skyscrapers and this is where Mauritius makes most of it’s money. Worth a drive around for sure.
As you can see, I have left out most of the traditionally suggested tourist activities, you will find those listed everywhere. These are also great to do while you are in Mauritius. Look them up or check on our Youtube channel as we have probably visited them all.
Pamplemousses / SSR gardens, Adventure of Sugar, Casella, visit the red roof church, Vanilla and crocodile park, Albion lighthouse, Le Morne mountain, Maconde viewpoint, Riambels energy vortex, wow there are a lot.
There are a lot of great places for hiking in the forests and to see waterfalls. There are even caves to be explored. I will leave those to the experts.
Similarly with all the adventure sports, Mauritius has kitesurfing, sky diving, zip lining and many many others that you can look up.
If this vlog has helped you plan your holiday to Mauritius, consider buying us a coffee with the link below.
Great list, thank you.
Amazing blog thank you 🙂