The Indian Ocean island with an underrated wild side that few tourists see

Times

6 days ago

There are two things you can't trust in Mauritius. The first is the weather. Tropical storms are common during the summer season, which runs from November to May. I visit with my partner, Tom, in April, when bright blue mornings quickly transform into overcast washouts during the first few days of our week-long trip. The second thing is the deceptively strong rum, crafted with the island's sugar cane. Infamously, if you have one or two you'll feel on top of the world. Have three and you'll be lucky if you can stay upright in your seat.
Keen not to let the odd shower dampen our spirits, we spend the first few days getting familiar with our resort, Shangri-La Le Touessrok, in the bay of Trou d'Eau Douce on the island's east coast. The whole place feels like a gift from the beach gods and is wrapped in 2.4 miles of sand, making our commute from suite to sea a smug 30-second saunter. Being a honeymoon haven, Mauritius is bursting with big-name luxury hotels, but narrowing things down is easy. This island grande dame has already had the gold seal of approval — British royalty used to holiday here in the Eighties — and in November underwent a £19 million renovation to celebrate its 45th birthday. It's also the only resort here to have its own private island, Ilot Mangénie, where we spend a day gloriously cabana-bound, watching fishermen throw nets like Frisbees and a horizon punctuated only by the sails of paragliders.
Each of the 184 beach-facing bedrooms and suites, and three private villas, is a lesson in coastal chic, with soft, sand-coloured furnishings and raw materials, while the three wings into which the rooms are split are a smart way to subtly separate families from couples. We're staying in one of the Frangipani suites, set away from the rest of the resort by a wooden bridge and with welcome perks such as giant egg-shaped bathtubs, personalised minibars and à la carte breakfasts at Coco's Beach House. Stays in this wing also grant access to an adults-only infinity pool (one of three across the resort), scented by the frangipani flowers that float on the water and circled by an ice-cream man on a bicycle who stops to deliver tubs of mango sorbet. It's details like this that stand the hotel apart: the sun cream station that means you don't have to schlep back to your room if you've forgotten your own, waiters who notice before you do that you've finished your drink and offer you another.
As well as complimentary activities such as snorkelling and kite-surfing, which could keep you at the resort for hours, staff are just as keen to show off the island itself and arrange several experiences to its wild south, largely untapped by tourists. As we drive, a Jurassic Park-worthy landscape unravels: a savannah of green sugar cane fields and dormant volcanoes circled by swooping parakeets. Our first stop is Grand Bassin, an 18m-deep crater lake surrounded by colourful Hindu statues. Offerings of sunshine-yellow allamanda flowers and bananas sit in heaps at the feet of the deities, where worshippers bow their heads in prayer and wash with sacred water from the lake as they make their wishes. There's a god or goddess for every desire — wealth, health and happiness. A young pujari, a Hindu priest, chimes a giant bell to send new prayers into the universe as he blesses offerings with spirals of incense.
Spiritual or not, it's hard not to fall under the temple's spell. We light a candle at the base of Sashti, an elephant goddess and the protector of children, for our unborn baby daughter, who is snug in my stomach with four months to go until her arrival, and float around the temple in a balloon of trance-like calm. It's popped by a shriek when a hungry monkey arrives to make the most of the fruit offerings, leaping from statue to statue and grabbing handfuls of bananas, sending bags and bottles flying as he goes.
The next stop, on higher ground, is the Bois Cheri tea plantation. Neat terraces of neon leaves are plucked and stuffed into sacks by pickers in straw hats and jewel-coloured saris before being dried, boxed and packaged up. A factory tour shows the process being played out in real time but, being pregnant, I find it too hot and humid so we duck out and go for a tasting instead — much more my cup of tea. We sip cups infused with cardamom, caramel and vanilla in a wooden café on stilts, which overlooks a lake where black swans scud over the surface and families of wild boar come to drink (£15).
Much more chaotic are the scenes unfolding the following day at the capital, Port Louis. Thanks to years of colonisation, Mauritian cuisine is a mix of Indian, African, Chinese and European flavours. We get a taste of this diversity at the market, which buzzes with folk bartering in Creole. Shoppers swap handfuls of rupees for baskets of dragon fruit, tightly bound bunches of mint and crates of chilli fritters, loading up their motorbikes with the week's shopping. I peer through glass cabinets at towers of pastel-coloured cakes, made with sweet condensed milk, and I'm like a kid in a candy shop when I realise that nothing costs more than 20p. The biggest queues are at the dholl puri stands, where rotis made from split peas are griddled on a flat pan, stuffed with vegetables and drizzled in a spicy Creole tomato sauce — two for the equivalent of 30p. Another favourite is alouda, a traditional milky drink mixed with tapioca seeds.
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The two make the perfect pairing for a picnic for our trip at the nearby Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanic Garden in Pamplemousses (£5; ssrbg.govmu.org). Colour-changing amazonica water lilies the size of tea trays blush from white to pink, fruit bats hang from lychee trees like furry Christmas decorations and palms with bark in the shape of crocodile teeth tower menacingly above us. Much sweeter is the smell: nutmeg, vanilla and cinnamon plants thrive here, and a wander through the 75 acres of gardens is like sneaking into the back of a bakery at Easter.
The following day we swap bartering and botanics for a breakfast boat ride along the Grande Rivière Sud Est. Our boat glides towards a waterfall along khaki backwaters bracketed by towering volcanic rocks and a forest canopy where the beady eyes of macaque monkeys blink at us through the branches of guava trees. After being told that the area is a playground for reef sharks, we keep our eyes on the water, watching hopefully for ripples and fins. They don't appear but later, as we head out to sea, we are treated to an impromptu ballet performance by a set of spinner dolphins, which pirouette out of the water in perfect synchrony. There's a sea bass farm nearby, our skipper tells us, and they're also here for breakfast.
Keen to see what else is below the surface, we pull on snorkels and float above the pristine reefs the island is known for, finding baby-pink coral so castle-like and perfect that it seems almost impossible it wasn't left behind from a Disney set. Armies of needle-thin silver trumpet fish thread their way through its branches. The water is so calm and clear that hours pass as we gleefully point out starfish and hover over giant brain-like corals, which shoals of translucent parrot fish nibble centimetres from our masks. Tom is most thrilled by the flat fish he discovers, so well camouflaged it would have remained hidden on the seabed if not for two 3D eyes that blink up at us as we swim above.
Evenings are just as chilled and, back at the resort, the sky is so clear that we can trace constellations as easily as a child doing a dot-to-dot. Our favourite meals are barbecues on the sand, at which chefs flip giant lobsters and steaks over the coals under a twinkling set of fairy lights — though the Japanese and Indian are worthy competition. The whole place is so romantic that I really should have predicted what was coming next. It turns out, you see, that there are three, not two, things that you shouldn't trust in Mauritius once you've got the measure of the rum and the weather.
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On one of our final mornings, Tom gets up at sunrise, lies about a headache and supposedly goes for a wander in search of some paracetamol. Half an hour later, when he still hasn't returned, I head outside worried that I'll find him passed out by the pool. Instead there's a proposal waiting for me, written in frangipani flowers on the beach. I say yes, but only on the condition that we can come back to this magical island one day. After all, someone needs to test whether the rum is as strong as they say.
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Lucy Perrin was a guest of Shangri-La Le Touessrok, which has five nights' B&B from £1,800pp (shangri-la.com), and the Mauritius Tourism Protection Authority (mauritiusnow.com). Fly to Mauritius
By Siobhan Grogan
Foodies will be spoilt for choice at this hotel, which spans two bays on the north coast. There are six places to eat, including a gourmet burger shack under a banyan tree, a Creole smokehouse and restaurants specialising in Peruvian and Turkish food. There's also a coffee shop blending island-roasted beans, a G&T bar and an artisanal ice-cream cart. There are family-friendly activities galore including a cinema and kids' club but also an adults-only wing with its own peaceful pool and private lagoon. A mix of suites and villas are designed by Kelly Hoppen and have a breezy beach-house feel, in sandy browns and soothing navy.Details Seven nights' B&B from £1,570pp, including flights and coach transfers
Just next to the beautiful Anse La Raie Beach on the north coast, this adults-only hotel has glamorous white interiors with rattan furniture, feature walls with botanical wallpaper and voile-draped four-poster beds. There are four restaurants to choose from including the Cove, which is tucked among coconut trees and serves a five-course vegan tasting menu developed by the acclaimed chef Alexis Gauthier. There's also an inventive array of activities including archery classes, art therapy sessions, t'ai chi and stargazing, while the hotel's catamaran can be hired for days at sea. A Cinq Mondes spa has a hammam and a double massage hut overlooking the sea.Details Seven nights' half-board from £2,158pp, including flights
Sunset views are a given in this tranquil all-villa resort on Wolmar Beach on the island's west coast. There are 65 large villas scattered throughout 27 acres of blooming tropical gardens with a 750m stretch of sandy beach beyond. Completely renovated in 2023, the villas have private heated pools, alfresco lounge areas with daybeds, walk-in wardrobes and deep-soaking tubs in cream marble bathrooms. Each one comes with butler service, while optional activities include Mauritian cooking classes, watersports, wine tastings or island tours in the hotel's chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce Phantom. There are also four restaurants including a Japanese and a beach club for toes-in-the-sand seafood.Details Seven nights' B&B from £2,531pp, including flights (thomascook.com)
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