Anyone been to Mauritius?

We need nice food , great snorkelling from the beach and a lovely view for Mrs Zip to look at while she reclines.

Spent my honeymoon at the Preskil beach resort 10 years ago this September. Hotel and staff were fantastic. On the “wrong side” of the island so priced accordingly. Didn’t lack anything we needed though. Daytrips are good to see the real Mauritius. There is a reef offshore so swimming is safe.

Yep. Maritim on the north west coast. Smoked Smoked prawns were the food highlight! As was the fresh cacatch of the date fish at the beach bar for lunch. Beer was cold and wet, which was just about perfect.

Top tip – all inclusive! It’s an island in the middle of the ocean and so stuff can be really expensive.

I’d love to say that it was as good as Barbados, but I’d be lying!

“watches with interest”…….going in a couple of months time

Flashy,you’re always raving about Barbados. What do you love so much?.

I got married in mauritius at the merville beach resort hotel and it was amazing. I cant bear the luxury 5 star resorts as they are just way too stuffy and pretentious with far too many people who are the same. Merville beach is 3.5 star but was in the most ideal location with its own private beach and with top service so it felt like 5 star. The island is amazing and has everything you could wish for,amazing beaches,sea and inland scenery. The mauritian people we met were amazing so much so that two of them were our witnesses for the ceremony! Definitely go all inclusive as drinks and food are expensive in hotels plus you dont have to eat there every night. We ventured out a few times and had very reasonably priced meals.

it’s a great place to go if you want to see stray dogs in very poor health at every turn.

There were loads on the beaches we went to – mostly covered in mange and with hundreds of ticks in their ears and paws – they are often so hungry and thirsty you see them drinking sea water from the rock pools – so great if you want to lie on the beach drinking a beer whilst a poor animal dies bit by bit in front of you.

The locals have little / no compassion – the final day we were there some kids were stoning a dog to death on the beach and people were just laughing. The government has done nothing about the problem bar sending a team to kill the beach dogs every few weeks – they either net them and dump them in a hole or string them up and stab them – there’s plenty about this online.

If you do go please give the lion walk a miss – the poor beasts are drugged and have been beaten into submitting to stupid tourists. Same with the dolphins that get terrorised by dolphin tours.

It’s one of the most upsetting places I’ve been to and for that reason I’ll never go back – it was one of the most unhappy breaks I’ve ever had and that’s with a reasonable amount of travel to places where there are strays.

Wife and I stayed at the le-canonnier for our honeymoon.

Food was great, beer cheap! Good sailing club on site as well.

Not much else to do nearby though… good job it was a honeymoon 😆

just5minutes – Member

it’s a great place to go if you want to see stray dogs in very poor health at every turn.

“For ALL Those ABROAD/Tourists that have vacationed in Mauritius. Please can we ask of your opinions on the “Catch & Kill” which our government have decided to inforce as of tomorrow Monday 26th January 2015 as they are doing this supposedly for the tourists?!?!” (from the link above)

That is so stooopid of the Mauritius govt for trying to exterminate all the stray dogs rather than taking care of them properly. Typical of stoopid govt.

Similarly policy in N.Borneo where stray dogs are bludgeon to death by the dog catchers. Some of these bar-stwearts dog catchers would even enter houses to take pets away.

I was there 8 years ago and to be honest i dont recall seeing any stray dogs saying that we had a private beach so may be not an issue there. We went all over grand baie and i didnt really see anything there either. I know the govt has a harsh regime on the stray dogs but why aren’t they targeting the people that owned them?

Been there twice and didn’t find myself tripping over the mange ridden dogs.
Although I did hear of someone local in grande baie getting killed when a stray ran across the road in front of his moped.
I can highly recommend late night 4 person van surfing past balaclava police station and also deep sea marlin fishing while hungover.

I did an undersea walk for £20 and it was amazing, the fish were incredible. We would love to go back there again but now with 3 kids is way out of our budget.

The Wife and I stayed at the same place Travis did September 13. Sheer perfection. The resort had cheap taxis that took us around the island but the resort was so perfect that we really didn’t need to leave if we didn’t want to.

Most of the attractions are in/under the water. Sugar can fields limit the attractiveness of much of the landscape – mountains aside.

Paradis – all round comfort – water, golf, location
Touuserok and ST Gerain – as above but plusher and considerably more expensive. don’t go it you don’t wear vilebrequin shorts – get the idea?
The hotel linked to the Paradis but closer to the airport is supposed to be good – all inclusive but flight path?

Check coast and time of year. It makes a difference.

Its a long flight in cattle class especially Air Mauritius!! BA not that much better but in-flight entertainment might work (and T5)

Married to a Mauritian and go back every 2-3 years and normally take a package holiday. Most of the 4-5* hotels are very good. Depending on what time of year you may influence which side of the island you want to go to – East and South can be breezy which is great in their Summer but not as nice August/September. Choose a hotel that has more than one restaurant as most have a buffet style main restaurant every night.

Mauritius doesn’t have a lot to see away from the beaches apart from Port Louis the capital with it’s market.

Went in November and we stayed at Lux Le Morne and highly recommend it and will certainly go back there.
Also stayed at Touessrok, Royal Palm, The Residence, Beachcomber Troux aux Biches(area very popular with wealthy Mauritians), Paradis, Paradise Cove but thought Lux Le Morne was the best.

Places to avoid staying in – Grand Baie. Tends to be noisy but has some OK shops and most of the big game fishing boats go out from here.

If feeling adventurous you could try and get a week in La Reunion which is a French dependency 30 minutes flight time from Mauritius. Has great hiking in the mountains and also some awesome bike trails – singletrack paradise.
Or want a really quiet week go to Rodrigues part of Mauritius about 30 minutes flight in a prop plane. Great snorkelling but very arid landscape. My wife says Rodrigues is like Mauritius was before the tourists invaded it.

Paradis for honeymoon, back in May 07 – loved it, though weather second week was iffy and some of best dive spots were rendered out of bounds. (By iffy I mean there was a strong breeze and reasonable swell, strong currents and poor visibility though the reef sheltered beach was fine for snorkelling and larking about)

Zippy, as others have said above, Mauritius is good for;
Stunning beaches
Glorious reefs (Wakeboarding, on a long toe edge over the reef, and looking down to see three turtles was a real highlight!)
Astonishing fish. If you see Captain Fish on the menu, eat it!
Service that’s almost second to none. Tourism is one of the few industries on the island, and it’s seen as a proper career. As such, young people WANT to work as a beach boy, as it’s the first step on their career ladder. Impeccable service all round.

However….
Poverty. Outside the resorts, it’s a stark difference.
Socio-economic problems. It’s not all sunshine and white sand beaches. Rampant corruption, poor working conditions (Look at the labels in your cheapest clothes….) and more.

It’s a stunning country, and a wonderful mix of cultures (Which I loved so much, the mix of French, British, African, Indian and more was lovely), but it’s not without some massive problems that the tourism industry doesn’t really show you. See also the Maldives.

Barbados, however, is good for;
Beaches. Heron Bay is about as good a beach as you could hope to find anywhere on the planet.
Fish. Top nommage, including flying fish!
Reefs. Swimming with turtles, in a well protected and run marine park was a wondrous experience.
People. The warmest, kindest people on the planet, I reckon. All the beaches are public, so often we’d be bobbing around in the water by our hotel and chatting to locals who’d come for a dip. Not as much of the demarcation of locals v tourist as you see elsewhere.
Socio-economics – Barbados has used the tourism money well. There’s far less of the massive gap between have and have not on the island, and they’re rightly proud of that.

We are limited to September and the Barbados weather doesn’t look too clever. Maybe next year for Barbados.
Thanks Cap’n