16 Top Things to Do in Mauritius

Mau­ri­tius is a par­adise island with nat­ur­al and archi­tec­tur­al attrac­tions, trop­i­cal cli­mate and warm sea beach­es. The island is inhab­it­ed by friend­ly and hos­pitable locals of dif­fer­ent nation­al­i­ties.

Things to do in Mauritius

Mau­ri­tius has earned a rep­u­ta­tion as the best hol­i­day des­ti­na­tion in the world. Stun­ning beach­es and resorts attract lovers of the bright sun and warm sea. They are con­ducive to water sports — there are many bases on the shores where they teach div­ing and rent equip­ment.

Despite its small size, the island is rich in sights. There are muse­ums, archi­tec­tur­al mon­u­ments of the colo­nial peri­od, gal­leries and cul­tur­al cen­ters. The medieval appear­ance of cities will inter­est lovers of antiq­ui­ty and tra­di­tions.

Parks and reserves, extreme enter­tain­ment, sea cruis­es and trips to unin­hab­it­ed islands attract out­door enthu­si­asts to Mau­ri­tius.

Natural attractions and beaches

Lake Grand Bassin

The alpine lake is a kind of sacred place for the Hin­dus. Tourists vis­it the Shi­va tem­ple, locat­ed on the shore. Locals believe that the water in the lake is holy and use it for rit­u­als. Hin­dus make a pil­grim­age here dur­ing Maha Shiv­ara­tri, walk­ing all the way to the lake.

Anoth­er local attrac­tion is the stat­ue of Shi­va, which was installed in 2007. In addi­tion, Grand Bassin is a lake with pic­turesque views around. It’s def­i­nite­ly worth vis­it­ing here.

Pointe d’Esnay and Blue Bay beaches

The coast­line of the bay is cov­ered with white sand. The coast is dot­ted with hotels and hol­i­day homes with a devel­oped tourist infra­struc­ture. The area comes alive dur­ing the high sea­son.

Blue Bay is famous for the Marine Park where tourists dive to view the coral reefs. Scu­ba div­ing is includ­ed in the manda­to­ry pro­gram of every guest. At the oppo­site end of the bay is the vil­lage of Mahe­burg, famous for its orig­i­nal­i­ty, tra­di­tion­al Abo­rig­i­nal way of life and a live­ly mar­ket.

Chamarel waterfall

Near the vil­lage of Chamarel in the Black Gorges Nation­al Park, there is a water­fall of the same name. There is an obser­va­tion deck above the cas­cade, from where you can see the swift stream and the sur­round­ing area. At the foot of the water­fall formed a small lake where swim­ming is allowed.

Seven Colored Earth

In the mid­dle of the last cen­tu­ry, a won­der­ful nat­ur­al phe­nom­e­non was dis­cov­ered in Mau­ri­tius — mul­ti-col­ored sands. In the dis­tant past, there was a vol­cano here, which, erupt­ing, threw lava, ash and ore to the sur­face. Hot lava solid­i­fied and formed hills.

Due to the pres­ence of basalt ores, the dunes were paint­ed in dif­fer­ent col­ors: blue, yel­low, pink, pur­ple and oth­ers. Over time, basalt rocks crum­bled into grains, form­ing a sem­blance of sand. You need to vis­it the dunes at dawn. The sun­rise here is like an enchant­i­ng per­for­mance: the dunes change col­or when the first rays fall on them.

Mul­ti-col­ored lay­ers do not mix with each oth­er. You can buy a bot­tle of par­ti­cles at a local sou­venir shop and see this mirac­u­lous effect. After mix­ing, the sand itself strat­i­fies into col­ors, and sci­en­tists have not yet fig­ured out the nature of this phe­nom­e­non.

Le Souffler

Le Souf­fleur is a grot­to locat­ed on the slope of a steep cliff. You will need to get to the edge to enjoy the spec­ta­cle. The view of the waves crash­ing on the rocks is mes­mer­iz­ing. And the more rest­less the sea, the more spec­tac­u­lar the pic­ture of the rag­ing ele­ments. Ris­ing waves hit the rock with force and fall into the hole, cre­at­ing a foun­tain that looks like a whale’s jet. Hence the name “prompter”.

Tamarin Beach

Tamarin Beach, once a favorite with surfers, is now used by tourists from a near­by hotel. It is unique with black sand and roar­ing waves of the open sea. Tamarin Bay is not pro­tect­ed by a coral reef, so the beach is known for its tur­bu­lent waters. This place is suit­able for those who like to walk along the coast and look at the destruc­tive sea ele­ment.

Architectural monuments

The ancient capital of Maheburg

Mahe­bourg is the best place to get to know old Mau­ri­tius. The city was built where the Dutch first land­ed at the end of the 16th cen­tu­ry. There are cozy restau­rants with ter­races and amaz­ing cui­sine, pic­turesque beach­es, mon­u­ments of archi­tec­ture and art.

The local muse­um tells about the British-French bat­tle for the island. A spe­cial place is occu­pied by the bell sal­vaged from the ship­wrecked ship Le Saint-Géran. This is an oblig­a­tory part of local fairy tales and leg­ends.

Evrika Mansion

Mai­son Eure­ka is a well-pre­served French colo­nial man­sion locat­ed in the cen­ter of the island. The house, which once belonged to the largest sug­ar baron on the island, is an incred­i­ble engi­neer­ing mas­ter­piece.

A stream­lined bal­cony, 109 doors and win­dows, a roof with tur­rets — this is just what is vis­i­ble from the out­side. It is also worth tak­ing a walk in the gar­den, over­grown with bam­boo and ebony. The ter­ri­to­ry ends with a water­fall, at the foot of which there is a font.

Museums and entertainment

Blue Penny Museum

Blue Pen­ny offers a num­ber of exhibits that tell about the past of the island, the fea­tures of the colo­nial peri­od, the cus­toms and tra­di­tions of the locals. The muse­um is named after the world-famous Mau­rit­ian stamp “One and two kopecks”, issued in 1847.

Famous stamps are stored on the first floor and are con­sid­ered a nation­al trea­sure. To pre­serve col­or, they are only illu­mi­nat­ed for ten min­utes every hour. His­to­ry buffs will also enjoy old maps, pho­tographs and the most famous stat­ue of Mau­ri­tius pre­sent­ed here.

Grand Bay

Grand Baie was a small fish­ing vil­lage 20 years ago. And today it is a whole enter­tain­ment com­plex for trav­el­ers. Some­times the cen­ter is called Le Trop because of the incred­i­ble num­ber of activ­i­ties.

A lot of excur­sions are orga­nized for tourists every day. The ter­ri­to­ry has its own Aquar­i­um and inter­ac­tive muse­um L’Aven­ture du Sucre. Water sports enthu­si­asts are offered div­ing, water ski­ing, sail­ing and wind­surf­ing. In the evenings, tourists get acquaint­ed with the island’s nightlife, which any resort town would envy.

Domain de L’Etoile

This is an old estate with sug­ar­cane plan­ta­tions, turned into an eco-site. Today, tourists are offered horse­back rid­ing, quad bik­ing, archery and walks along the slopes of the Bam­bus moun­tain range. There is also a chil­dren’s vil­lage, ebony and cin­na­mon groves on the ter­ri­to­ry.

If you’re lucky, you can meet Java deer that live in the forests near­by.

Parks and reserves

Seewoosagur Ramgool Botanical Garden

In sec­ond place in the world after Lon­don’s Kew Gar­dens is Sir Sivusagua Ram­goolam’s Botan­i­cal Gar­den. Work in it con­tin­ues all year round, and tourists are advised to hire a guide to appre­ci­ate all the vari­ety of plant species rep­re­sent­ed. The cen­tral part of the botan­i­cal gar­den is occu­pied by a pond filled with water lilies from South Amer­i­ca. Won­der­ful white flow­ers turn red the next day.

Black River Gorges National Park

The ter­ri­to­ry of the park cov­ers 6 thou­sand hectares. This is the per­fect place to explore the local forests and wildlife. The park has over 300 species of flow­er­ing plants, the famous endan­gered pink dove and giant fruit bats.

The state seeks to pre­serve the nat­ur­al resources of the reserve, so strict rules have been estab­lished here. It is worth tak­ing hik­ing shoes with you, because you will def­i­nite­ly want to climb to the top and see a panoram­ic view of the island. In addi­tion, the park has pic­turesque gorges, moun­tain peaks and water­falls.

Egret Island

The island is locat­ed in Mahe­burg Bay. This amaz­ing for­ma­tion was formed from coral lime­stone. Egret is declared a nature reserve and is pro­tect­ed by the Mau­ri­tius Wildlife Fund. There is also a nurs­ery on the island.

The tour to Ile aux Egrettes takes an hour and a half, dur­ing which the guest will enjoy the orig­i­nal Mau­rit­ian nature, dis­cov­er endem­ic species of plants and ani­mals. There are tru­ly rare birds here: pink dove, Mau­rit­ian kestrel, and giant tor­tois­es.

Nature and Leisure Park Casela

Casela is a great place to enjoy an African safari. Lions, ostrich­es, zebras, giraffes, hip­pos and ele­phants live here. Tourists are pro­vid­ed with a mini-bus that takes them to the habi­tats of ani­mals.

It’s easy to spend an entire day in the park, and you can dine at a restau­rant over­look­ing the west coast. Nature lovers will appre­ci­ate the vari­ety of local birds (there are more than 1500 species), exot­ic flow­ers, and the unique beau­ty of the park.

Francois Legouat Reserve

The reserve opened in July 2007. The mis­sion of this park is to restore and pre­serve the orig­i­nal ecosys­tem in which tur­tles lived and bred. The idea of ​​cre­at­ing the park belongs to two envi­ron­men­tal­ists: Owen Grif­fiths and his wife Mary Ann.

Named after French explor­er François Legault, the park con­tains over 2,000 giant tor­tois­es as well as thou­sands of endem­ic plant species. Work in Leguat began a lit­tle ear­li­er — with the first steps to restore the “tur­tle” land­scape, which is already more than 300 years old.