Mauritius is a beautiful island in the Indian Ocean. Well, beautiful doesn’t really cover it. It is spectacular.
I recently had the opportunity to visit Mauritius with our friends from ‘If Only’, a tour operator who focuses on luxury destinations. It was a great trip during which we were treated to tours of several wonderful resorts and a couple of other visits that gave us more insight into the things Mauritius has to offer.
What follows are some of my thoughts about the places I visited. This isn’t meant to be a complete description of the resorts, just the bits that stood out to me...
The Island
Mauritius was beautiful Did I mention that already? A real island paradise with golden sandy beaches, rugged hills and some cute little towns with local markets a-plenty.
Something that stood out for me was the cleanliness of the island in general. You’d expect the grounds of any resort you stay at to be well kept and tidy, but often you pass through some areas that can be run down with rubbish strewn about - that was not the case here. As a result of our tour round the island we did a lot of driving and saw lots of the island’s towns and villages. There was a genuine impression of pride in the upkeep of the island, even with much of the local housing poor by our standards they were all well looked after and made circumnavigating the island a pleasure.
The Heritage Resorts
Located in the south of the island are a couple of resorts called Heritage Le Telfair and Heritage Awali. They are next door to each other on a nice, shingle beach and the great thing about them is that if you’re staying at one, you can use all the facilities of the other. On top of that there’s a Beach Club, Golf Club and a specialist restaurant called ‘Le Chateau’.
Heritage Le Telfair
I loved this colonial resort. The suites and rooms are designed to hark back to the Empire’s glory days and give a feel of quality. There’s plenty of choices for restaurants and bars and the food quality was excellent.
As a quirky feature there’s a river running through the resort which has a couple of pretty bridges to cross it - the water is brown unlike the crystal clear sea, but made me feel like I was much further inland than I was.
I was very excited to be walking along the shore after breakfast one morning, staring at the water as I tend to, only to discover a fantastic, large, purple starfish sitting in the water about a metre away from me. I was very excited but there wasn’t anyone to grab and point frantically, so I took a photo to share proudly with anyone who would listen later! Looks like I found a purple ‘Crown of Thorns’ starfish. Brilliant.
We were also treated to a short foot massage in Le Telfair’s ‘Seven Colours’ Spa which followed the colonial style with relaxing water features and spaces to stretch out pre and post treatment!
Heritage Awali
Le Telfair’s sister resort is Heritage Awali. Its design is distinctly african and just as well done as its colonial sister resort next door. The pools, restaurants and bars are also very well designed and make for a very special atmosphere. After the beautiful design of the main resort areas, the rooms were a little disappointing. Not bad, just not as impressive as the rest of the resort would lead you to expect from a details point-of-view.
One incredible feature of the place is a rustic, african-styled area, roughly fenced in a circle. In its centre is a large campfire surrounded by benches and, further out, rugged tables - all setup for barbecues under the stars. A real surprise and the perfect location for special parties.
As with Le Telfair, Awali’s ‘Seven Colours’ Spa was well designed and relaxing, featuring the same colour-based treatments to suit you personally.
C Beach Club
Along the beach from Le Telfair is the ‘C Beach Club’ - the clue’s in the name. It’s a more informal place to spend the day on a large beach, a restaurant and a cool cocktail lounge - all open-air to make the most of the breeze and sun.
The beach is dotted with some very cool looking loungers, shaped a little like hazelnuts. The sea is crystal clear and very inviting - but if you'd prefer, there's a small pool to dip your toes into as well.
This is also where you'll find gym facilities (not that I ever use them, but they looked very shiny!).
Heritage Golf Club
We were also treated to lunch and a golf lesson at the club. Guests don't have to be golfers to enjoy the bar and restaurant, and taking the chance to have an introductory golf lesson under Mauritian skies makes for a good experience.
I was pretty rubbish during our brief stint on the driving range, but I managed to get several shots taken that made it look like I knew what I was doing, so that's fine. Would definitely recommend taking advantage of the Heritage Golf Club, even for a few hours - then nip back for some indulgent spa treatment!
A side trip
The Heritage resorts also organise various excursions including quad-biking. Not something I have ever tried before and not really something I would choose to do, but I'm so glad I did!
After a little practice around the car park, we drove in convoy up into a large reserve through fields of sugar cane - some of which had been burnt in preparation for harvesting. The smell was incredible - like muscavado sugar. The tour took us high up into the reserve giving us spectacular views and wound round to pause at a natural waterfall hidden amongst some trees. Pretty much everyone jumped in for a refreshing dip - not me. I pretended to be far to busy working everyone’s cameras!
The drive back was much more exciting, now that I’d figured out how to operate the quad bike properly and got a bit more confidence. I know it was a more hair-raising trip as Diane, my brave passenger, was now hanging on tight rather than taking photos as we drove along!
This was a great way to see a bit of the island you might otherwise miss - just don’t wear your sunday best. I was filthy from the dust, and had a distinctly pink forehead to go with it!!
La Pirogue & Sugar Beach
The next stop on our tour was another couple of resorts that go hand-in-hand - La Pirogue and Sugar Beach. As with The Heritage resorts, if you stay at one of these adjoining resorts you have access to the other’s facilities too.
These are two resorts with stark differences in design. La Pirogue was fun and traditional Mauritian in style - lots of little thatched cottages made up the accommodation, each with rustic beams and chunky stone walls. The rooms were all painted and furnished to be more modern and the combination of the two made them very cosy and welcoming.
The resort itself is perfect for families. There’s activities all over the place, as well as the pools and beach! There’s a great kid’s club catering for ages from 3 and up with play areas, computers, movies etc. etc.
La Pirogue is where you’ll find all the water-based activities - like sailing, snorkelling, deep sea fishing etc. and we were all struck by a water aerobics session we encountered which looked great fun, although the instructor was working the group hard! I was fascinated by the fishing activities you could book - in particular the photo album of various successful guests standing next to huge Marlins and Tuna, as well as the odd shark!
Of course, don’t let the mention of the word ‘shark’ worry you. Mauritius is encircled by a reef of coral which makes for a fabulous, calm lagoon to do your swimming off the beach, while the big stuff (including some massive waves) are kept tucked away from us pleasure-seekers!
It was here that I learned that you can go Dolphin watching/swimming all year round, and that whale watching happens between May and September - and the prices to do it were very reasonable compared to some other island resorts.
Next door at Sugar Beach you’ll find a more ‘refined’, colonial designed resort - although the two are so close you can be forgiven for not realising you’ve wandered from one to the other!
I have to admit that after the vibrance of La Pirogue I was left a little underwhelmed by Sugar Beach and felt that it was a little soulless. Except for the kids club which was by far the best one I saw on the island. It was built to look like a fairytale gingerbread house inside and out - which meant some serious ducking from 6’4” me! I was excited to look round it, so kids must love it. Unlike at La Pirogue, Sugar Beach have their Kids Club hidden away at the back - I guess it doesn’t really fit in with the colonial style of the rest of the resort.
Sugar Beach is where you’ll find all the land-based activities, like Tennis, and probably a more adult-orientated set of guests.
Childishly I also loved this area because it’s called ‘Flic and Flac’. Chortle!
Maradiva Villas
Next stop... Paradise! The Maradiva Villas are beautiful. There are no basic rooms on the resort, just large villas with private plunge pools, large outdoor day rooms and bedrooms and bathrooms to die for!
This resort is at the pricier end of the scale, although if you were to look at a like-for-like room category in another resort, you might see that it’s totally worth it! Having said that I found the in-resort charges a bit too steep for my liking - things like spa treatments, bar charges and excursions were very expensive. I did get the impression that they want to keep it that way to maintain a certain type of guest. If you can’t afford it, we don’t really want you.
The food was out of this world with service to match. Nothing was to much trouble (and I don’t think I caused that much!). When we met in the bar before dinner, we were served the most incredible looking cocktails in pineapples instead of glasses. They didn’t last long I can tell you!
A little elitist, but take a look at the place anyway. There were a few kids around, but the resort felt quiet and even though there was a nice kids club, it was deserted. It’s beautiful and would make the perfect spot for honeymooners.
Paradise Cove
We moved on to some smaller resorts and the first was fantastic. Much smaller than the ones we’d seen so far, Paradise Cove was designed with a real indian flair from the drapes running across the ceiling to the throw cushions in the bar.
Resorts set in the north and east of the island can be a little windier than those in the west, because they’re not sheltered by the mountains in the centre, but Paradise Cove has a unique feature. A Cove! While there are several places to access the regular sandy beach running alongside the resort, there is also an inlet running back into the main body of the resort that finishes on another sandy beach. Here you’ll barely notice the hustle and bustle outside the resort as you lounge under the sun with a cocktail in your hand!
You could say this is the only really private beach on the island. You see all the beaches are public in Mauritius, but because this one is pretty much impossible to get at unless you’re a guest, private it is!
Of course, it’s important to note that even though all the beaches are public access, you are unlikely to see locals wandering about your beach because there are lots of public beaches that are very well kept. So why would they want to share yours?!
Definitely worth the visit!
Long Beach
This one was the joker in the pack. We didn’t have a great experience here because the staff weren’t that great, but give it 6 months and they should be on track. This is, after all, a brand new resort (opened in April 2011) and having been built from scratch was bound to have a few teething problems!
But as for the physical things, when you arrive your jaw will drop. Mine did. It is ultra contemporary and it’s design style filters through to every aspect of the resort. Check out the photos I took and you’ll see how dramatic it looks.
We had some incredible cocktails in the bar (and I’d like to point out I don’t judge every place I go by the quality of their cocktails) and there was a small band moving between the different areas playing live music - the lead singer had an incredible voice. We got her to sing a request and ended up giving a standing ovation.
Although the contemporary style wasn’t for me, I know we have clients to whom it would appeal greatly and the beach was very good - long, like the name!
The only place where the style really didn’t work was the spa. Fantastic facilities, but the contemporary style made the treatment rooms a little too hospital-like. A nice hospital, but never-the-less too clinical.
It’s interesting, but to me it’s still like staying at Ikea!
Constance Belle Mare Plage
The Belle Mare Plage is a big resort on a good beach on the east coast. Very popular with families and honeymooners alike, I felt I could get a little lost amongst all the buildings. There were several smaller swimming pools dotted amongst the buildings which helped make the resort feel less sprawling and the odd inter-connecting bridge or walkway that made for a quirky design.
First time I have come across a resort with 2 separate spas too! There was the more traditional, Mauritian styled spa that you might expect, but also a Japanese themed one called ‘Shiseido’. The latter has a different philosophy and themed treatments that give you even more reasons to indulge in a good pedicure or massage.
The golf club that runs behind the resort was pretty breath-taking and any of you who have a yen to play a few rounds on a tropical island, this may be the spot for you! Naturally I stopped at the bar for a cocktail (predictable) to escape the heat, unwilling to test my new found driving skills too soon!
Wonderful though the Belle Mare Plage is, the one thing that knocked me flat was the Villas. WOW! I found a place to move in and never leave! The villas are literally like little houses with fences and plunge pools, multiple bedrooms and kitchens, living rooms and bathrooms inside and out! These fabulous villas come with their own Butler as well. Who could ask for anything more!
This resort is generally great value as well, so is definitely worth considering!
La Palmeraie
Welcome to my favourite resort in Mauritius! La Palmeraie is by far the smallest resort of the ones I visited and as a result the facilities and restaurant choices are more limited, but its size makes it very intimate and friendly.
The style is distinctly Moroccan and wandering around I was vividly reminded of my trip to Marrakech last year. It has a tranquil pool at it’s heart and airy restaurants and bar areas. The rooms are as well styled as the communal areas and the food was amazing - so it’s good to remember that the upgrade prices from Half Board to All Inclusive are good value here!
I was also very aware of the watersports activities happening all around the beach - in particular kite surfing. This side of the island is very popular with kite surfers and using La Palmeraie as your base would be perfect. Make sure to request a room over the beach - there’s more than one floors there and the sea views were the best.
Top marks from Ian!
The Residence
From intimate and informal to large and opulent as I spend a couple of nights at The Residence, again on the east coast.
We’re back at the expensive end of the spectrum again here, but you can see that you get exactly what you pay for. Every inch of The Residence is well designed and considered and makes you feel like you’re someone important. Hence the reason I suddenly felt underdressed when we arrived!
The lobby was grand and tall with art all over the place adding to the expensive, colonial style. The rooms and suites also followed this design and had everything you might need.
Several restaurants served the best food I experienced during my stay - and be careful not to stuff yourself full of the canapés, which were almost a meal in themselves!
The most stunning memory I have of The Residence (apart from the cocktails) was our tour of the Spa. It was incredible. Sunk underneath the lobby, the design of the spa was perfect. The low level lighting, consisting mostly of candles, made for an incredibly tranquil feeling - even in the yoga room which looked far too pretty to mess up by putting people in it!
Biggest drawback for me is the cost of extras whilst staying there. The spa, bars and even the WiFi was far too expensive to be anything other a deterrent to those of us who couldn’t afford it. But if you can then you’ll not put a foot wrong here - especially if you ask your butler to setup a free rose petal bath one evening!
LUX* Belle Mare (formerly 'Beau Rivage')
And finally I arrived at the best beach in Mauritius - the LUX Belle Mare. Again it’s on the expensive side, but well worth it. It has everything you’d expect - great spa, kids club, pools, restaurants etc.
In fact the restaurant we experienced, ‘Indouchine’, we were lucky enough to be seated on the upper level right next to the kitchen. They have a viewing window so you can watch the master chefs at work on your contemporary asian-themed meal. We had a special menu of 13 items (small ones mind you) each prepared with incredible care and looking like a piece of art.
Outside there were several bars, all full of happy couples, friends and family chatting away and adding to a wonderful atmosphere - all set to the backdrop of a live band, who were excellent musicians and singers.
Another wonderful resort that finished my visit to the island paradise of Mauritius - and I can’t wait to go back, but this time on my own terms!!
Please note that the star ratings are based on our personal opinions of quality level and that much of the content of these property articles comes direct from their own websites & factsheets and was correct at the time of publishing
