Mauritius 17-30 July, 2025

Lydia Padilla
Aug 7
3 min read

Not a typical write-up, as we truly relaxed most of this trip and didn't take as many pics as normal...other than sunsets. Mauritius was a bit of a vacation within the vacation...small island - easy to drive around with really nice roads, amazing sandy beaches and dive sites and lots of small mountains for hiking. It seems that the sunsets on the western side of the island are some of the most beautiful we've experienced, lately. Although, it might be that the stress level (?????) of this portion was almost completely zero so we were able to sit and enjoy them more easily.

Mauritius is a fairly new island, at least as far as human settling is concerned. It wasn't settled until the 1500's and grew as a sugar producer under Portuguese and Dutch and then French colonization. There are still expansive fields of sugar cane growing but the island has diversified over the past century. After the lack of activities in Madagascar a few weeks ago, it was refreshing to see movie theaters, shopping malls (where we got hair cuts and a shave) and (mostly) sane drivers.

The island is heavily populated by Indian expats that came over long ago to work the sugar trade. Additionally, there are lots of French, which, along with Mauritian Creole and an Indian dialect comprise the main lanaguages spoken. One of the best things about the island was the seeming coexistence betwen the different religions. Most of the island is Hindu, with Christian and Islamic populations as well. This I loved - the island motto is "One island, many peoples, all Mauritians" and it truly seemed like they all coexisted beautifully. We passed amazing Hindu temples, some not-so-amazing homemade Hindu temples also, Mosques and Christian churches and all seemed to respect the others. Granted, we were only there for two weeks but it sure seemed peaceful and I learned from my dive mates that crime is almost non-existent.

We rented a car for the entire two weeks and the only problem we had was when my Chief Navigator decided we needed to Jason Bourne it through some crop fields. We were in a tiny little car and I was certain we were going to tear out the transmission...but as always, I trust my navigator. Until we had to cross a small rocky river and then I decided that she can't be trusted anymore, so I aborted and reversed out the km or so we had just driven. I was nervous for the rest of the trip that I was going to get a huge repair bill from the car company.

A couple of takeaways on our quick trip here:

* Amazing beaches on all sides of the island

* If we were to go again, I'd stick to the Tamarin area on the south west side of the island...it's more protected and the sunsets are amazing. Also, Tamarin is really the only area of the island that had easy beach access on a wide-scale level. Much of the rest of the island is filled with large private residences and hotels that wall off the beach for miles. There are a bunch of public beaches around the island but the town structure that provides restaurants and things to do is minimal everywhere except Tamarin and then south of the airport.

* As an American or a European, there are closer and easier options to go. I wouldn't say to go here over Hawaii or Sicily or Mallorca, for instance. But if you're in the area and deciding between Madagascar and Mauritius, Mauritius is the easy choice for me.

* Also, the diving here is pretty nice...very similar to Madagascar.

* The curry is NOT mild here - they take Indian spices seriously

* This is not an island frequented by many Americans - we didn't hear proper English the entire time we were there...haha!