Eleven Things You MUST do in Mauritius!

A few months ago, AirAsia X launched thrice-weekly direct flights to Mauritius. The island is awesome, but hasn't really been on many travelers radars - so we thought we'd dig through our photo archives and write a bit about what the island has to offer. So without further ado, here's our Eleven Things you MUST do in Mauritius!

Note: Our time spent in Mauritius was in 2011 (five years ago), so some of these may be a little outdated. But we hope it helps you anyway!

#1: Stay at a Beach Resort

Many hotel resorts will try to sell you an "All-Inclusive" package where everything is included - breakfast, lunch, dinner and drinks. In my opinion, unless you plan on never leaving the hotel, go for the "half board" package instead - this is basically the all inclusive package without drinks and lunch at a significant discount. Taking this package gives you the flexibility of, you know, actually going out to visit the island without feeling like you're 'wasting money.' Typically, both packages will also include health club and gym usage, and free basic water sports such as sailing, glass bottom boat, snorkeling, water skii'ing and para-sailing. You'll need to pay for things like spa/massage and scuba diving, though.

I visited two hotels during my stay in the island.

Le Meridien:
- The Good: Service is good, people are friendly, the breakfast buffet is awesome and overlooks the swimming pool/beach. At nights there are also a couple of pretty good restaurants. Free internet access in the rooms.
- The Not-so-Good: Beach is a bit small, hotel is a bit old, and the free water sports are quite limited (only snorkeling and glass bottom boat).




The Intercontinental:
- The Good: All their rooms overlook the beach, and are very nicely designed. Comprehensive free water sports, and the restaurants are also awesome. There are also live bands at nights, and there are more activities such as a Sega dance on weekends.
- The not-so-good: Breakfast restaurant doesn't have much choice and the layout/design of the buffet is kind of rubbish. Also, you need to pay for internet in the rooms, which is really "WTF" considering that they provide free wifi in the lobby. TV is an "internet" based system that sucks.




#2: Visit a Public Beach

As you might expect, almost the entire island is full of beaches - only the south-western area (which has no coral reefs) has cliffs and rocks instead of sand. What you probably wouldn't expect, however, is that Mauritius beaches are, to be honest, not really that nice. In my opinion, we have our own beaches like Redang and Perhentian that are way better.

The biggest difference is that because of the weather, it's very pleasant to relax on the beach in Mauritius. You don't get that "hot and sticky" feeling that you get on Malaysian beaches - the wind is cooling and refreshing.






#3: Visit a Sugar Factory.

80% of the island is planted with sugar cane - this is because Mauritius has basically only 4 industries: sugar, textiles, tourism (and some financial services). so somebody had a bright idea of combining sugar and tourism by converting an old sugar factory into a museum of sorts. It mixes a lot of information of Mauritius history as well, if you're into that sort of thing.



#4: Hang out at Caudan Waterfront

Port Louis is the capital of Mauritius. They've converted part of the port into a commercial centre with restaurants, shopping centres and cafe's - it's a nice place to hang out at night, although even on weekends it pretty much dies by 11-ish pm.



#5: Watch the Sega

The Sega is the 'national' Mauritian dance. I don't actually know how authentic this is, seeing as it was in a hotel, but here are the pictures anyway!


#6: Go sightseeing - Trou Aux Cerfs

Located in Curepipe, somewhere in the middle-ish of the island, is the volcano crater of Trou Aux Cerfs. Of course, there isn't exactly that much to do here ... just sightseeing and taking photos!


#7: Go sightseeing - Old buildings and Churches

These are dotted all around the island and perfect stops to stretch your legs if you're on a road trip.



#8: Go sightseeing at Chamarel

Chamarel is the name of an area - there's two main attractions here: a 100metre waterfall (that apparently grows a lot bigger than in this picture during the rainy season), and a mound of multi-colored dirt, caused by different metal oxides, called the chamarel seven coloured earths.



#9: Scuba Doo

We don't know how good or bad the Scuba scene is (cos we don't dive), but we did try scuba-doo instead, which is a motorized scuba scooter. Was pretty fun!



#10: Swimming with dolphins.

That's me. swimming with dolphins. Do I need to say any more? I managed to chase a group of ~10 dolphins down and touch one of their tail fins!



#11: Casela Nature Park

There's a bunch of things to do in this park. There's a mini zoo where you can see birds and animals, a mini petting zoo area where you can feed deer, chickens, goats and turkeys, and a pond for catch and release tilapia fishing. You can go on safari, or you can go on safari on segway, or on quad bike, or even walk with lions! You could easily spend an entire day here and not be bored.




If you've got any questions or updates or if you know anything that's changed in the last few years, do let us know in the comments below!

Yahoo! and IMASTravel page: Seven things you Must do in Mauritius

Offtopic: We are now on Twitter, so Follow Us on Twitter to get first-hand updates whenever we ... update!

Check out my latest post on the IMAS Travel on Yahoo! Malaysia page - it's about the seven things you can't miss if you ever find yourself on holiday or honeymoon in Mauritius!


Click here for the main page. If you liked the write-up do leave a comment!

Veda - Indian Fine Dining at InterContinental Mauritius Resort Balaclava Fort

Today we travel back to Mauritius! Had this meal a month ago, so I'd better blog about it before I forget how everything tastes like. Anyways we travel back to the InterContinental Mauritius Resort Balaclava Fort, and to its' Indian restaurant named Veda.

Initial reservations are that it's a bit oddly located, being "away" from the rest of the resort, and that there is an irritating mosquito presence (maybe due to the thick surrounding foliage). Perhaps the restaurant could do with some discreetly placed mosquito repellent devices, although I don't know how effective those are in an outdoor environment.


Some of the tables are absolutely gorgeous, but unfortunately for us, these are for the honeymoon-ing couples in the resort. A quick word with the waiter and he tells me that he can set it up for anyone who asks in advance, too.


As a starter - papadums with onions, some sort of curry, and a third dip which I've forgotten, haha. These are THE BEST papadums I've ever eaten. Thin, crispy, fragrant and not a single hint of oiliness.


The amuse-bouche however is a bit ... disappointing. Wikipedia tells me that the amuse-bouche is supposed to be "a showcase for the artistry and showmanship of the chef as well as one-upmanship among restaurants," for which this particular dish has failed miserably. I can only describe this as a bite-sized plain roti prata with some mixed greens. And yes, it tasted as plain as it sounds.


No matter - the appetizers quickly restore our faith in the restaurant. We're on the set dinner - for which I choose the Chicken Tikka. Tender and moist and cooked to perfection with delicious Indian spices. I wouldn't mind eating multiple servings of this appetizer as a main course.


The darling goes for the Fish Mahi Tikka. It's similarly deliciously spiced - but a bit of an oddity we noticed was that one of the fish fillets was nice and tender, but the other was a bit tough and firm. Two fillets from two different fish?


The appetizers are followed by a cold soup. Don't remember what soup this was (the menu only says Chef's Specialty of the day). I do remember that it was spicy and tangy and had a hint of mango and banana, but overall I guess I greatly prefer my soups hot, and not cold.


On to the mains, then! This is the Khaibri Gosht (Lamb Shank Cooked in Milk). Delicious. The cooking style is aromatic and decidedly Indian, without overpowering the taste of the meat. Which, incidentally, was nice and tender.


These are eaten with a selection of chapatis and naans, which were a bit crispier and less thick than the naans that you normally get in KL.


Being quite stuffed, we still have to make room for dessert - Shahi Tukra (bread with condensed milk and nuts), served with Pistachio ice cream. I like the dessert, other than the fact that it's very sweet (as are practically all indian desserts and sweets).


Oh, there's also live entertainment in the form of a Sitar group. I can't comment about how authentic or good the group was, of course, but the music was nice and not intrusive.


Overall, it was a wonderful dinner, with delicious food, great ambience and good service. No prices available as the set dinner was part of our room package.

Hippocampe - Flic en Flac, Mauritius

I'm back in KL for Christmas and New Year! Woo hoo! Main purpose, of course, is to eat eat eat. And then eat some more! In the meantime, though, I've got a bunch of backlogged restaurants from Mauritius that I haven't blogged on yet. Figure I'd better clear them off before I totally forget about them, ha ha.

So well, the darling and I took a trip to Hippocampe over at Flic en Flac for dinner. And not just any dinner, if memory serves me correctly, it was my birthday dinner, hehe. (die la ... barely one month ago and I can't remember clearly already). According to TripAdvisor this is the second best restaurant in Flic en Flac (only losing out to the wonderful Domaine Anna), so we came with high expectations.


Like all good restaurants, we're served with assorted bread, and some plain salted butter. The bread has been warmed up, which is a pretty nice touch.


For starters we share the assorted samosas. They come on a plate of three assorted ones. Two of them were delicius with a nice combination of meat, veg and spices, but the third was a bit weird - had a kind of mustardy taste, which didn't suit my taste buds at all.


We also shared the deep fried chili salt squid. These weren't too bad either, nicely battered, and tasted extremely similar to those Taiwanese-style salt-and-pepper deep fried meats. Squid itself was also fresh and tender.


Unfortunately the main courses went a little downhill. My Lamb Daube (lamb stew, basically) was kind of nice, but nothing special. The dish had a rather strong tomato-ey flavor, and the lamb meat itself was a tad bit on the tough side.


The darling's gourmet burger was even worse. Other than the slightly eccentric choice of ingredients (a slice of radish? and no cheese?), the patty itself was bland and dry, despite being requested medium. In fact, I would go so far as to say that I'd rather have a Big Mac over eating this burger again.


Forgot to keep the receipt, or jot down the prices, haha ... =[ ... but I do recall they were somewhat high-moderate. Shame then, that the mains were a bit of a let down - because the service and appetizers were great. I hear that the desserts are to die for - if you're willing to give it a shot, Hippocampe is just behind the SPAR supermarket in Flic en Flac.

Segala - Intercontinental Resort, Balaclava Fort, Mauritius

Lots of the higher-end resorts here in Mauritius are of the 'do everything and eat everything here,' Club Med-style variety - you pay for the room, and (depending on how much you want to pay of course), all the food and water-sports and other activities are "free." So it's perhaps not very meaningful to provide a food review of these restaurants, because the only people who dine here are guests of the hotel.

But anyway, the InterContinental Mauritius Resort Balaclava Fort is one such resort. And the Segala is one of the restaurants at the resort - if memory serves me right, it's the 'mediterranean seafood and grill' restaurant. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo when there was actual light in the sky, but it's located right next to the sea, and on the beach.


Practically all restaurants here are open air and non air-conditioned. Which is fine because the weather at night is cool, even during the summer. Here we dine with the waves as the background music, accompanied by a lone singer/guitarist, so it's mucho relaxing.


Selection of breads to start the night. Interestingly, instead of butter we're served with a trio of spreads which are (from front to back) Goat Cheese, Eggplant Caviar and Pumpkin Cream. Pretty funky stuff. I like the Cheese and the Pumpkin, but since I don't like Eggplant the middle spread was a bust for me.


We go for the set menu dinner, which has two choices for Starters. This is the Smoked chicken breast with pears and walnut vinaigrette. I don't know what the chefs marinate the chicken in, but it's delicious, so I can forgive the simplicity of the dish.


I don't enjoy the Grilled vegetables Terrine with roasted peppers salsa and creamy cheese sauce as much. It's a bit plain, and has too much eggplant (which I don't eat), and bell peppers (which I don't like).


For the main course, we have the Grilled Marlin Steak. It's seasoned and cooked deliciously, but the fish itself is pretty tough (for fish standards, of course). I don't have any real reference point though, as I've never really eaten Marlin before. Could be that these big game fish tend to have much tougher meat than other fish.


The darling's Marinated beef filet with black peppercorn was ordered medium but came closer to medium well, so a tad bit on the dry side, but otherwise the beef was pretty tasty, and the black pepper sauce wasn't overpoweringly peppery.


For dessert, there's only one choice: Fresh Coconut Tart with Coconut Ice Cream. A bit of cheating going on in the kitchen here: The Tart is just a generic base tart with some coconut shavings, and the ice cream isn't really coconut - it's milk flavoured with coconut shavings to make it taste coconut-ty.


No prices available because this set dinner is part of our room package, but if we didn't choose the set dinner we'd have been given 600 Rs (RM 61.20) credit to ordering ala carte from the menu, so I guess that would be as good an estimation as any.

Overall, the restaurant was above average, and if we were staying long we'd have no hesitation going back for repeat visits - but again, I doubt anyone from outside the resort would drive all the way out here just for a dinner.