Mauritius sits inside its own reef. The day begins at the pass.
Which catamaran stops long enough to actually swim. What a dolphin morning off Tamarin costs before the boats fill. Whether Le Morne is worth the four o’clock alarm. Reviews of every tour you can book on the island.
Île aux Cerfs, Le Morne, the Chamarel road and a plate in Port Louis.
Four of these leave from a jetty or a trailhead before eight in the morning. What each one costs, and what the travellers who went say about it.
01The twenty-minute crossingIle Aux Cerfs Catamaran Trip w/ Lunch & TransferCatamaran out of Trou d’Eau Douce, lunch grilled on the sand at Île aux Cerfs. The one photograph that talks everyone into coming.
02The dolphin runÎle aux Bénitiers: Snorkeling w/Dolphins Boat Tour & LunchOff Île aux Bénitiers with the spinner pods, then Crystal Rock and a swim. Boats leave in the dark to be first on the water.
03The dawn climbLe Morne Mountain Guided Sunrise Hike and ClimbUp Le Morne Brabant with a guide, on the summit for sunrise, off the rock before the heat lands. Four hours, and the whole lagoon underneath you.
04The gorgeTamarind Falls Highlights 3-Hour Hiking TripTamarind Falls, seven cascades in a gorge an hour inland. Short, steep, and the pools at the bottom are the reason to do it.
05The Port Louis onePort Louis: Street Food & City TourThrough the market halls, the spice lanes and the Chinatown counters. Three hours, and you eat the whole way round.
Catamaran, speedboat or a dawn dolphin run out of Tamarin. Pick the hull.
The water is the whole point of a Mauritian week. Three kinds of day out through the reef, what it costs to board each one, and which coast it leaves from.
Nowhere in Mauritius is two hours from anywhere. The coast still decides the day.
A jetty on the east that sends boats to an island, a resort strip in the north with its own archipelago offshore, a working capital, a volcanic road in the south-west, a sheltered west coast where the dolphins hold, and a marine park in the old south-east. Six bases, and the best day out from each.
Île aux Cerfs, Gabriel, Bénitiers: Mauritius keeps its best beaches offshore.
The mainland beaches are hotel beaches. The ones worth a whole day are twenty minutes out through the reef, on sandbanks with nothing on them but a barbecue and a line of moored boats. Five of them are reachable on a shared ticket.
The most popular days out in Mauritius.
Every Mauritian tour we have reviewed →Ranked the way the island actually books them, with the price and the verdict that put each one there.
1
Ile Aux Cerfs Catamaran Trip w/ Lunch & Transfer
Sail to Ile aux Cerfs from Trou d’Eau Douce with snorkeling, waterfalls, a BBQ lunch, drinks, hotel transfers, and a friendly crew.
From · $110
Read our review →
2
Full-Day Catamaran Cruise to the Northern Isles
from $82
3
Île aux Bénitiers: Snorkeling w/Dolphins Boat Tour & Lunch
from $115
4
Private Southwest Chamarel Highlights Tour
5
Private South-West Nature & Viewpoints with Lunch
6
Trou d’Eau Douce: 5 Island Adventure with BBQ & Snorkeling
from $100
7
Private South Tour with Pickup
8
Catamaran Cruise to Ile Aux Cerfs with BBQ Lunch
from $64
Trou d’Eau Douce is a village with a jetty and a whole industry behind it.
Half the boat traffic in Mauritius leaves from this one stretch of the east coast, bound for the same island twenty minutes offshore. The difference between the days out is the hull, the lunch and whether you get the waterfall on the way back.
Every east-coast day out →
Three things this island has and nowhere else does.
Lagoons and palm trees are the standard issue of the Indian Ocean. Ash that sorts itself into seven colours, a basalt monolith that sheltered runaway slaves, and resident dolphin pods you can be in the water with by seven are not.
The Coloured Earths at Chamarel
Volcanic ash weathered into clay here, and the iron and aluminium oxides in it settle at different rates. The result is a small field of dunes striped red, brown, violet and blue-grey that will separate back into bands even after somebody stirs a handful together. The site sits on the Chamarel estate with the waterfall and the rum distillery on the same ticket road.
- 1Riambel: South Tour w/ Crocodile Park & Seven Colored Earth★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 204 reviews
- 2Southern Tales: Full-day incl Crocodile Park & 23 Colored Earth★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 74 reviews
- 3Picturesque South Tour Of Mauritius, Incl Lunch,7-Coloured Earth★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 66 reviews
Le Morne Brabant
A basalt monolith on the south-west peninsula, 556 metres straight out of the lagoon. Runaway slaves used the summit as a hideout, and UNESCO listed the mountain in 2008 as a symbol of resistance to slavery rather than as scenery. Groups climb with a guide past the first plateau and start before dawn to be off the rock by the time the heat arrives.
- 1Le Morne Mountain Guided Sunrise Hike and Climb★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 839 reviews
- 2Le Morne Brabant: UNESCO Mountain Hike & Local Guides★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 259 reviews
- 3Mauritius Le Morne: Eco-Friendly Dolphin Watching Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 123 reviews
The dolphins off Tamarin
Spinner and bottlenose pods rest in the sheltered water off Tamarin and Black River through the night and move offshore once the day warms up. That is why every boat leaves before six and is back by nine. Watching is regulated with a set morning window, a cap on how close boats go, and a fixed number of minutes in the water.
- 1Île aux Bénitiers: Snorkeling w/Dolphins Boat Tour & Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 1,635 reviews
- 2Black River: Dolphin Swim and Whale Watching by Speedboat★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 595 reviews
- 3Tamarin: Dolphin Snorkel, CrystalRock, ile o Benitiers Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 511 reviews
A day out here runs from a park ticket to a chartered hull.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A surprising number of the best Mauritian days come in under the price of a hotel dinner.
Park and reserve entries, the glass-bottom boat at Blue Bay, a kayak morning on the Tamarin river, the short waterfall loops.
The full-day standards: catamaran to Île aux Cerfs, the Chamarel road, a guided climb up Le Morne, the dolphin run off Bénitiers.
Private drivers for a full day, chartered boats, the quad tracks in the south and a helicopter over the reef.
Mauritius keeps its best hours inland: gorges, cascades and a mountain nobody expects.
Twenty minutes from any beach the island goes vertical. Seven waterfalls in a single gorge, a national park across the whole south-west interior, and climbs that put the entire reef underneath you by seven in the morning.
Four Mauritian mornings that will not wait for you.
Most of this island can be arranged the night before from a hotel desk. These four run on dawn departures, guide rosters and marine-park rules that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Le Morne Mountain Guided Sunrise Hike and ClimbThe summit route is walked with a guide and the groups leave in the dark to be down before midday. There is no afternoon option.
- 02Île aux Bénitiers: Snorkeling w/Dolphins Boat Tour & LunchThe pods are inshore at first light and gone by mid-morning, and the watching window is regulated. Boats leave around six or not at all.
- 03Ile Aux Cerfs Catamaran Trip w/ Lunch & TransferThe catamarans sail from Trou d’Eau Douce once in the morning and come back late afternoon. Miss the jetty and there is no second boat.
- 04Blue Bay: Half-Day Snorkeling Trip with Creole Picnic LunchBlue Bay is a protected marine park. Only licensed boats go over the coral, and the good slots are the early ones before the wind chops the surface.
The trade wind that crosses Mauritius decides which coast you sail from.
The wind comes in off the south-east for most of the year. That is why the east coast belongs to the kitesurfers and the west coast keeps the dolphin boats. When Trou d’Eau Douce is chopped up and the catamaran is off, the answer is the sheltered side of the island, or the road inland.
Port Louis is a working capital that happens to serve the best lunch on the island.
Everything in Port Louis →
The market halls open early and are done by two. Around them sit the Chinatown counters, the colonial waterfront and a food culture pulled out of India, China, France and Africa at the same time. These three carry more travellers than anything else in the city.
Eat your way through the market halls
Dholl puri off a handcart, gateaux piments, a bowl of mine frite and whatever the fruit stalls are cutting that morning. Guides pace it so you finish standing up.
Waterfront, Chinatown, the Champ de Mars
Colonial arcades, the oldest racecourse in the southern hemisphere and a Chinatown that predates most of the city. Go in the morning; the capital empties out after work.
Pamplemousses and the north in one run
Most Port Louis days bolt on Pamplemousses, the botanical garden north of town with the giant waterlilies, and finish at the red-roofed church on the point at Cap Malheureux.
Port Louis down to Le Morne: the drive that fills most first visits.
Port Louis
Waterfall hikes
Chamarel
Le Morne
TamarinBy place, coast by coast
By kind of day, boat or road
The Mauritian tour reviews we wrote most recently.
What landed since Monday →
Wild South: Full-Day tour incl Rhumerie St Aubin, Bois cheri Tea factory & Lunch
Read our review →
Marvelous Ile aux Cerf island: Speed Boat, Parasailing, Lunch & GRSE waterfall
Read our review →
Catamaran Experience to Ile aux cerf: incl: Parasailing, Lunch, GRSE & Transfer
Read our review →
East of Mauritius: Full Day Scenic Tour with Lunch & Glass Bottom
Read our review →
Tea, Rum and Vanilla Route with Lunch and Pickup
Read our review →
Unveiling the Ancient and Modern Port Louis – city tour
Read our review →
Mauritius South Tour Including Blue Bay Glass Bottom Boat & Snorkelling
Read our review →
South: Gorges, Waterfalls, Lakes, Trails, 23 Coloured Earth
Read our review →
Ile Aux Cerfs Catamaran Cruise & Waterfalls- Lunch & Drinks
Read our review →
Ile aux Cerf: Speed boat with Parasailing & Tube Riding and Lunch
Read our review →
Seaplane Tours over the turquoise lagoon of the East of Mauritius
Read our review →Mauritius Catamaran Cruise to Ile Aux Cerfs with BBQ Lunch
Read our review →