Everyone books Mauritius for the lagoon. Then they climb Le Morne.
Which catamaran anchors long enough to swim. What a dawn boat out of Tamarin costs. Whether Chamarel or the Tamarind Falls is the better day inland. Reviews of every tour you can book in Mauritius.
The climb up Le Morne
North to the offshore islands
A day through the south Four days that decide the week in Mauritius.
A catamaran, a dawn boat, the climb up Le Morne and a plate of street food in Port Louis. Book these first and fit the rest of the island around them.
01The catamaran dayFull-Day Catamaran Cruise to the Northern IslesNorth to Coin de Mire and Gabriel Island, lunch grilled on deck. The flat-water day the rest of the trip gets planned around.
02The dawn boatÎle aux Bénitiers: Snorkeling w/Dolphins Boat Tour & LunchThe spinner pods rest close inshore off the west coast early and move out to deep water by mid morning. Boats leave around six.
03The climbLe Morne Mountain Guided Sunrise Hike and ClimbUp the basalt before the heat, with the reef and the sandbanks laid out underneath. The last stretch to the summit needs hands.
04The city plateStreet Food & City TourDholl puri from a street cart, the Central Market, then the Chinatown lanes behind it. Come hungry and carry small notes.
Mauritius sells more days on the water than on land.
The reef holds the swell off, so the lagoon stays flat and the boats run most mornings. Four kinds of day out on it, what each costs to board, and which coast it leaves from.
What a day out in Mauritius actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs a head. A good number of the best Mauritian days come in under the price of a hotel lunch.
Market walks, the coloured earths, short hops out to the sandbanks and most of the waterfall trails.
The full-day standards: catamarans to Île aux Cerfs, the dolphin boats, Le Morne with a guide.
Private drivers for the whole island, chartered boats and the once-a-trip splurges that earn it.
The most booked days out in Mauritius.
Open the full Mauritius list →These carry more travellers than anything else on the island. Prices, ratings and what each morning actually involves.
1
Ile Aux Cerfs Catamaran Trip w/ Lunch & Transfer
Review of Mauritius’s Ile aux Cerfs catamaran trip, with hotel transfers, waterfall visit, snorkeling, island time, BBQ lunch, and drinks.
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
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
Mauritius from six starting points, east coast to west.
The east-coast jetties that run out to Île aux Cerfs, the capital and its market, the hotel strip in the north, the coloured earths in the south west, the mountain that closes the peninsula, and the dolphin water off Tamarin.
The other Mauritius starts twenty minutes from the beach.
Behind the hotel strip the island climbs through sugar cane into gorge and waterfall country. Chamarel’s coloured dunes, the seven drops at Tamarind Falls, and the ridge walks above Black River Gorges.
Île aux Cerfs is the day everybody books, and the boat decides it.
A sand island off the east coast, reached from the Trou d’Eau Douce jetties. Catamarans take the slow route with lunch cooked on board. Speedboats get you there in twenty minutes and add the Grand River South East falls on the way back.
Every Île aux Cerfs trip →
Three things you can only do in Mauritius.
Reefs and palm beaches run right round the Indian Ocean. Dunes that come out of the ground already sorted into seven colours, a basalt block that sheltered people who had escaped, and a tea route through the highlands do not.
The Seven Coloured Earths
Volcanic basalt broke down here into clays of different densities that refuse to mix again. Rake the dunes together and the bands separate back out within days, red and violet and blue-grey settling into their own layers. The site itself is small and the walkway takes ten minutes, so go early while the colour still has some depth in it. Almost every south-west day tour stops here on the way to the waterfall.
- 1Private Southwest Chamarel Highlights Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,427 reviews
- 2Chamarel 7 Colours & Waterfalls, South-West Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 287 reviews
- 3Riambel: South Tour w/ Crocodile Park & Seven Colored Earth★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 204 reviews
The mountain at the end of the peninsula
The basalt block at the tip of the south-west peninsula rises 556 metres straight out of the lagoon. Its caves and overhangs sheltered people who had escaped slavery in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and UNESCO listed it in 2008 as a memorial to them. The walk up takes three to four hours return and the last section is a scramble that guides gate on the weather. From the top the reef pass reads as a dark channel cut through the turquoise.
- 1Le Morne Mountain Guided Sunrise Hike and Climb★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 839 reviews
- 2Hiking Le Morne Brabant★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 661 reviews
- 3Le Morne Mountain UNESCO Eco Hike★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 483 reviews
The tea route and the rum that came with it
Sugar cane covered this island for two centuries and still fills the middle of it. What the estates did not distil into rum, the highlands turned over to tea. Bois Chéri has been picking since 1892 and its tasting terrace looks down over a lake and a forest of it. The Route du Thé strings the plantation, a colonial house and the Rhumerie de Chamarel into one slow afternoon, which is about the right speed for it.
- 1Tea and Sugar Plantation Guided Tour with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 116 reviews
- 2The South of Mauritius: 23-Colored Earth & Rhumerie de St Aubin★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 48 reviews
- 3Sights of the South Private Tour with Rum Tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 42 reviews
Four Mauritian bookings that will not wait.
Most of this island can be arranged over breakfast the day before. These four run on seasons, on guided numbers and on boats that leave once.
- 01Dolphin Swim and Whale Watching by SpeedboatHumpbacks pass the west coast roughly between July and November. Outside those months the same boats go out for dolphins instead.
- 02Le Morne Mountain Guided Sunrise Hike and ClimbThe summit section is guided and the groups are small. Climbs start before sunrise, both for the light and to be off the rock before the heat.
- 03Île aux Bénitiers: Snorkeling w/Dolphins Boat Tour & LunchThe spinner pods rest close inshore at first light and move out to deep water by mid morning. Departures are around six, from Tamarin and Black River.
- 04Ile Aux Cerfs Catamaran Trip w/ Lunch & TransferFull-day catamarans load at the jetty rather than at hotels, and they leave once, in the morning. A late start is a lost day.
Mauritius in the cyclone months, and what still runs.
The southern summer runs from November to April: hot, heavy afternoon rain, and the occasional cyclone warning. The south-east trades blow hardest across the east coast between June and September. Boats are the first thing cancelled either way. These are the days out that are not.
- 1Tamarind Falls Highlights 3-Hour Hiking Tripfrom $58
- 2Street Food & City Tourfrom $58
- 3Hiking Sept Cascades (Tamarind Falls) – Half Dayfrom $57.93
By place, coast by coast
By kind of day, on the water or off it
North, east, then the south west: how a first week in Mauritius usually runs.
The newest Mauritius tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Fascinating Nature Tour Incl Ebony Forest, 7 Coloured Earth,Lunch
Read our review →
Mauritius Hiking 7 waterfalls Trip with Ganga Talao & Lunch
Read our review →
Cultural Delights & Heritage Treasures in the City
Read our review →
Whale & Dolphins Swimming – Private Speedboat Exclusive Tour
Read our review →
The Adventure East of Mauritius: 3-Watersport Activities & Blue-Bay Marine Park
Read our review →
Catamaran Mauritius: South East 5 Islands Catamaran Cruises
Read our review →
Ile Aux Cerfs Catamaran Cruise sailing from Mahebourg
Read our review →
The East Discovery Tour: Bois-Cheri Tea Factory, Blue-Bay Marine Park & Lunch
Read our review →
Private :Whales and dolphins watching/Swimming with dolphins
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