MAURITIUS - TROPICAL PARADISE IN THE INDIAN OCEAN?

In february 2008 we spent about 10 days on Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean and a former French colony and belonging to the African continent. Now a proud independent Republic, Mauritius is a very popular and relatively affordable getaway. Affordable that is, compared to The Seychelles and The Maldives.

Mauritius is very much about sun, sea and beach which is quite obvious for an island. The perfect place to relax and charge the battery. That was our plan. But we were very anxious to know if it would be our thing, to be on an island with Kiora in a resort type of accommodation.

Well, it’s not. Nice for Kiora though but these over-arranged establishments are not our piece of cake. Don’t get us wrong, we did enjoy and everything was fine but a Mauritian beach is a beach like anywhere else, nothing special about it. So if you are looking for a tan on a tropical island, Mauritius is the place to go. If you are looking for something more special, you have to look further.

As far as we are concerned there are 2 downsides to the island (apart from the above). First of all the coral reef. Not much left. Extremely damaged by mass tourism and so on, at least within the reef. Maybe outside the reef its better (we never explored) but within the reef sad to see. Second, as a former French colony Mauritius attracts a lot of French people. But also because a lot of them are poor in english and thus prefer to stay in places where locals can understand them. So many many French people. I ask you: what is wrong with you French? I have never met such an arrogant and unpleasant people in my life as on Mauritius. The younger generation is very much ok, but anybody above 50 turns into these very annoying, arrogant I-know-it-alls. Wanting you to know they have money. And behaving like they rule the world. Well, you don’t. Please get your act together.

But...we got to stay another 3 days more inland in the south in an area called Chamarel and there we discovered Mauritius has a bit more to offer. A National Park with interesting hiking trails and great views from the hills. Maybe enough to go back once more?