Mauritius for midwinter
Outline
In the Indian Ocean beyond Madagascar, Mauritius is its own special creation, from its volcanically forged peaks to its reefs, rainforests and platinum-blond beaches. More accessible than the scattered Seychelles, less Muscovite than the blingy Maldives, the island is a winter winner: picture Barbados with bigger, bolder landscapes, India without the Imodium – now lie back and don’t think of Ireland.
Eyeline
January blues here are a joy: seen from a lounger, azure shallows deepen to broad bolts of lapis lazuli and wavy navy, under skies the colour of Cillian Murphy’s eyes. What to do with this beautiful day? Nothing, unless it involves piña coladas.
Designer line
Lux Grand Baie (doubles from €410; luxresorts.com) is the best-looking five-star to open here in years. A giant metal and exotic-timber lobby curves up, sail-like, as if Robinson Crusoe had built a scale-model Sydney Opera House. Interiors star Kelly Hoppen has waved her wand over the monochrome, minimalist suites. If the literature on shelves seems odd for holiday consumption (Hemingway, Proust, W B Yeats), notice how the black-and-cream book jackets subtly match Hoppen’s colour palette to a T.
Flatline
Resort restaurant Beach Rouge is one of the very best places in Mauritius to be on your back. Gentle club anthems drift, for an ambience that’s equal parts St Tropez and Miami. Its retro swim-up bar is inspired.
Breadline
Making pillowy chapatis is good, floury fun on a cookery morning at nearby boutique hotel Salt of Palmar in Belle Mare (doubles from €140; saltresorts.com). With chefs Shiva and Vishan, eager novices get to grips with chicken curry, pulping tomatoes, steamrollering cumin and dicing
lurid veg. It’s served to participants for lunch, along with a certificate and a bag of spices.
Dotted line
Driving is on the left, so motoring is a doddle (daily car hire from €21; kayak.com); Kodak-colourful, too. From November to March the vermilion flowers of flame trees overhang the byways. Sunbird nests dangle orb-like in bottle-green branches, and people sell rainbow displays of lychees, bananas, papaya and pineapple.
Fine line
At just-renovated Lux Belle Mare (doubles from €237; luxresorts.com), genial Navin leads tours in the resort’s stately 1969-vintage Daimler: past downhome hamlets where dogs yawn, villagers bashing soapy saris clean in a stream, tumbledown sugar mills in canefields with mauve uplands beyond. Last stop: a champagne picnic.
Frown line
In the capital, Port Louis, the Intercontinental Slavery Museum is crucial to understanding multi-ethnic modern Mauritius and is a sad but potent memorial to the African, Asian and Madagascan people enslaved and shipped to the town in their thousands between 1638 and 1835, when the practice was abolished.
Dividing line
Spiritually, there isn’t one. Dark-stone village churches coexist with candy-red mosques and incense-smoky shrines to Shiva. Given those grim centuries of
European colonialism, the harmony among Catholic, Muslim and Hindu religions, with a dash of Buddhism among the Chinese, is life-affirming – like the kaleidoscopic festivals.
Fishing line
In coastal towns such as Port Louis, the catch of the day is a shiny display of orange prawns and saturnine lobsters, fiery red snapper, purple octopus and quicksilver tuna the size of mini-submarines. Book a walking tour with foodie experts Taste Buddies (tastebuddies.mu, €55; which has five options around the island). Guides – ours was upbeat Adrien – know the top local spots: at shack-tiny Karai Kreol, Grand Baie, try the tuna casserole or salmi de thon – it’s delicious.
Wavy line
Safe to say you’ll be walking in one after a mojito or two at Cocoloko, in Grand Baie. It’s lively by night, and under fairy-lit palms a weekend band plays ‘seggae’ – Mauritian-Creole sega beats fused with Jamaican reggae. Created by 80s island artist Kaya, it’s a national obsession.
Airline
Gatwick returns cost from €697 with airmauritius.com. Special-occasion trip? Flat bed in business class is €3,750.
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