10 days backpacking in Mauritius
- Tania
- 28 may 2017
- 6 Min. de lectura
Trou aux Biches
EXPENSES AND OTHER GENERAL INFO
Mauritius is known to be very expensive, and it is, but it is also possible to tour the island as a backpacker. How? Saving on accommodation, food and transportation.
It is legal and free to camp on the beaches, which have decent bathrooms and showers. If you do not feel like camping, you can always do Couchsurfing or look for a cheaper alternative to hotels in Airbnb. Food in restaurants tends to be expensive, but it is full of street stalls selling cheap and delicious food. The water is drinkable; we took tap water every day and had no problems. In addition, the country has good roads and public buses that travel the island (between 20 and 30 MUR per ticket, less than 1 USD), or you can rent a car, to avoid the unaffordable taxis. Be careful though, because most buses stop circulating at 6 pm.
The locals are fluent in both English and French and are very friendly, making it very easy to navigate the island independently. The local currency is the Mauritian Rupee.
We stayed with my dear friend Aurelie, so, in addition to saving on accommodation, we were able to learn more about the Mauritian’s culture.
We spent 250 USD in 11 days. Excellent for our daily budget in Africa, and even more considering that travelling throughout Madagascar turned out to be very expensive.
FLIGHT TICKETS
We bought a multi-city ticket from Johannesburg to Mauritius, to Madagascar, and back to Johannesburg with an overnight stopover in Mauritius. We flew with Air Mauritius (good planes and service, but very unpunctual) for 794 USD.
VISA ON ARRIVAL
There is a free visa on arrival at the airport for 30 days. It is important to have proof of return ticket and the address of the place where you will be staying. Additionally, you need to provide information of the countries where you have been in the last 6 months. We were called to have a malaria test, but in the end the health workers never came to visit us. There are mosquitoes in the island, but there is no malaria.
MAURITIUS IN APRIL
April is, as we were told by the Mauritians, the best time to visit the country. The rainy season was ending and the temperatures were dropping, so you could walk comfortably with shorts and a t-shirt. At night it was a little colder, but nothing a pair of jeans and a sweater couldn’t fix. Tourists generally stay island’s luxurious hotels or million dollar’s "villas", so you won´t find many on the street.
Shalina, Nata, Me (Tania), Aurelie and Emily in Bois Cheri
Day 1
We arrived quite late at the airport, located in the southeast of the country, where a taxi driver Aurelie knew picked us up. He charged us the local price, which was 1200 MUR (34 USD) for a 40 minute drive to Rose Hill, which is in the west part of the island. Auri lives with Shalina and Emily; the girls and Deze -Shalina's boyfriend- were amazing hosts who made as feel at home, which is probably why we ended up loving Mauritius so much.
Day 2
We rose early in the morning, to grab a public bus to Bambous, and from there another to Flic en Flac, which has an amazing beach with crystal clear waters, where you can snorkel and enjoy the sun. There are several pubs, restaurants and food stalls around. We stayed on the bus until the end of its route, in an area filled with fancy hotels.
Auri's dad gave us a lift back to Rose Hill, and in the evening we went dancing to Cibercity, the “CBD” of Mauritius.
Day 3
Our hostesses took us on a tour to the southwest of the island. We started with a lunch stop at Bois Cheri, a lovely tea plantation; later continued our adventure to a sacred lake for the Hindus (Grand Bassin), in which there are several giant statues of their divinities, and finished in Le Monde, where Mauritius’ slaves used to jump from the top, to finish with the agony of their lives during the slavery.
In the evening we went to a rave party on the same tea plantation. Excellent first weekend in Mauritius.
Day 4
Rest day post-rave party. We walked a bit through Rose Hill, but nothing more.
Day 5
We went to Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius, a chaotic city full of people and probably the only place on the island where you have to be careful with your stuff. There, we visited the market, quite large and diverse, probably a good place to buy art crafts too. After that, we grabbed another public bus to Grand Baie, where we stayed at the beach for a while, continuing at midday to Trou Aux Biches, the most beautiful beach we saw in Mauritius.
On the way back, we waited until late for the bus back to Port Louis, thinking that perhaps it would not come and we would have to stay there, and just when we had lost all hope, the bus arrived! (7:30 pm). We arrived late to Port Louis, but were lucky, because there was still one bus left to Rose Hill. We got back at 9 to the apartment, while Auri and company went through the bus station looking for us. There were a bit scared we were out so late on our own and recommended us not to walk alone at night.
Day 6
We wanted to rest a bit from beach, so we went biking through the sugarcane plantations with Shalina to Grox Cailloux, near Albion. We got lost, of course, but with a bit of luck we managed to find the entrance of the park again. Grox Cailloux has a restaurant, children’s games, an interactive farm with many animals and they also rent quad bikes and bicycles to cross the sugar cane fields.
Nata and Salina biking in Grox Cailloux
Day 7
Trekking day. We decided to go to the Black River National Park, southwest of the island. There is no direct transport, so we grabbed a bus to Bambous and from there another to Baie du Cap. We asked this last driver to drop us off at the intersection with Black River National Park. From there it is 5kms to get to the park’s entrance, so we hitchhiked and someone gave us a lift there. The hike went through a beautiful forest and after two hours we arrived at Marc Au Jous waterfalls, where we were alone for over an hour. On the way back, a couple of locals picked us up and gave us a lift to Cascavelle, where we grabbed the bus back to Rose Hill.
At night, our friends invited us to see a Sega Show at the Sugar Beach hotel in Flic en Flac. The Sega dance is the typical dance of Mauritians, women and men dance in colorful costumes, without raising their feet from the ground, because the dance was invented in the time of slavery, where they wore chains on their feet.
Day 8
Auri gave us a lift to a town in the north-west of the island, Pamplemousses, where we first visited the museum L'aventure du Sucre (The Sugar Aventure), which we do not recommend, so we will not even go into details, and then to the Botanical Gardens, where we walked for several hours. We totally recommend this last one, it is very beautiful and well worth a visit if you are bored of the beach.
A bird found in the Botanical Gardens
Day 9
Rest-day. We finished binged watching 13 Reasons Why and at night went to a club in Flic en Flac.
Day 10
We had planned to go to the east side of the island, but it rained all day. Nata and I ended up taking a bus to Curapipe and after an hour of travel, had to go back to Rose Hill, because of the rain.
In the evening we invited our hostesses to eat at Bagatelle, the area's largest shopping mall.
Day 11
Auri made us English breakfast and then the girls drove us to the airport; our Mauritius’ adventure was over and the Madagascar journey began.
We loved the island, the locals are very friendly, the food is delicious and the beaches paradisiac. The best thing is that besides from the wonderful beaches, Mauritius also has several trekking routes, museums and other outdoor activities. We didn’t get to visit the eastern part of the island, so we'll probably be back soon.
More videos and photos of our adventures in Mauritius can be found at our instagram account @travesía_al_infinito
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