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Why Mauritius exceeded all my expectations

Xenia Taliotis thought she knew what she was getting from the Indian Ocean island, but she was in for a surprise

Ihad arrived in Mauritius with more preconceptions than underwear. That’s not to say that I had travelled light on pants, but that I had brought a huge number of notions with me. I thought I knew what I’d find: white sands, blue seas, excellent food, a perfect climate, luxury accommodation, and welcoming, English-speaking people. I expected to spend my time swimming, eating and lounging – on the beach and by my pool at Maradiva Villas Resort and Spa, in Flic-en-Flac. It is the World Travel Awards best Indian Ocean Leading Luxury Villa Resort for 2022, and has been the World Spa Awards best resort spa for six of the past eight years, so my mind was set on relaxation.

My immediate response when I landed, after a 12-hour flight that had provided neither sleep nor good films, was that I was right. There were welcoming people, English people (and French), there was the sun rising, untroubled by clouds, against blue. I fell asleep within minutes of climbing into my taxi. When I next opened my eyes, I was surprised to see a giant looming ahead of me, his bulky physique casting long shadows across the landscape.

The giant had a name, my driver said – Corps de Garde, or guarding corpse, and he was a 2,400ft mountain that was so named because when the French had owned the island, they had established a military post there to watch for runaway slaves. If I wanted to understand Mauritius, to feel its beating heart and know its history, he added, then I should visit the towns and mountains. I should take drives past the island’s sugar cane fields and plantations, spend time listening to its native Creole tongue, visit its rum distilleries and colonial mansions, and hike through its wild mountains where I would discover landscapes split by rivers and ravines, torrential waterfalls and still ponds. He said I’d be able to walk for hours, or even days, without encountering another human. Yet I wouldn’t be short of company. The trees would be full of birds I’d never seen before. If I was blessed, I might even spot a Mauritian kestrel, an echo or Mauritian parakeet, or a pink pigeon: three birds that almost followed the dodo – still the country’s most famous creature – into oblivion.

In my villa at Maradiva, I thought about my driver’s message. It was clear that to get a sense of this African jewel floating in the Indian Ocean, I’d have to do more than loll around on the beach. For the moment, however, I gave into temptation, and within minutes I was in the sea.

I floated on my back in its warmth. Blue below, blue above. Each as deep as the other. In the distance Le Morne Brabant peninsula jutted out into one of those infinite blues, while its giant, granite mountain stretched 1,800ft up towards the ether. Later, I researched its history: in the 18th and early 19th centuries, maroons – slaves who had escaped – sought shelter there, hankering down and forming small settlements within the barely accessible caves gouged out of the mountain’s near-vertical inclines. It was made a Unesco World Heritage site in recognition of its cultural significance as an “exceptional testimony to maroonage and resistance to slavery”.

Wanting to know more about the slave trade in Mauritius, and its loathsome successor – indentured labour – I headed north to Port Louis, the capital, to visit Unesco-listed Aapravasi Ghat. Built in 1849 as an immigration depot to receive bonded workers from India, China, eastern Africa, Madagascar and south-east Asia, Aapravasi Ghat is now a deeply moving document of a shameful time in history.

Mauritius was the last place within the British Empire to ban slavery, and the first to have bonded workers. The Great Experiment, as it was called, was Britain’s answer to finding labour for the plantations after slavery was abolished. In total, half a million people from India were brought to the island on the false promise of a better life: Aapravasi Ghat is a raw insight into how those dispossessed labourers lived, and is, says Unesco, the “sole surviving example of this unique modern diaspora, its buildings among the earliest explicit manifestations of what would become a global economic system that resulted in the worldwide migration of more than two million people”.

The joyful legacy of those abhorrent times is the multicultured Mauritian nation: 22 per cent of the 1.28 million population is descended from African slaves and 68 per cent from the bonded Indian workers who followed them – people who have woven the traditions, values, culture and religion of their ancestors into the very fabric of Mauritius. Perhaps the most striking example of the last of these is Ganga Talao, or Grand Bassin – a 60ft deep, high-altitude lake in the crater of an extinct volcano, which is the island’s most sacred site for the Hindu majority. Every year hundreds of thousands of devotees come here – often walking for days – for the festival of Maha Shivaratri, which honours Shiva. A towering 108ft effigy of the god – the tallest statue in Mauritius – greets all visitors, whether they come for faith to leave devotional offerings of food and flowers, or fascination.

The Mauritian nation’s roots are also deliciously apparent in its cuisine – an intoxicating fusion of Indian, Chinese and African flavours, with added French finesse. Among the highlights of my visit were a sensational Indian meal at Maradiva’s Cilantro restaurant, a winepaired vegetarian feast at neighbour hotel Sands Suites, and lunch at 1850s-built Château de Labourdonnais – a neoclassical beauty that showed the flip side of Mauritian heritage: that bequeathed by the Dutch, French and British who colonised the island for more than three centuries.

For all that, the meal I would most like to relive, was the simplest – a beach barbecue prepared by the crew from One Love speedboat excursions. Setting off from the Dutch-then-French colonial town of Mahébourg, in the southeast, we had dropped anchor at Grand River South East waterfall, the uninhabited coral island of Île aux Fouquets and in a quiet bay near Île aux Aigrettes to snorkel. I had floated weightless on the surface watching polychromatic shoals of angel and butterfly fish; sergeant majors, damsels and clowns, dart millimetres from my face before they dived down to pick and peck among the vivid coral gardens below. Such colour, such enchantment. I was tempted to skip lunch for more time in the ocean, but I’m glad I didn’t, for I would have missed the live Creole music performed by the crew, and the effortless switch between French, English and Creole as they spoke to their guests and each other while they had served us rainbow salads, charcoaled chicken and fish, and too many rum cocktails.

My final day was spent among emerald greens, on a bespoke tour with leading operator Kreola, which promised to show me as much as possible in the four hours I had left on the island. We took an hour’s drive south, to Black River Gorges National Park – the island’s largest protected forest and the primary habitat for the most of the threatened native birds and plants. I felt the anxiety of knowing the clock was ticking and yet for the 10 minutes I was there, time stopped. I stared into the gorge and felt the intense peace and stillness that comes from nature, ancient, wild and free. The National Park is a story of survival: the three birds my driver told me about on my first day in Mauritius are found here, breeding well in what remains of the country’s once abundant rainforest and its swathes of old-growth ebony.

I had come for a week’s winter sun expecting to take home nothing more than a tan – but instead, I left with a thirst to return. Mauritius had delivered all I had expected – beaches, sunsets and sea life – but had surprised me with a richness of cultural and natural diversity of which I had been ignorant. Boarding my plane, I bade it farewell in Creole: not goodbye, but “taler nou zwen” – see you later.

Xenia Taliotis was a guest of Maradiva Villas Resort & Spa and its sister hotel, Sands Suites Resort and Spa. Prices from £551 per night (bed and breakfast) and £298 (dinner, bed and breakfast) respectively

Resort Mauritius. Also on offer is unlimited golf on site, African rainforest treatments in the island’s only overwater spa and Lazy Dodo rum cocktails at the exclusive beach on Ile aux Cerfs.

Black Tomato (020 7426 9888; blacktomato.com) has an Ultimate Mauritius trip with a seven-night stay in a thatched villa with plunge pool, and bicycles to pootle about on, from £4,399pp B&B, including private transfers, but excluding flights. Bespoke experiences include a Creole food tour, sampling street food and eating lunch in a local home

Boutique mountains and beach twin-centre

This holiday for couples explores different geographical regions of Mauritius, while staying in four-star boutique accommodation – from a white clapboard Relais & Châteaux hotel in a coconut grove beside the sea near Grand Baie to a boho-chic eco-lodge in the Chamarel highlands. Kuoni (0800 047 3893; kuoni.co.uk) has a 10-night Mountains and Beach twin-centre trip from £2,458pp half board, based on travel in June, with a seven-night stay in a Charm room at the 20 Degrés Sud and a three-night stay in a pool suite at the Lakaz Chamarel Exclusive Lodge, including a Love Tree tour to plant an endemic tree in the Ebony Forest Reserve. It includes flights with Air Mauritius and a private car and driver to sightsee between hotels

Luxury island living

Couples seeking a Crusoe-style experience should choose the five-star Shangri-La Le Touessrok. Butlers await with a cold towel on the jetty at its private island, Ilot Mangénie, and take truffle pizzas and rosé to cabanas. Golfers get Ile aux Cerfs, one of the planet’s most stunning island courses, while foodies have a choice of five restaurants, including Indian and Japanese, four of which are overlooking the sea.

Elegant Resorts (01244 897271; elegantresorts.co.uk) has a seven-night stay in a Frangipani Club ocean-view one-bedroom suite – with butler service, à la carte breakfasts and a daily happy hour, plus an adults-only pool and a secluded beach – from £4,200pp, including flights with Emirates, private transfers and UK airport lounge passes. Price based on a May 8 departure, for travel until

Apr 30 2024

Family fun in the wild south-west

Elegant but relaxed, the plantation estate-style five-star Heritage Le Telfair Golf & Wellness Resort, at Bel Ombre in the south-west, is great for families. It has a baby club, large pools and activities for everyone – including quad biking and kitesurfing for teens, golf, and gastronomic dinners for the less energetic. Take the tribe for a Mauritian lunch in a picnic pod in the nature reserve, with a swim beneath a waterfall and traditional island games.

Turquoise Holidays (01494 678400; turquoiseholidays.co.uk) has a sevennight stay in a deluxe seaview suite from £6,395 per family (two adults and two children under 12), half board, with a choice of four restaurants at dinner. It includes flights with Air Mauritius and private transfers. Book by Dec 15, for travel in July

Mauritius family adventure

Active families experience the “real” Mauritius, staying at eco-lodges and guesthouses and exploring on foot, bike and kayak in this adventure led by locals. Highlights are a guided kayak trip to Amber Island with snorkelling, a kids’ treasure hunt around the island’s capital, Port Louis, sampling street food and exploring Wolmar Nature Reserve on fat bikes, with the chance to spot deer and wild boar.

Responsible Travel (01273 823700; responsibletravel.com) has a 10-night bespoke Mauritius family adventure from £4,102 half board, for a family of four, including car rental, guided activities and local assistance, but excluding flights. Accommodation includes the colonial-style Auberge de Saint Aubin, next to an artisanal rum distillery and vanilla plantation

Island Explorer

The cosy boutique Veranda Tamarin hotel, on the west coast, is popular with young couples seeking an active holiday that’s easy on the wallet. Its Explorer programme allows guests to exchange credits earned per night’s stay for local activities – such as a street-food tour, sunset on Trois Mamelles mountain, and kayaking with dolphins in Tamarin Bay.

British Airways Holidays (0344 493 0787; ba.com) has a seven-night stay at the three-star-plus Veranda Tamarin from £1,381pp half board, including flights on British Airways. Book by

Dec 15, for travel between January 20 and May 31

Colonial style with substance

With more than a mile of powder-white beaches on an east-coast peninsula, and white-clad beach boys in panama hats, the colonial-style One&Only Le Saint Géran oozes luxury. There is Pedi:Mani: Cure by Bastien Gonzalez in the spa; dining at the lantern-lit Pan-Asian restaurant Tapasake; and a helicopter trip to view the “underwater waterfall” at Le Morne.

Red Savannah (01242 787800; redsavannah.com) has a six-night stay in a standard Lagoon room from £2,534pp half board, with dining at La Terrasse and credit for other restaurants. It includes return flights on Air Mauritius and private transfers. For travel between May 8 and July 29

Island-hopping in the Indian Ocean

This twin-centre holiday combines relaxing on the beaches of Mauritius with an exploration of the lunar landscape of Réunion Island, which is a 45-minute flight away. You can also book a day trip to the private island of Ile des Deux Cocos, in Mauritius, with snorkelling in the Blue Bay Marine Reserve and then dine out in style with a Mauritian-style buffet lunch.

Saga (0800 988 5886; travel.saga. co.uk) offers its 10-night Mauritius and Réunion twin-centre trip from £2,038pp B&B, with a seven-night stay at the four-star Tamassa Bel Ombre hotel, in south-west

Mauritius, and three nights at the three-star-plus Hotel Le Récif, in Réunion, including flights and transfers, and two full-day excursions – a history tour in Mauritius and a 4x4 trip to visit the volcano on Réunion

INDIAN OCEAN

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Daily Telegraph