Mauritius — where to go and when
3 destinations covered
Three versions of Mauritius are published here, and you can have all three inside a single week. In the north a sheltered lagoon lies behind the barrier reef, with a resort town built around a deep inlet from which boats leave for the offshore islets. The capital occupies a narrow shelf between a working harbour and a wall of volcanic peaks, packing the covered market, the Chinese shopfronts and the arrival depot of indentured labour into a handful of streets. Inland, a forested plateau of ravines, waterfalls and striped mineral earth stays cool, clouds over most afternoons, and touches no beach at all. Costs run roughly half beneath French levels, which puts the island above most tropical destinations on this site: the saving is real, but it will not rescue a tight budget, and the hotel strip prices itself internationally. Mauritius works for travellers who want the lagoon without giving up the culture, the cooking and the landscape sitting behind it, and who accept a summer that carries both the heaviest rain and the cyclone window.
When to go
October and November are the only two months our figures agree on, and the argument is water rather than warmth. Temperature barely moves across the year: 28.5 °C by day at the February peak, 22.5 °C at the July floor, with nights that stay swimmable all twelve months. What changes is rainfall, 1963.9 mm a year distributed very unevenly. January alone brings 340.2 mm, while October, the thinnest month of the calendar, takes 57.3 mm. Add the cyclone season, which travels with the summer rain and occasionally closes the airport for a day, and the choice makes itself.
The places we cover, side by side
| Place | Favourable months | Warmest month, avg. high (°C) | Coldest month, avg. high (°C) | Rainy days a year (≥ 1 mm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chamarel | October, November | 28.5 | 22.5 | 174 |
| Grand Baie | October, November | 28.5 | 22.5 | 174 |
| Port Louis | October, November | 28.5 | 22.5 | 174 |
Figures measured at the weather station nearest each place, then averaged over the warmest and the coldest months of the year — not over a fixed calendar season. Each destination page carries its own month-by-month table, its station and its sample size.
Getting around
A light rail line links the capital with the towns of the central plateau, and buses cover the rest of the island cheaply and slowly, with services thinning out early in the evening. Most visitors hire a car instead, which is straightforward apart from driving on the left and roads that narrow sharply once you leave the coast. The airport sits in the south-east, 31 km from the plateau village and 47 km from the northern bay, so a transfer eats an hour of the first day.
Budget
Country price level compared with France : −48 %
Price index for restaurants and hotels, France = 1000, from European purchasing power parities. It is a country average: it says nothing about one hotel in particular.
Destinations in Mauritius
ChamarelChamarel is a village on a forested plateau in the south-west of Mauritius, reached by a road that climbs in tight hairpins out of the sugar plain. Its…
Grand BaieGrand Baie occupies a deep inlet on the northern shore of Mauritius, where the barrier reef lies far enough out to leave a broad sheet of flat water…
Port LouisPort Louis is the capital and working harbour of Mauritius, pressed into a narrow shelf between the sea and a wall of jagged volcanic peaks. A covered market…Frequently asked questions
Is one week enough for Mauritius?
Yes, provided you choose two bases rather than tour. Four or five nights on a coast and two inland on the plateau cover the contrasts without spending the days in a car. Distances are short but the roads are slow, and the island rewards returning to the same beach at different tides more than it rewards ticking off the map.
Does the plateau really feel different from the coast?
Noticeably. Daytime readings up there run several degrees under the lagoon, cloud settles on the high ground through the afternoon, and winter evenings call for a jacket. That is exactly why the two halves of the island combine well: forest paths and viewpoints in the morning, warm water in the afternoon, an hour of driving in between.
Updated on 21 September 2026