I had gone to Mauritius on my honeymoon on the 16th of Feb. I had planned a 5 night halt at Mauritius and 2 nights halt at Singapore. Mauritius is a small country and very clean and well maintained. In terms of infrastructure its pretty similar to any other western country.
The weather in Feb is not all that great in Mauritius as it rains a bit. However, we were lucky that we got a mix of rain as well as sunny weather. But just check the weather forecast before booking your vacation. We had booked the tour via D’ Pauls tours and travels in Delhi. The rooms in the hotel that are generally offered in the package are not sea facing, which are charged about 5K extra per head. If the hotel is not full, you can get a free upgrade. We stayed in La Plantation resort. The resort is fabulous to say the least. We got a HUGH room, but I must say that not all people get those rooms. Some of my friends who had gone earlier for the same price, got a smaller room. The rooms starting with numbers 300 are smaller and those starting with room number 800 are huge. If you are going with friends to Mauritius, then beware that the bathroom in these rooms do not have any doors :)
The tour generally covers 3 full day site seeing tours. The first day included visit to Port Louis which is okay. Nothing extraordinary in that. The next day is the south tour. These tour do not include the good part i.e., under sea walk, parasailing and submarine tour. The first two are supposed to be the BEST part of Mauritius. The last part is the most expensive, but not all that great. In order to board the submarine you have to go by a small boat to the larger boat in the middle of the sea on which the submarine is docked. When these two boats line up side by side to transfer the passengers, the boats move up and down a LOT !! And that can be really SCARY. If you are scared of the sea then this is not worth the expense. Also the submarine did not show anything great as compared to the under sea walk. You need not know swimming for the under sea walk.
The resort La Plantation has free water skiing (need to know swimming for this), yachting, paddle boat, glass bottom boat, snorkeling etc. So you can explore all this in one day. If you like sea food, then this hotel is really good. However, for vegetarians, its a bit difficult to manage. The bad part is that they do not offer water free during dinner (which is part of the package) and charge around Rs. 100 for one bottle of water. So its advisable to buy water from any supermarket when you do the city tours.
During the island tour we took a speed boat ride to see the waterfall nearby. The waterfall is good, but the best part is that they allow you to ride the speed boat and that can be a chance of a life time!
But all in all Mauritius was really good and value for money!
Some tips:
Dont convert money at the airport. During the site-seeing tours, ask the guy to stop at ’’Shibani’’, which offers good rate. And only convert USD and not indian rupees to Mauritian rupee. The rate offered for Indian rupee is very less.
Le Meridian is supposed to have good Indian food.
Carry a umbrella if there is even a slight forcast of rain.
There isnt much to shop in Mauritius, except some really good ship models. The tour includes a visit to Ship model factory. I bought one and they pack it really well. Bargain a lot at the ship model factory.
Try to bargain about the cost of under sea walk, parasailing and Submarine. I saw that they offered different rates to different people. I paid (Mauritian) Rs. 900 per head for the under sea walk and (Mauritian) Rs. 5300/- (for two people) for the submarine tour. But I think the submarine tour could have been cheaper.
During the island tour, the tour operator says that he will offer packed lunch for about MRs. 150/- per head. However, if you are planning to take the under sea walk, there is a hotel nearby where you can get cheap veg biryani for Rs. 60/-.
Cheers,
Manish