Dreaming of some winter sun? Planning the ultimate paradise trip for autumn 2026? Looking for a honeymoon spot that delivers on postcard views? Mauritius could be the destination that ticks all your checkboxes.
It may be an exaggeration to call Mauritius underrated, after all, it’s an island already known for its beauty, but compared to its competitors, the Maldives or the Seychelles, it’s definitely something of an underdog. In fact, when I was planning my trip, more than a dozen people asked me, “So, where exactly is Mauritius again?” FYI: it’s in the Indian Ocean, around 2,000 kilometres off the southeast coast of Africa, east of Madagascar.
I left snowy England with my teeth chattering in minus-five-degree weather, stepped onto a plane, and 11 hours later disembarked into a plume of hot air and my personal ideal temperature of 27 degrees. It was the start of January, and I felt undeniably smug as I looked out at the tropical landscape and green mountains framing the airport.
As we drove along the meandering coastline to our first destination, LUX* Belle Mare in Quatre Cocos, the island’s diversity and vibrancy became instantly apparent. On one side: white sand and clear blue sea. On the other: the Bambous mountain range, lush with greenery and volcanic earth. We passed fields of sugarcane, tea and vegetables — aubergines, squash, even lychees — growing thickly beside the road.
On a single stretch of street, I saw a Mandir, a mosque and a church sitting side by side. Chinese medicines were sold next to an Indian restaurant, outside a shopping centre filled with tourists from Africa, Europe and Asia. The population is multilingual, speaking Mauritian Creole, with English and French widely used in administration and education, alongside Bhojpuri and Hindi.
This multiculturalism is the result of the island’s long and brutal history of colonisation by the Dutch, French and British, as well as slavery. According to historians, Mauritius had no indigenous population, and its first recorded exploration was by the Portuguese in the early 1500s, though it remained uninhabited for several decades. In 1638, Cornelius Gooyer established the first permanent Dutch settlement, but the colony ultimately failed and was abandoned. In 1715, the French took possession of the island, and today a small percentage of the population are descendants of French colonists. The majority of Mauritians, however, trace their ancestry to people brought to the island through slavery and indentured labour. In 1810, Mauritius fell under British rule, and Indo-Mauritians, who make up around two-thirds of the population today, are largely descended from Indian labourers brought over in the 1830s. Independence from Britain did not come until 1968.
