Tailor-made Mauritius holidays shaped around your passions

In Mauritius, you can visit temples and pilgrimage sites, hike through lush jungle, snorkel, and dive, or simply laze on a white-sand beach. Mauritius offers lots of variety on a relatively small island and along with surfing, kayaking, and island-hopping trips, you can tour a rum distillery, visit spice and vegetable markets, or take a Mauritian culture and heritage tour to learn about the island’s complex history and rich culture.

For example, you could enjoy lunch with a Creole family, learn to make samosas, or visit tea and sugar museums for an insight into how these crops have influenced the island’s history. There are vibrant botanical gardens to explore, or you could head up into the mountains to hike through the rainforest in the national parks or to see unusual geological formations such as the brightly hued dunes at Seven Coloured Earth.

In Mauritius, you can choose to stay in a luxurious coastal resort or small boutique hotel, a characterful guesthouse or a small mountain lodge. The best beachfront resorts offer a spa and water sports, a choice of restaurants and bars, and facilities for families. You’ll also find smaller boutique hotels with a more intimate atmosphere, golf resorts, and mountain lodges that provide a tranquil retreat from the coast. For some more ideas, browse our collection of places to stay in Mauritius.

Most visitors to Mauritius combine time on the coast with a visit to the capital Port Louis and a trip into the Chamarel Mountains. Most resorts are on the palm-fringed west coast where the beaches are long and sandy and within an easy drive of the shops and markets of historic Port Louis and the forests and dunes of the Chamarel Mountains.

The east coast is wilder and a bit more rugged, but with fewer visitors it feels more tranquil. North Mauritius offers water sports, lava tubes, natural springs, and the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Gardens where you can see sausage trees and giant lily pads, while the south has steep cliffs, an incredible array of marine life at Blue Bay Marine Park, and forest hikes to waterfalls in the Black River Gorge National Park. Inland, the island is quieter with small villages set in dense jungle.

It takes around 12 hours to fly from the UK to Mauritius.

The time zone in Mauritius is UTC+4 hours. Daylight Savings Time is not observed.

The best way to get around Mauritius is by car because the distances between popular destinations are short. We can provide a driver to take you between destinations in comfort. You could also take a boat trip or catamaran cruise around the island to visit lush islets and hidden coves.

Use our travel tool to find up-to-date visa and passport requirements for Mauritius. Enter where you’re travelling to and from (including any stopover destinations en route or flight layovers), along with your intended travel dates and passport details, for a full list of requirements.

• Entry requirements travel tool

Your doctor is best placed to provide vaccine advice for Mauritius. You can check the suggested vaccinations on the Travel Health Pro website but you should also ensure you’re up to date with the recommended vaccinations for your home country.

You don't need to worry about getting malaria in Mauritius as there are no malarial mosquitoes in country, but you should consult your doctor before you travel to understand any other risks.