Mauritius

October 2 - 12, 1999

Our Travel Experience - Photo Album - Ratings - Tourist Info
Our Travel Experience
Mauritius was a last minute holiday choice. We had been planning on going to Bali, but as the troubles in East Timor increased and the news in the paper was not getting any better, we decided to look for alternate destinations from Singapore. We already had tickets for Seth's business trip to Singapore and Hong Kong, so we needed to base our trip out of Singapore. Tara did all the travel investigations.

- by Tara
I thought it would be easy to find an alternate tropical destination nearby Singapore. However, I didn't realize that October is the rainy season for nearly all of South East Asia! I kept looking in travel brochures and wondering exactly how much rain 300+ millimeters a month was. It seemed like it was raining more than 300 millimeters a month in all of Thailand, Malaysia and even the Maldives! After talking to friends at work about how much it had been raining in Phuket in October 1998 when they had went, I decided we didn't want to go to a tropical destination with more than 300 millimeters of rain a month.

Next, I turned to Australia, thinking that maybe this was our chance to go to Lizard Island. The problem with the East coast of Australia was that we were already flying west to Singapore and going to Lizard Island would mean alot of backtracking. Nearer to Singapore, I looked at Darwin and Perth. But, Seth didn't want a city-vacation, he wanted a tropical destination. I did find one tropical destination in Australia, but close to Singapore -- Christmas Island. Not a main-stream tourist destination, but definitely interesting. We decided against Christmas Island since there were not straight flights from Singapore and the only hotel with a pool had gone bankrupt a few months ago and was only partly open.

Back to the drawing board. I started looking further out on the map and checked out the Seychelles - it was also raining there! Even further away was Mauritius... but it wasn't raining! And, there were plenty of deluxe hotels for us to choose from. With only three days to go before we were due to leave for Singapore, I booked the flights and started looking for a hotel.

Getting a hotel in Mauritius at late notice was hard since most hotels I contacted were full on some of the ten nights we wanted to stay. We settled on Le Touessrok as a special treat for the first two nights and we figured we'd find someplace with availability after we arrived.

We flew from Tokyo to Singapore after work on Friday night and stayed at the Conrad Hilton because we had a certificate to get triple bonus Hilton points. It was a nice and easy day on Saturday. All we basically did was go shopping in the Suntec Mall.

We flew out of Singapore late Saturday afternoon and arrived in Mauritius about 10pm. The sight at the baggage carousel was very amusing. There was a HUGE amount of electronics going around: video recorders, CD players, stereos, and even a few TVs. The people collecting the electronics were claiming LARGE AMOUNTS of electronics. We couldn't figure out if maybe these people owned electronic stores and had gone to Singapore to buy their stock. Some people were collecting four, five or even more of the same VCR. Amazing. Finally our bags arrived and we were relieved that we had nothing to declare - otherwise we would have been in line for an hour.

The first problem we had was that the Le Touessrok's tour representative didn't have a record of our hotel reservation. Thus, there was no car waiting for us. errrrrr. I had all the e-mails confirming my room and transfer and after a while it was sorted out. We got into a car for the hour ride to the hotel. The road we were on winded along the shoreline and passed through many small, rural towns. One interesting thing was that there was no wood construction - only metal and cement. It was actually very similar to Egypt - you could see the supports sticking out the tops of houses... ready for a second floor to be built. Seth wasn't too happy on the ride to the hotel - especially after we hit an animal that he says was about the size of a cat. Thankfully, I didn't notice that we hit someone.

Arriving at the Le Touessrok hotel was nice! There was a fruit drink and cold washcloth waiting for us. The lobby and grounds we walked through were beautiful and our room was right on the beach about 50 steps from the water's edge. We were really excited since we were upgraded to this room and could stay in it for five nights. Just as we were figuring out how to get something for dinner, room service arrived for us! We didn't even have to ask for it - since all rooms include breakfast and dinner. We had a very enjoyable dinner out on our balcony. Then, we called for our tray to be removed and waited and waited and waited and waited. This was strike one against the hotel, but do big deal, we finally went to bed.

Breakfast the first day was incredible. We ate until we could barely move. There was a chef to cook crepes, a chef to cook omelets, a chef to cook waffles and an incredible amount of other food. There was a long line for the crepes, but it was worth it! We had a wonderful seat on the second floor where we could look out over the hotel pool and watch all the birds coming to sit on the flower boxes. There was one especially pretty bird who had a peak of feathers on his head. Neither of us had seen a bird like him ever before. We supplemented the birds' diets and hid away a few rolls for later too!

The first day at Le Touessrok was our best. We found a hammock in the shade overlooking the beach and settled in with lots of books. I even borrowed a German fiction book from the hotel's library and was able to understand t. Since there was only one hammock, we took turns laying either in the hammock or on the pool chair next to the hammock. It was a very quiet day. Even though there were lots of people around the pool and on the beach, there was hardly any noise and it was very peaceful. We didn't really like it when a fishing boat came in and tons of people went over to see what had been caught. Women in bikini's were taking turns posing for a photo with a small shark who had been caught. We ordered beef for lunch. It was very conveniently delivered to our hammock - along with a chocolate shake!

The only disruption at all during our first day was our need to buy suitable clothes for dinner. We were surprised to read in our room that the hotel had a dress code. We had brought nothing but casual clothes, so Seth didn't meet the dress code at all. When I made the reservation, no one mentioned that we needed to pack for a dress code. This was strike two for this hotel. So, he went shopping in the hotel gift shop and luckily they had pants and a shirt that fit. The dinner buffet was OK - but not nearly as good as breakfast. I was also worried the whole time that the sarong I was wearing would fall off at any moment. I should have paid more attention when Eileen knotted it around me securely in Thailand!

The second day started much like the first..... except that we heard jack hammering and pounding construction noises from inside our room. We asked a number of hotel employees what was going on and no one knew. So, we went to breakfast... hoping the noise would stop soon. When we came back to the room, the jack hammering was still going on. We called the front desk and were assured that today was the only day the construction would be happening. Even from the hammock that we liked so much, we could hear the jack hammering. So, we tried to stay away from the room for the day. We went to explore the other parts of the hotel and wandered along the beach - collecting many pretty shells along the way. The sea urchin shells and sand dollars that were still whole were very unique and in good condition.

To us, the set dinner menu in the main restaurant was inedible, so we switched to the hotel's Italian restaurant and had an enjoyable meal. At the table next to us were four people from Britain. Seth swore that the one woman was famous & it looked like one of the men had also been shopping at the hotel's gift store!

We were really unhappy when the next morning the jack hammering once again startup up. We talked to the front desk before breakfast and the story was different today. They were building a new Kid's Clubhouse, so there would be jack hammering every day. We asked if there was a different room we could be transferred to and they were going to check on it. The staff's reaction to our request to move was strike three for this hotel & ultimately the reason why we left Le Touessrok. No one called us back telling us if there was another room to move to or not. We had to go again to the front desk and complain. We couldn't understand why anyone would put up with such noise. To us it meant that we were unable to go back to our room during the day for naps. This was especially bad one day when it was raining.

After we found another hotel to move to, we informed the front desk that we were checking out the next day. There were three things we wanted to do before leaving: search for shells on a rocky island that we could wade out to, visit the Il aux Cerfs island and eat at the hotel's Indian restaurant. We did all three on our last day.

The small rocky island was PERFECT to search for shells on. We waded out first thing in the morning and found alot of unbroken shells. The Il aux Cerfs island was very crowded near where the boat landing was. But, we walked for 45 minutes along the beach and left everyone else behind. The walk along the beach was neat since we saw lots of sea life in the pools of water that had collected between the pools of water when the tide went out. The Indian restaurant was also alot of fun. It was at the Indian restaurant that we figured out what was wrong with Le Touessrok (besides the jackhammer). The hotel was devoid of fun. Everything was NICE, but there wasn't anything FUN about it. We noticed this since the Indian restaurant was fun and it was in contrast to the rest of the hotel's facilities.

So, it was with no regret that as the jackhammer started up the next morning, we checked out, got in a taxi and headed across the island to the Colonial Beach hotel - a hotel with no dress code and a much more affordable price tag! The Colonial Beach hotel was not luxurious at all. The two places can be contrasted by the people we saw at the pool. At Le Touessrok as we were leaving, we saw a young woman with a perfect body laying on the edge of the infinity pool wearing only a G-string bikini. As we arrived at Colonial Beach, we saw two ladies sitting in rattan chairs drinking fruit juice who were older and were not slim by any stretch of the imagination. Even so, we had much more fun at Colonial Beach than we had at Le Touessrok.

At Colonial Beach, we spent days & days reading on our beach chairs. The unbroken view of ocean, ocean and more ocean was fantastic. We were not alone on the beach. There were friendly dogs who often came to lay at our feet. There were also kitties who came to visit us at our door. One day we went for a long walk down the beach. Two of the dogs came with us. Also on the beach were people selling various goods like necklaces, carved trinkets, sarongs, T-shirts, spices and more. I wouldn't say they were insistent that you buy something, but they did like to talk to you alot!

The water was clearer than on the East side of the island and there was a reef off the shore, so we went snorkeling a few times. However, the temperature was sortof cold and it was no where near as spectacular as the Maldives, so the underwater cameras we had bought in Singapore did not get used much.

The hotel was brightly pained in pastel colors and had different decorations for the nightly dinner theme. The food was all buffet style and generally good. We always tried to sit by the window for breakfast and feed the birds. One day, I even brought a baggie with so that I could take some sausages back for the kitties. Unfortunately, the kitties didn't get that much once the doggies realized what I had.

Another couple at the hotel came back one day with big shopping bags and suggested that we go shopping at a really cheap market. So, the next day, we took a taxi to the market. On the way, we passed the brand new Radisson hotel and the taxi driver explained that it had just opened two weeks ago. This was odd, since I had tried to get a reservation at the Radisson originally, but they had told me they weren't open yet. The drive to the market down was nice since we got to see the capital of Mauritius and much more development besides rural huts.

The market was mostly fruits and vegetables, but the T-shirts they did have were really cheap! Our taxi driver wasn't at the taxi when we returned, so we decided to explore the local mall. Inside they had a clothing store called "Tara". We had to buy some clothes with labels that said "Tara" inside - so that was alot of fun.

On the way back to the hotel, we asked our driver if we could stop at the Radisson hotel to have a look around. As soon as we saw the lobby and took a tour of the guest rooms, we made up our mind to switch. So, for the last two nights of our Mauritius vacation, we lived in luxury again. The room type we requested was not finished yet, so we were upgraded to a suite. The best two things about the suite were the balcony and the whirlpool. The balcony was hugs and had a view of both the ocean and mountains. There was one day though that the burning smell from the nearby sugarcane made us want to close all the windows and not go outside. But, that was OK since the whirlpool was where I spent most of my time! We also tried out the hotel's sauna, massage and steam room facilities - all very nice!

We really liked staying at a hotel that wasn't officially open yet. The price was discounted and all the staff were a bit unsure still about their jobs and you could tell they were all trying really hard.

All in all, we had a very relaxing vacation that, while it wasn't the Maldives, it was a tropical getaway.

Photo Album
This is a nice image of paradise. Shaded by the sun, reading while looking out over a sandy beach and blue water. There is even a palm leaf draping down in the photo. 

For more photos of paradise, see our immell.com photo album!

Category Rating Comments
Overall Experience 7 Mauritius was nice, but it did not compare with the Maldives. We are just so spoiled by the Maldives that we don't know if we'll ever find a better beach destination. We would recommend staying on the west side of the island. On the west, the weather was warmer and we saw gorgeous sunsets.
Ease of Journey 6 Tokyo -> Singapore flight was 7 hours 
Singapore -> Mauritius flight was another 7 hours
Accommodation - Le Touessrok = 4 
The October 1998 British edition of Conde Nast Traveler listed this hotel as the highest scoring hotel in their reader's travel awards 1998. Thus, we had high expectations and were willing to pay a high price to stay in a #1 hotel. We were GREATLY DISAPPOINTED with Le Touessrok. While everything was nice - there was nothing extra special about it and once the jack hammering started on Monday morning, the hotel became very unacceptable to us. We left. 
Colonial Beach = 8 
We picked this hotel because it had vacancy and didn't have a dinner dress code. The standard of accommodation was down about 4 stars from Le Touessrok, but we enjoyed ourselves here much more than we did at the expensive, luxury hotel. The friendly cats and dogs on the beach were healthy and very happy to see you. The beach had a gorgeous view and exceptional sunsets. 
Radisson Plaza Beach Resort = 9 
The fact that we were the first people to stay in room 310 was very kool! 310 is a suite with a whirlpool bath and huge balcony with views both out over the ocean and back towards the mountains. The hotel was not officially opened when we stayed there, so that only added to the koolness.
Activities 7 The general laying around, reading and relaxing that we did was needed. Seth even commented about how Tara lost the dark circles under her eyes part way through the trip. The one activity that stands for Tara is soaking in the whirlpool in our room at the Radisson. This activity rates a 10+.
Coolness 8 A kool destination just by the sheer fact of how far it is away from America.
Tourist Info
Le Touessrok - 230+419-2451, http://www.touessrok.com -- We DO NOT recommend this hotel
Colonial Beach Hotel (where we had a lovely time and spent only 13,595)
Radisson Plaza Beach Resort - 203+204-3333