Arriving in Mauritius

I love planning vacations.  Everyone loves a good vacation, but I also enjoy the process of planning them: figuring out where to go, what to do and how to make this one different from anything we have done before. So, it was only after poring over a lot of options that I narrowed down Le Morne in Mauritius as the destination of choice for our summer vacation.

Mauritius is a familiar vacation destination for Indians - a small island in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Africa.  This island was an important naval outpost during the colonial period and was successively ruled by the Dutch, French and the British.  Now, it is an ideal vacation spot for anyone who loves the sun, sand and a picture perfect coastline in a locale that is both exotic yet reflects its European connection from the past!



We flew in via Dubai on an Emirates flight to Sri Seewoosagur Ramgoolam international airport.  Mauritius is well-contected to Dubai and Johannesburg and we could see that Europeans and South Africans made up the bulk of tourists at the immigration counters.  We also saw more people traveling here with their children than we did in the Maldives.



Our destination: the St. Regis in Le Morne, at the south west tip of the island and about an hour's drive from the airport.  The Range Rover sped us along very good roads through fields of swaying sugarcane, the crop that brought so many indentured Indian laborers here during colonial rule.  By the time we arrived, the sun had set and it was quite dark.



Check-in was fast and our butler had settled us in our elegantly appointed room right at the edge of the beach.  It was dark and we could not see the water, but the strange thing was we couldn't hear the waves either.  I realized why only the next morning. The entire beach-front is one large natural lagoon.  The waves expended their energy on the rocks in the distance and the area closest to the beach was quiet and teeming with colored fish amongst the coral - easily visible through the clear waters.



The St. Regis is designed to look like a French colonial manor.  A large wooden structure houses the main lobby area, two of its restaurants and the lovely bar.  An adjoining building is home to one of the largest resort spas I have seen.  There is also a nice shop, a well-stocked library and a game room with air-hockey, foosball, etc., for rainy days!



The guest rooms are colonial style houses with 2 - 4 rooms each.  We had an excellent room on the beach level with a large verandah that opened directly into the sand.  We were located at the perfect spot - far enough from the busier social areas, but close enough to walk to the restaurants for dinner.  The resort was sparsely populated and we seemed to have miles of sand and water almost to ourselves during most of the week.



There is a variety of restaurants at the St. Regis serving local, Indian, Japanese, Pan-Asian and seafood.  The in-room dining menu is limited, but they offer to serve you food off the restaurant menus if you wish to have it in the privacy of your room.



I also liked the fact that unlike the Four Seasons, they have a number of complimentary water-sport activities for their guests.  You can snorkel, watch fishes in a glass-bottom boat, or even get some jet-ski for no extra charges.





Finally, the service quality was pretty good.  When I looked up TripAdvisor, I could see more complaints than I expected, and I guess a lot of them are teething problems that ought to disappear - this resort is only six months old.  For us, this turned out to a very memorable vacation.  Perfect temperatures, emerald waters, and the freshest seafood...just what we needed to forget our busy routines for a week.

Next: Dolphins and Schools of Fish