Berlitz Pocket Guide Mauritius (Travel Guide eBook): (Travel Guide eBook)

By Berlitz

Berlitz Pocket Guides: iconic style, a bestselling brand, this is the quintessential pocket-sized travel guide to Mauritius, which now comes with a bi-lingual dictionary 


Plan your trip, plan perfect days and discover how to get around - this pocket-sized guide with new bi-lingual dictionary is a convenient, quick-reference companion to discovering what to do and see in Mauritius, from top attractions like Kestrel Valley, to hidden gems, including Ile Aux Cerfs. This will save you time, and enhance your exploration of this fascinating country.


·       Compact, concise, and packed with essential information, this is an iconic on-the-move companion when you're exploring Mauritius
·       Covers Top Ten Attractions, including Chamarel Waterfalls and Belle Mare Beach and Perfect Day itinerary suggestions
·       New bi-lingual dictionary section makes this the perfect portable package for short trip travellers
·       Includes an insightful overview of landscape, history and culture
·       Handy colour maps on the inside cover flaps will help you find your way around
·       Essential practical information on everything from Eating Out to Getting Around
·       Inspirational colour photography throughout
·       Sharp design and colour-coded sections make for an engaging reading experience

About Berlitz: Berlitz draws on years of travel and language expertise to bring you a wide range of travel and language products, including travel guides, maps, phrase books, language-learning courses, dictionaries and kids' language products.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Insight Guides
• Release date: Mar 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781785731778

Berlitz

Make the most of your time on Earth with the ultimate travel guides

Book preview

How To Use This E-Book

Getting Around the e-Book

This Pocket Guide e-book is designed to give you inspiration and planning advice for your visit to Mauritius, and is also the perfect on-the-ground companion for your trip.

The guide begins with our selection of Top 10 Attractions, plus a Perfect Itinerary feature to help you plan unmissable experiences. The Introduction and History chapters paint a vivid cultural portrait of Mauritius, and the Where to Go chapter gives a complete guide to all the sights worth visiting. You will find ideas for activities in the What to Do section, while the Eating Out chapter describes the local cuisine and gives listings of the best restaurants. The Travel Tips offer practical information to help you plan your trip. Finally, there are carefully selected hotel listings.

In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.

Maps

All key attractions and sights in Mauritius are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map], tap once to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

Images

You’ll find lots of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of Mauritius. Simply double-tap an image to see it in full-screen.

About Berlitz Pocket Guides

The Berlitz story began in 1877 when Maximilian Berlitz devised his revolutionary method of language learning. More than 130 years later, Berlitz is a household name, famed not only for language schools but also as a provider of best-selling language and travel guides.

Our wide-ranging travel products – printed travel guides and phrase books, as well as apps and ebooks – offer all the information you need for a perfect trip, and are regularly updated by our team of expert local authors. Their practical emphasis means they are perfect for use on the ground. Wherever you’re going – whether it’s on a short break, the trip of a lifetime, a cruise or a business trip – we offer the ideal guide for your needs.

Our Berlitz Pocket Guides are the perfect choice if you need reliable, concise information in a handy format. We provide amazing value for money – these guides may be small, but they are packed with information. No wonder they have sold more than 45 million copies worldwide.

© 2019 Apa Digital (CH) AG and Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

Table of Contents

Mauritius’s Top 10 Attractions

Top Attraction #1

Top Attraction #2

Top Attraction #3

Top Attraction #4

Top Attraction #5

Top Attraction #6

Top Attraction #7

Top Attraction #8

Top Attraction #9

Top Attraction #10

A Perfect Day In Mauritius

Introduction

The people

Flora and fauna

Sugar, tourism and beyond

A Brief History

Early settlers

Arrival of the Dutch

French colonisation

British colonisation

Independence

Modern Mauritius

Historical landmarks

Where To Go

Port Louis

The waterfront

Old Port Louis

Outside Port Louis

The north

North from Port Louis

Grand Baie

North from Grand Baie

Northern offshore islands

Pamplemousses and the Sugar Museum

The east

Belle Mare to Île aux Cerfs

Mahébourg to Blue Bay

The south

Black River Gorges National Park

Bel Ombre to Souillac

The west

South from Port Louis

Tamarin

The plateau towns

Rose Hill–Beau Bassin

Quatre Bornes

Vacoas–Phoenix

Curepipe

Rodrigues

Port Mathurin

Around Port Mathurin

Inland from Port Mathurin

The south

The east

What To Do

Sports

Water activities

Land-based activities

Other activities

Nightlife and entertainment

Shopping

Children’s Mauritius

Calendar of events

Eating Out

What to eat

Indian

Chinese

Creole

Desserts

Rodriguan specialities

Where to eat

Drinks

Reading the Menu

To help you order...

Menu reader

Restaurants

Port Louis

The north

The east

The south

The west

Plateau towns

Rodrigues

A–Z Travel Tips

A

Accommodation

Airport (see also Getting there)

B

Bicycle hire

Budgeting for your trip

C

Car hire (see also Driving)

Climate

Clothing

Crime and safety

D

Disabled travellers

Driving

E

Electricity

Embassies and consulates

Emergencies (see also Medical care and Police)

G

Getting there (see also Airport)

Guides and tours

H

Health and medical care

L

Language

LGBTQ travellers

M

Maps

Media

Money

O

Opening times

P

Police

Post offices

Public holidays

R

Religion

T

Telephones

Time zones

Tipping

Toilets

Tourist information

Transport

V

Visas and entry requirements

W

Websites and internet cafés

Weights and measures

Recommended Hotels

Port Louis

The north

The east

The south

The west

Plateau towns

Rodrigues

Dictionary

English–French

French–English

Mauritius’s Top 10 Attractions

Top Attraction #1

Shutterstock

L’Aventure du Sucre Museum

Get a taste of the island’s sugar-producing heritage at this fascinating museum. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #2

Fotoseeker

Belle Mare beach

The stuff of daydreams: white sand, palm trees and warm, turquoise waters. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #3

Corbis

Kestrel Valley

Its forests and trails beckon nature-lovers. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #4

Shutterstock

Black River Gorges National Park

Dramatic mountain vistas unfold. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #5

Shutterstock

Le Gris Gris

Huge waves crash against a wild coast. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #6

MTPA

Chamarel Waterfalls

This dramatic cataract tumbles from the mountains. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #7

Shutterstock

François Leguat Giant Tortoise and Cave Reserve

See endemic plants and a colony of giant tortoises in Rodrigues. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #8

MTPA

Île aux Cerfs

Clear waters off this tiny island make for great snorkelling. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #9

MTPA

Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanic Gardens

An impressive showcase for tropical plants. For more information, click here.

Top Attraction #10

MTPA

Eureka Mansion

A handsome colonial gem in a tropical garden setting. For more information, click here.

A Perfect Day In Mauritius

9.00am

Breakfast

Get off to a good start, away from the hustle and bustle of town, with a full English breakfast at Lambic on St Georges Street. If it’s nice weather you can sit outside under the shade of the mango trees and sip your coffee.

10.00am

Green spaces

Walk breakfast off with a stroll through Company Gardens, see the Royal Palms in Place d’Armes leading up to Government House or people-watch in Bowen Square.

12.00pm

Colonial chic

Take in the colonial architecture nearby, the Treasury Buildings and Municipal Theatre, before a light lunch of Lebanese appetizers at Le Sultan.

2.00pm

Retail therapy

Make your way to Farquhar Street and test your haggling skills with pavement vendors before browsing for souvenirs in the Central Market. For fixed-price shopping take the underpass to the Caudan Waterfront and hit the Craft Market and scores of speciality shops.

4.00pm

Stamp duty

Check out the Blue Penny Museum nearby for famous portraits, fine art and philately. Cool off with a long drink on the terrace of the Labourdonnais Hotel or head to the Food Court for fast food options.

5.30pm

Sundowner

Take a free water taxi from the jetty car park across Bassin des Chaloupes to the trendy Spinnaker’s Bar at Le Suffren Hotel, order a Green Island rum cocktail and catch a magnificent sunset from the terrace.

6.30pm

Dinner

Visit Le Courtyard, an elegant restaurant at the corner of St Louis and Chevreau Streets (for more information, click here), with a shady terrace and a location in the heart of this bustling city. Taste wonderful dishes bursting with the flavours of France and Mauritius.

8.30pm

Bollywood versus Hollywood

Catch the latest English-subtitled Bollywood movies at the Cinema Klassic (tel: [phone]) or settle for a French-dubbed Hollywood blockbuster at The Star Cinema Complex (tel: [phone]) in the Caudan.

10.00pm

On the town

Try your luck on blackjack, roulette and poker tables at the Casino or prop up the bar until the last punter leaves. Otherwise plenty of taxis are on hand to take you north to the clubs and bars at Grand Baie. Best of the bunch is Banana Beach Club (tel: [phone]), a trusted hangout for live music by local jazz, rock and blues artistes.

Introduction

Mauritius has long entranced its visitors. Charles Baudelaire called it ‘the perfumed land, fondled by the sun’, while Mark Twain noted simply that ‘heaven was copied after Mauritius’. The stunning white, sandy beaches lapped by aquamarine seas earn every superlative, and thousands of modern visitors to Mauritius agree that this tiny dot in the Indian Ocean is the stuff of desert-island dreams. With much of its coastline fringed by coral reef, a landscape set off by diminutive mountains, temperatures rarely falling below 20°C (68°F) and some of the world’s finest hotels, Mauritius is a perfect year-round holiday destination.

But there is more to Mauritius than the exclusive beachside hotels that have come to be the regular haunt of celebrities and big-spenders. Stray inland and you will discover mountains, forests, rivers and waterfalls, fields undulating with sugar cane, extinct volcanic craters, tumbledown towns and villages, and hospitable locals.

Mauritius lies 805km (500 miles) east of Madagascar, one of a trio of islands, along with Rodrigues and Réunion, known as the Mascarenes. Shaped like a pear, Mauritius covers an area of 1,865 sq km (720 sq miles). The island forms the main component of the Republic of Mauritius, which also includes the much smaller islands of Agalega and St Brandon in the Carados Carajos group and the semi-autonomous island of Rodrigues.

There are three mountain ranges, courtesy of a volcanic past: the Moka range forms an amphitheatre around the capital Port Louis; the Black River chain occupies the southwest, merging with the Savanne mountains in the extreme south; and the Grand Port range lies in the southeast. Along the coast, the beaches, resorts and hotels of the north attract the majority of visitors; the west, with its fantastic sunsets and access to rugged inland areas, is fast catching up; the east is isolated and rural, but has some very luxurious hotels; the remote south is in the early stages of development.

Rochester Falls

iStock

The people

There are no indigenous people. The 1.3 million islanders are the descendants of African slaves, indentured Indian labourers and Chinese traders, resulting in all shades of skin colour, a living legacy of over 300 years of colonisation by the French and British. On this, one of the most densely populated islands on Earth, Indo-Mauritians form the majority at 68 percent, followed by Creoles or people of mixed European or African origin at 27 percent, Sino-Mauritians at 3 percent and white Franco-Mauritians at 2 percent. In Rodrigues there are some 39,000 islanders, predominantly of Creole-African descent. For most of the time the republic’s multicultural inhabitants get along in remarkable harmony.

Creole

Creole is a language that was originally created by the need for French plantation masters to communicate with their slaves, and for the slaves, who often spoke different dialects, to understand each other. Creole became the island’s lingua franca. Continuously modified by years of French and English colonisation, Indian immigration and Chinese settlers, it has become a hopelessly corrupted language that often confuses Mauritians themselves. Full of imagery and nuances, it is slightly easier to understand if you have a basic knowledge of French.

As a visitor staying in the tourist resorts you will get by without any difficulty speaking English or French, but in informal situations a few Creole expressions, such as li bon (that’s good/fine) or ki maniere (how are you) or tout correk (OK), are always appreciated. If you are in Mauritian company, you’ll find that the conversation may take place in Creole, French or English or a combination of all three.

Travelling round