Paradise on the Cheap

Icecream at Belle Mare Story and photographs by Anthony and Mellissa Pascoe

We’ve all seen them advertised and we’ve all been tempted - those glossy ads in the weekend papers for package trips to Mauritius. Five nights at a luxury resort for an amount that may or may not be reasonable. Damn, they are tempting!

The reality is that for most families, unless you have won the lottery, saved for a long time or won a tender from the Limpopo government you are probably not going to be jetting off to Mauritius for a while. December holidays at Margate, Knysna or Hermanus probably seem much more attainable.

But that might not be true. The reality is that Mauritius can be very cheap – you just have to take a little responsibility yourself and we are here to tell you how to do it.

Accommodation

Let’s state it right from the outset - resorts are expensive. The glossy brochures of 4 and 5 star resorts with their spas, crisp linen and kids clubs have a certain appeal. There are troops of staff on hand to look after your child’s every wish, from meals to building sandcastles on the beach or learning to scuba-dive.

But where is the fun in taking a family holiday when the bonding time gets outsourced? Instead of becoming resort-bound, rather venture out to the public beaches and the small villages, discovering treasures on the way.

Every beach was an adventure for our young children. Growing up in South Africa you would think they would have had their fill of sand and sea. The reality is that our waters can be rather cold and the waves seemingly massive for young and hesitant swimmers. Staying one block away from a warm, calm, safe sea with clean soft sand just begging to be turned into a castle or a volcano, was a boon.

As lacking in glamour as it is, self-catered accommodation is the answer. We stayed in a comfortable, serviced apartment 200 meters from the beach and we paid an astounding R310 per night – for a family of four. That translates to less than R80 per person per night and suddenly your tropical island holiday becomes very affordable.

Because the island is very geared towards tourism there are lots of apartments to stay in and the owners – usually locals with second properties - are friendly and happy to bend over backwards to ensure that you have a good time.

Our accommodation included a washing machine, an endless supply of towels and a very nice lady who came and cleaned up once every second day.

Food

We soon discovered that the restaurants are expensive – almost everything is imported apart from vegetables, and not guaranteed to appeal to young palates.

Shopping for groceries is a bit like entering Checkers but with prices out of Fortnum and Masons – it’s okay if you are travelling on sterling, but painful coming from our end of the world. After one grocery shop we had French cereal, British oats, Malaysian dried fruit, Sri Lankan raisins, Californian almonds, South African milk and a packet of plums that cost more than a night’s accommodation!

The reason for the multinational imports is that ninety percent of all cultivated land in Mauritius is taken up by sugar cane. There are no cows; which means that our little dairy lovers were deprived of fresh milk, cheese and yoghurt. Delicious as Petits Filous yoghurts are, we couldn’t afford to keep buying them.

The more sensible route to feeding the hungry was to buy lovely baguettes, like the epi that is shaped like an ear of wheat, a few local tomatoes and greens and a jar of spread. Gateaux, a street-side snack of deep-fried sweet potato or bread, also went down well.

If we had known in advance we would also have arrived with staples like Marmite, peanut butter, powdered milk and drinks and muesli. Parents of picky eaters will know the value of having the never-fail two-minute noodles/cheese wedges/dried fruit rolls etc always at hand.

A steady supply of snacks and fresh bread, while not the most nutritious way to live, will prevent a meltdown in the local restaurant that serves only spicy noodles. And yes, while you may feel a tad embarrassed arriving at customs with a box of snacks and food, you will save yourself a small fortune over the course of your stay.

Getting Around

Mauritius is not big, and provided you don’t get stuck in its notorious rush-hour traffic, it takes about four hours to circle the island. But most people who go there do so for the beaches - and chilling on a beach doesn’t require a car – especially when you are staying just meters from the surf. That said, renting a car is easy and it is highly recommended; you just won’t need it for your entire stay.

Plan wisely. Arrange with your hosts to pick you up and drop you at the airport. Then put aside a few days of the trip for driving around the island, rent a car for those days and make the most of it, but for the rest of the time there is public transport and the opportunity to relax on the beaches close to your base.

Lots to do that’s free

Using your hired car allows you to explore beyond your base and the good news is that there is plenty of free or cheap entertainment. All the beaches in Mauritius are public property, and every beach looks like paradise, the only problem is that the larger resorts make access difficult.

This is easy to get around, literally. You can park at the public beach and then simply walk onto the well-maintained strips in front of the hotels. But there is not much point to this, unless the scenery is amazing, as we found at Le Morne, where an impressive mountain overlooks the west-facing beach in front of La Paradis Hotel.

The public beaches are just as good, with fewer sunburned tourists. At Flic-en-Flac beach we rubbed shoulders with young lovers who picnicked under the umbrellas and zoomed off on motorcycles, we splashed in the learner swimmer zone, where we had to prevent collisions between a five year-old in fins and a group of octogenarians keeping limber.

The quiet eastern beach of Belle Mare has knee-deep water with live coral and an abundance of little fish to entertain children and parents!

Mon Choisy in the north was another sunset spot where the large lagoon allows for water-skiing, which is a great entertainment sport when you are not the one falling on your face repeatedly. It’s also the launch site of many glass-bottom boats which provide excellent views of the fish and corals.

If the perfectly warm sea and endless blue horizons all become too much, there is plenty more to see on this small volcanic island. Eight to ten million years ago the seabed erupted and the lava flows settled into the island named after the Dutch Prince Maurice of Nassau.

A stay in Mauritius is not complete without viewing the craters that gave birth to this picturesque island. Trou aux Cerfs is the main crater near the town of Curepipe, with impressive views of dense forest on the steep walls and a murky lake at the centre.

Off the beaten track is Kanaka Crater, a bumpy ride through tea plantations and virtually impossible to find without a healthy sense of adventure and a car that isn’t yours. Having to tramp up a slippery path clouded with mosquitoes only adds to the fun. Beware that the fence at the rim has been damaged and you need to quickly take a left to find the viewpoint of an utterly private and secluded millennia-old crater.

There’s also the Black River Gorge National Park, again free, with its forests and bats and startling views of mountain and sea.

Shopping

While food may be expensive, clothing and books are dirt-cheap. Mauritius is the place to buy good brands and best sellers at prices so cheap you would think they had fallen off the back of a truck. If you have some spare cash, the shopping centres of Curepipe and Port Louis or even the tourist traps of Grand Baie offer excellent bargains.

In short, Mauritius offers an exotic getaway at very affordable prices – provided you are prepared to think for yourself, plan ahead and avoid the Venus Flytrap-like resorts that lure you in with their brochures and then suck you dry with their bar tabs and extras.

For more information on B&B accommodation in Mauritius contact: Nelima and Jay Bissessur at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

To rent a car on the Island contact ABC Car Rental, “The People with the local touch” at (http://www.abc-carrental.com/)