Exploring Port Louis & Grand Baie, Mauritius

I’ve just got back from a lovely week away celebrating my 25th birthday in Mauritius, with my boyfriend and his family. Even after visiting quite a number of times, there are still areas of the country I am yet to discover. So we made it our mission one day to explore the capital, Port Louis, as well as some of the north of the island.

We set out in the morning towards Port Louis, which as you can probably guess from the name, is a port full of beautiful boats.

We strolled past admiring the yachts, and wondered how much the one that was for sale would cost. Far too much, I’m sure!

There’s a lovely precinct which opens up with a ceiling of colourful umbrellas. We stopped to get a fresh sugarcane juice, and I had mine with lemon and ginger, very refreshing!

We strolled through the area, people watching, window shopping, and enjoying the lovely sunshine.

After you come out at the end of the umbrella covered area, you can take an underpass to get through to the old market of Port Louis.

We crossed under the road and came out at the entrance to the market. Full to bursting with all sorts of fresh fruits and vegetables, some of which I had never seen before, it’s certainly an interesting place to walk through.

After all of the fruit and vegetables, there’s another area where you can find all sorts of knick knacks, from dried fish to straw hats!

I managed to get a beautiful handmade basket to take back to Dubai with me, along with some vanilla pods for baking lots of cakes!

We also stopped off for a fresh coconut, and once we’d drunk the juice the lovely man scraped out all of the young flesh for us to eat.

We walked back towards the car, stopping once again to admire all of the boats lined up on the water.

Our next stop was the northern part of the island, Grand Baie. As soon as we approached the area, I could see nothing but the most incredible turquoise water for miles.

We pulled over every few minutes just to stop and admire how beautiful it was! I think this was some of the most blue ocean I’ve ever seen, anywhere in the world. The pictures just don’t do it justice.

I did bring a bikini but in the end we decided not to swim, instead satisfying our thirst for the ocean by dipping our toes in the cool water.

We drove some more around the area, stopping again at other beaches to stretch our legs and stroll through the sand.

I still can’t get over the amazing colour of the water!

The road home took us past some beautiful mountains, and we even spotted a group of paragliders out enjoying the evening, floating down the mountainside!

Stay tuned for part two of my holiday, a surprise night in the stunning Hilton hotel in Flic en Flac!

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