The Ultimate 3-Week Mauritius Road Trip Itinerary

The Ultimate 3-Week Mauritius Road Trip Itinerary

This is our exact route that we followed for our recent Mauritius trip – you can find the whole video series on YouTube.

If you are planning a trip to Mauritius and want to experience the island’s true beauty, then a road trip is the best way to do it. Not only will you get to see the stunning landscapes and crystal clear waters, but you will also have the freedom to stop and explore any hidden gems along the way. We picked up our rental car from the airport and had a great time driving around the islan. Here is the ultimate 3-week Mauritius road trip itinerary to help you plan your adventure. On this route you’ll drive around the whole island, giving you a great overview of all sides that Mauritius has to offer.

Disclaimer: We use affiliate links in this itinerary, which support us without adding any extra costs for you!

Stop 1: Le Bouchon (1-2 days)

📍About the place

Not many tourists visit the small village of Le Bouchon. We chose to stay here because it’s close to the airport and we also heard that the villages in the south-east of the island offer a very local vibe. And although we didn’t have much time here we really liked it here! There isn’t that much to do except visit nice beaches in the area, but for us Le Bouchon was a great start to our road trip. The nearby town of Plaine Magnien offers a nice view into “normal” life away from the main tourist areas on Mauritius.

🏡 Accommodation

We stayed at Tibambari Guesthouse and we can really recommend it! The guesthouse is run by a lovely family, the rooms are nice and clean and the property is beautiful (incl. a nice pool). You can get a glimpse of what Tibambari guesthouse is like in our first video of our Mauritius road trip, which you can find here.

💡 Our tips

We visited La Cambuse Public Beach, which we liked and we also enjoyed some delicious (and very cheap) Faratas at in the town nearby called Plaine Magnien.

Stop 2: La Gaulette (3-4 days)

📍About the place

We drove from Le Bouchon to La Gaulette and stop two on our road trip turned out to be one of our favourites! Not only because of our amazing accommodation, but in general the vibe in the south of Mauritius is very relaxed and less touristy, which we enjoyed. We loved spending a few days at Le Morne public beach, which is beautiful and having Le Morne mountain to look at 24/7 is a great bonus around the area of La Gaulette.

🏡 Accommodation

In La Gaulette we stayed in an apartment that offers one of the best views that we’ve ever had. The apartment, which has a big terrace in addition to a roof top you can chill on, offers amazing views of Le Morne mountain, as well as the town of La Gaulette and the nearby island of Île aux Benitiers. The apartment is called Fullmoon Apartments & Studio on Booking.

💡 Our tips

We asked the local fishermen at the dock in La Gaulette to drive us by boat to the very close by island of Île aux Benitiers. You can also do this tour with commercial tour providers on bigger boats, but we loved this more private way of exploring the island. You can watch the video of our experience here. For a cheap and tasty lunch or dinner head to Chez Bhim for some fried noodles. From here we also visited Black River Peak national park to hike up to the highest peak on Mauritius. After the hike we also checked out the rum distillery of Chamarel, which we can recommend and you can also easily visit the famous 7 Coloured Earth Geopark from here. If you want to go on a dolphin watching trip, La Gaulette is a good place to start from.

Stop 3: Flic en Flac (2-3 days)

📍About the place

Flic en Flac is a popular beach destination on the east side of the island. Like all beach towns on the east coast, one of the best things to do every evening is enjoy beautiful sunsets at the beach, preferably with a beverage of your choice. Flic en Flac is also a good base for exploring places in the surrounding area. From here we checked out the local market in Quatre Bornes (not really that interesting though) and the dormant volcano park called Trou aux Cerfs (interesting and offers great views!). You can find the video about our time in Flic en Flac here.

🏡 Accommodation

In Flic en Flac we stayed in an AirBnB, which we unfortunately can’t recommend, because we had some issues with it being very warm and damp. But you can find lots of other apartments in this town or stay in one of the many beach side resorts.

💡 Our tips

For great local Creole food in a lovely setting, head to the Creole Shack. If you’re spending a day at Flic en Flac public beach also be sure to check out this great Farata street food stall (delicious pancake filled with tasty curries).

Stop 4: Port Louis (1-2 days)

📍About the place

Our next stop after Flic en Flac was the capital of Mauritius – Port Louis. Port Louis is very busy and it can get a bit chaotic, so people either love or hate this place. Many tourists skip visiting Port Louis and just head directly to the beach, but we liked spending a few days exploring the town and its food. Especially exploring Chinatown and the Central Market in Port Louis makes for a great day trip.

🏡 Accommodation

You’ve got many options on where to stay in Port Louis. We wanted to stay in the middle of Chinatown, so we opted for Kirin Guesthouse and Restaurant. This guesthouse isn’t very fancy or special, but as we mainly spent our days walking around town, it got the job done.

💡 Our tips

For some inspiration on where to eat in Port Louis, we filmed a street food tour video in Port Louis, which you can find here. We also spent half a day hiking up Le Pouce mountain, which is a 30 minute drive away from Port Louis. Hiking was definitely needed after our street food tour and the views from the top are amazing. You can find the video about our hike here.

Stop 5: Trou-aux-Biches (3-4 days)

📍About the place

If we could only visit one beach town on Mauritius on our next trip we’d probably stay in Trou-aux-Biches. This beach town has a very relaxed atmosphere, great food options (incl. some of the best street food stalls at the beach), as well as some of the nicest sand and water that we found on the island.

🏡 Accommodation

A part of why we enjoyed Trou-aux-Biches so much was also the fact that we had a great accommodation. We stayed at Easy Stay Residence, which offers nice rooms, good breakfast and a private access to the public beach, which was nice! The owner and staff is super friendly and the location is perfect.

💡 Our tips

We opted to go on a dolphin watching trip, organised by the owner of our accommodation and we had an amazing experience (you can find the video here)! The street food stall we liked the most at the public beach is called BluVital and it offers great Faratas, as well as delicious Biryani. For a more fancy meal head to Le Pescatore, which serves delicious fish dishes.

Stop 6: Grand Baie (3-4 days)

📍About the place

Grand Baie is the most popular tourist destination on Mauritius and some people love this place and some prefer the less touristy towns. We ended up liking Grand Baie, as it offers a good mix of busy tourist town, great local food options, nightlife, as well as great surrounding beaches. You can find a video of our first impressions of Grand Baie here. The bay of Grand Baie is indeed beautiful and the town is a great point from which to explore the islands in the north of Mauritius (which we didn’t get around to unfortunately).

🏡 Accommodation

We stayed at Azur Paradise, which is a decent hotel in a good location. It’s not very fancy, but we could easily explore the town on foot from here. Of course, a popular option in Grand Baie is to stay at one of the many resorts in the area, which can get very expensive however.

💡 Our tips

Definitely check out the street food stalls at the beach in Grand Baie, as they offer delicious food at very reasonable prices, even in such a popular tourist town. We actually did a $10 challenge here in Grand Baie which a lot of fun – and you can find the video here. For a nice Creole lunch check out La Rougaille Creole. We can also recommend heading to the beautiful Mont Choisy Beach, which we really enjoyed!

Stop 7: Quatre Cocos (3-4 days)

📍About the place

We can’t explicitly recommend the town of Quatre Cocos, because we didn’t really spend a lot of time here. We mainly stayed in this area because on this stop of the road trip we found a good offer on a beach resort. The east side of the island is the least visited side of Mauritius and if you’re looking for a more “local” experience you can find lots of smaller towns here to check out. We also found that the east side offers some good hotel deals, as it’s not as popular as the west side of Mauritius.

🏡 Accommodation

We found a good deal for Seasense Boutique Hotel & Spa, which we enjoyed a lot! However you can find many other resorts and hotels on the east coast, so we’d look for any deals out there that offer an attractive price.

💡 Our tips

The east side of Mauritius is a great place from which you can take a ferry to the popular island called Île aux Cerfs. It’s supposed to be very beautiful, but also very touristy (we didn’t get around to visiting unfortunately).

Stop 8: Mahebourg (1-2 days)

📍About the place

We really enjoyed the short time we had in Mahebourg, as it’s a beautiful and much more relaxed town than Port Louis, for example. You can find some nice buildings, shops and restaurants in Mahebourg and as it’s close to the airport it makes for a great stop before heading back home.

🏡 Accommodation

We stayed at Auberge Le Saladier, which turned out to be the cheapest accommodation on our whole road trip. The rooms are very basic, but the owners are super nice and it’s centrally located.

💡 Our tips

From Mahebourg we visited the Manioc Biscuit factory H. Rault, which offers an interesting tour into its biscuit manufacturing process (incl. tasting). We also drove to Blue Bay for some of the best snorkelling on the island. In Mahebourg we also tried what some people describe as the best Biryani (Indian rice dish) on the whole island. It’s served at Pyramid Snack and we can confirm that it’s very delicious!

If you haven't seen our Mauritius video on YouTube yet, you can start the whole series here: