South African Airways

The capital has maintained its characteristic old areas while smart new shopping areas have sprung up. Most interesting is the Waterfront area with a few upmarket shops and a varied row or two of restaurants. There’s the interesting Blue Penny Museum too, dedicated to the postal trade. A subway beneath the main road takes you to the old area, where stalls line the streets and a central market has luscious fruit and vegetable stalls downstairs and tourist oriented goods upstairs, including shark jaws and colourful clothes. Nearby is a fascinating Photography Museum with old cameras and projection equipment and some of the very first daguerreotypes, the forerunners of photographs, taken in 1840.

Not many tourists venture into the museums on this sunny, beach-frilled island. If you try the Natural History Museum you’ll see the world’s only dodo skeleton, because Mauritius is where they lived before exploring sailors wiped them out.

Since Mauritius is ringed by 160km of beaches, you don’t have to go far to find a coral reef. The sea is usually warm enough to make it even more delightful. Trou aux Biches is rated as one of the best snorkelling spots with the reef so close to shore that you swim out from the beach. Blue Bay Marine Park has excellent visibility and snorkelling straight from the beach. The long beach of Pointe aux Piments has a protected coral reef offshore and is the most likely place to spot sea turtles. Flic en Flac also has great snorkelling in a calm lagoon.

Casela is a lovely a nature reserve filled with birds and assorted animals. The most fun way to see them is on a quad bike, when zebra and ostrich may stroll up to you to take a closer look. There are game drive vehicles too. Don’t run over the collection of giant tortoises. Casela also has lion encounters, where you can walk with cubs and pose for a photo patting their parents.

Mauritius is steeped in rum heritage and the informative tour of Chamarel distillery ends with a heavy-handed tasting session of white gold, vanilla and coffee rums. Line your stomach first with lunch in the distillery’s Alchemy restaurant, regarded as one of the best on the island. Alchemy is well named, with the chef creating magic from ingredients including foie gras, venison and the ever-present pineapple.

With so many excellent resorts and top class hotels it’s difficult to pick the best. Some are family friendly, others are honeymoon heaven. A popular business choice and a great base for less beach-oriented tourists is Labourdonnais in Port Louis. The hotel was revamped in July 2015 and is luxurious without being snooty. There’s a pool, a gym, and the Asian-fusion restaurant Yuzu. In the lovely Brasserie Chic the seared tuna is exquisite and the chocolate truffles are so wickedly good you should go for supper even if you’re not a guest.

The economy was once reliant upon sugar, and you’ll see sugar cane fields everywhere. The Adventure of Sugar is a museum in a disused sugar factory. There are interesting interactive displays, a sugar-carrying barge to explore and a shop where you can taste 12 different variety of brown sugar. Stay for meal at Le Fangourin restaurant where the desserts, as you can imagine, are the highlight.

Golfers will love the spectacular ocean views from the island’s eight 18-hole golf courses, including the Gymkhana Club, which is the fourth oldest course in the world, dating back to 1844. You need to be a member or a guest to play there, but the other seven are attached to hotels. Water features are obviously quite a common obstacle.

Zip lining has caught on in Mauritius, with a few places letting you whizz across gullies or canyons on these exhilarating wire lines. Chazal Ecotourism Resort has 10 zip lines measuring from 60-200m across the Rivière des Galets close to some waterfalls. You take a break by the river where you can swim under a waterfall. Casela also has zip lines, including double and triple lines so you can fly with a friend.