South Mauritius: best hotels and beaches for a holiday

South Mauritius is a holiday for those who seek quiet, nature and privacy away from the tourist bustle. Southern Mauritius is the wild, untouched beauty of a tropical island. There is no mass development here as on the north coast, no noisy Grand Baie nightclubs and no shopping centres of Flic-en-Flac. The main wealth of the southern part of the island is sheer basalt cliffs, endless sugar cane fields, relic forests and secluded beaches. Where to stay in the south of Mauritius? Let's talk about the popular resorts and coastlines.

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Bel Ombre area

Bel Ombre is not just an area, but a giant historic estate of 2,500 hectares, a former 19th century sugar plantation. All hotels here are united by shared infrastructure: the beach club C Beach Club, two championship golf courses, a nature reserve and a 19th century château with an exclusive restaurant. In Bel Ombre there are several good resorts with luxurious service.

Heritage Le Telfair Golf & Wellness Resort

The hotel is part of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World association and has impressive colonial-style architecture: white wooden pavilions with lace balconies, shutter windows and high ceilings. Guests have a personal butler service around the clock.

The hotel has direct access to two world-class golf courses. The Seven Colours Spa Millesime offers wellness and relaxation through exclusive treatments, and the Baby Timomo kids' club accepts even the youngest guests from 35 months old. The resort restaurants serve French and pan-Asian cuisine.

Heritage Le Telfair Golf & Wellness Resort

Heritage Awali Golf & Spa Resort

A stylish hotel with African motifs that invites guests to enjoy a carefree All Inclusive holiday.

The rooms face the tropical garden or the pool, and each has a spacious terrace. The huge Seven Colours spa centre is designed like a real African village, with treatment huts among the tropical garden. Excellent conditions for active leisure. The resort has three pools, a tennis court and even footgolf. The Timomo and Friends kids' club offers not only entertainment but also educational activities: cooking, sports events and more.

Five restaurants with different world cuisines, themed barbecue dinners outdoors by a live fire, accompanied by African drums and traditional dances. A bonus of the All Inclusive package is French champagne throughout the day.

Heritage Awali Golf & Spa Resort

Heritage The Villas

This is a completely different holiday format within the same estate. There are no common corridors, no restaurant queues and no entertainment programmes by the pool. Only your own villa, your own pool and your own pace of life. The estate infrastructure includes restaurants, a spa, a beach and golf.

Guests have spacious residences with 2, 3 or 4 bedrooms, scattered across 200 hectares of tropical gardens around the golf club. Each villa has a private pool with a terrace, a spacious veranda overlooking the garden or the golf course, its own kitchen and a large living room.

Each villa comes with a personal butler, and guests are provided with golf carts to move around the estate. Full access to all restaurants, spa centres, golf courses and beach clubs of both Heritage hotels.

Heritage The Villas

Kaz'alala Hosted B&B

The boutique guesthouse Kaz'alala for a stay in Bel Ombre is a unique offer of the estate. This is a completely new format for the south of Mauritius. The rooms are located in restored houses where sugar plantation workers once lived. The walls that remember the 19th century are now painted in bright colours and filled with new life.

Guests of Kaz'alala have access to the C Beach Club with its restaurants, bars and sun loungers on the white sandy beach, as well as the Heritage golf courses.

Kaz'alala Hosted B&B

Sofitel So Mauritius

A modern resort with an emphasis on privacy and closeness to the nature of southern Mauritius. Wide sandy beaches, minimalist architecture and a relaxed holiday rhythm. Sofitel So offers stylish rooms and villas with open bathrooms and terraces surrounded by a garden. Natural interiors and panoramic windows create a feeling of complete unity with nature.

The infrastructure includes villas with private pools. A shared infinity pool, SO SPA with signature treatments, a fitness room and several restaurants with international cuisine. For active leisure - kayaks, snorkelling equipment and walks around the lagoon.

Sofitel So Mauritius

Shanti Maurice - A Nira Resort in the Chemin Grenier area

A premium resort for a calm and comfortable holiday by the ocean. Spacious suites and villas with terraces and private pools are surrounded by tropical greenery and separated by high coral stone walls that provide maximum privacy.

The main feature of the hotel is the Shanti Spa complex, one of the largest on the island, with Ayurveda, yoga and recovery programmes. If you plan to mix the beach mood with active activities - Shanti Maurice has tennis courts, a fitness room and water activities in the lagoon.

Gastronomy is represented by three restaurants with international cuisine, Mauritian cuisine and a superb selection of seafood. The traditional cuisine at La Kaze Mama is impressive, where vegetables, fruits, greens and herbs from its own garden are used in cooking.

Shanti Maurice - A Nira Resort

Beaches in the south of Mauritius

Forget about the crowded beaches of the north with their first-line restaurants and three rows of loungers. Here the coast is wild, almost untouched: black basalt cliffs, sheer bluffs, the roar of the open ocean and beaches where you can spend a whole day in privacy.

Bel Ombre Beach

The beach in Bel Ombre is one of the most well-kept and calm. It is the calling card of the south coast of Mauritius. The entry into the water is gentle and sandy. Thanks to the reef, the waves here are minimal, which makes the beach excellent for snorkelling.

Infrastructure: C Beach Club beach club (restaurants, bars, sun loungers, water activities). Available to guests of the Heritage and Kaz'alala hotels. Free parking.

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La Prairie Beach

La Prairie Beach impresses with the incredible landscape around it. Right at the water's edge begins a wide lawn of green grass - a rare sight for a tropical coast. In the background are the turquoise lagoon and the majestic Le Morne mountain. It is from here that you get perhaps the best view of this symbol of Mauritius on the whole island.

The lagoon is shallow and warm, which makes La Prairie a great place for calm snorkelling and for holidays with children. The bottom is sandy, without stones or sea urchins. There are almost no currents.

Infrastructure: minimal. Free roadside parking, sometimes one or two food stalls with local food.

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Pomponnette Beach

Pomponnette is perhaps the most photogenic wild beach in the south. It is located next to the village of Riambel and stretches for almost two kilometres along the coast. The sand here is white and fine, and the water is in all shades of turquoise and emerald.

The lagoon is fairly wide and protected by a reef, but the depth increases faster than at Bel Ombre. The beach is suitable for snorkelling - by the reef you can see sea turtles, surgeonfish and even small rays. There is a riding club here that offers horseback rides by the water's edge.

Infrastructure: minimal. A small parking area at the entrance. The riding club is a few minutes away on foot. Horse rides at sunset are especially popular. This pleasure costs about 70-90 euros per hour, but the impressions are incredible.

Riambel Beach

Riambel is two and a half kilometres of untouched coast, where there is not a single hotel, not a single restaurant, not a single sun lounger. Only white sand, casuarina trees and the ocean. The lagoon here is shallow and calm, but the bottom is rocky in places - coral shoes are recommended. In some sections the entry is fully sandy and safe for children.

Infrastructure: almost absent. A small parking area at the entrance. No restaurants, no water gear rental.

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Gris Gris Beach

There is no turquoise lagoon here, no coral reef and no calm water. This is the southernmost point of Mauritius, where the reef is completely absent, and the open Indian Ocean hits directly against the rocks. The waves here are huge. They crash onto the black cliffs, throwing columns of white foam to the height of a two-storey house.

Gris Gris is not a place for a beach holiday, because the currents here are dangerous, and swimming is strictly forbidden. But it is one of the most impressive places of wild nature in Mauritius.

Near the main cliff is the famous Roche Qui Pleure, or "weeping rock". A path along the edge of the cliff leads to it. Spray reaches the viewing platform.

Infrastructure: viewing platform with protective railings, a small parking area, several stalls with food and drinks at the entrance.

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Souillac Beach

Souillac is a small fishing town in the far south, and its beach looks nothing like glossy postcards. This is a shore with dark sand, basalt boulders and heavy surf. There is a coral reef here, but it lies far from the shore, so the waves come in almost at full strength.

You can swim here, but only on days when the ocean is calm, and only in places pointed out by locals. Near the beach are the ruins of an old colonial bridge and the scenic Telfair Garden - a small park with giant banyan trees and benches overlooking the ocean.

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How to choose an area for a holiday in the south of Mauritius

Bel Ombre. The south coast of Mauritius is noticeably different from the north and west, so it is important to understand in advance which holiday format is closer to you. The south is not about active nightlife and entertainment, but about nature and calm. If you are looking for maximum comfort, developed infrastructure and access to restaurants, golf and spa - choose Bel Ombre. This is the most developed part of the south, while still keeping a feeling of privacy. It is convenient here for both couples and families.

Chemin Grenier. For a more private and relaxed holiday, hotels in the Chemin Grenier area are suitable, especially Shanti Maurice. A quiet part of the island with a minimal number of tourists, where the main focus is on villas, spa and personalised service. This option is more often chosen for a reset surrounded by the tropics.

If you plan to explore nature, it is better to consider accommodation closer to the south-western part of the island, for example Le Morne, La Gaulette or Tamarin. From here it is convenient to get to many natural attractions of Mauritius, including the national park, waterfalls and viewpoints.

The south coast is ideal for travelling by car: the distances are short, and the roads pass through some of the most scenic landscapes on the island. But it is important to take into account the features of the beaches as well, because the south of Mauritius is mostly open ocean, with waves and currents.

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