Since we were spending in both rands and Mauritian rupees, I have translated everything over to dollars for simplicity. Spending on this trip also may not be exactly indicative as we were often picking up tabs for one another to keep it simple. For this reason, category spending is likely inaccurate as someone may have paid for gas and someone else picked up dinner. But I included it here anyway. Honestly, I don’t think anyone knew how much they were spending each day, but that’s the nice thing about traveling in your thirties while financially comfortable!

If you can do some head math, you can see our per diems were quite high averaging $75 per day exlcuding accommodation …BUT we were basically eating and drinking constantly the entire trip and never budgeted for anything. Also, Kruger includes $90 per person for the all day safaris and we spent $200 per person on the shark cage diving.

Mauritius in general was expensive both due to island inflation as well as to exorbitant tourist prices. The best way to save? Stick to the local stores and restaurants and avoid anything with the word “resort” in the name. But honestly, if you want a cheap beach vacation, just don’t go to Mauritius.

Trip Highlights:

– Seeing four rhinos in one day after being told we wouldn’t see any in the area we were in
– All the hilarity that happens when five funny friends travel together (cheeee-eeese)
– The leopard walking down the street!
– The snorkeling outside our place in Mauritius
– Getting all of the Big Five in just 2.5 days!
– All of the flights, cars, timing and everything went smoothly (always a bonus)
– Finally finding some fresh fish and octopus to grill (surprisingly hard for an island country)

Trip Lowlights:

– Hudson had a major neck spasm which means he and I missed diving in Mauritius, he was in a lot of pain for several days, and we had to spend a morning at the doctor
– After much waffling, we stayed at Flic-en-Flac rather than Trou Aux Biches, which I think was a mistake (more on that later)
– We got a little too tipsy at the winery and totally forgot to go see the penguins
– We didn’t get the male lions everyone wanted and I missed out on my secretarybird, but that’s a safari for you

Cape Town

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For a more detailed or action-packed itinerary to jam things into a weekend in Cape Town, you can check out this blog post.

For the most part, my friends just wanted to hang out, eat and drink, and live a little more like locals. We did some St. Paddy’s day drinking, went to brunch at Camps Bay and did the scenic drive down the coast to Chapman’s peak, but other than that, we just went to restaurants and wineries.

We hired an Uber to take us up to brunch, but then offered to pay him cash to just drive us around the rest of the day. We ended up paying him R1,500 (~$100) so it was a pretty good deal for 8 hours of driving all over the city!

The most touristy thing we did was shark cage diving in Gansbaai. Honestly, the cage diving was kind of cool, but I wouldn’t really recommend it. The visibility is often terrible (think less than 1m) and it’s quite expensive. Especially if you only have a few days in Cape Town, there is more than enough to do here. We were on the fence about going and actually rolled a die to decide. If I could do it over, I would have switched out this day just meandering around the city, checking out the V&A Waterfront, seeing the houses in Bo-Kaap, maybe a Lion’s Head hike… And the penguins!

 

Kruger + Blyde River Canyon

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For Kruger, we flew into Nelspruit (about an hour from the park), rented a van, stayed one night at Lower Sabie, and then made our way up to a house outside of Orpen Gate called Ngama Bush Lodge. The house was amazing and affordable at only R2,850 ($192) for the entire house, especially compared to the fancier options up there. The only downside was the long drive in and out of the park each day. If you can get accommodation in Kruger, I highly recommend doing that instead. We were just too late and everything was already booked out.

We did a day and a half of self drive, a full-day guided drive, and then a day driving from outside Orpen Gate to Joburg to catch our flight to Mauritius. The drive out of Orpen basically drops you right next to Blyde River Canyon, so there is no reason not to stop at the Three Rondavels lookout as well as the famous Potholes. Our local guide recommended stopping for pancakes at Harries Pancakes in Graskop, but we were still a little too full at the time.

Our only hiccup here was the rental car company didn’t have the VW van we requested and we were forced to cram into a smaller SUV. With 5 adults and two weeks worth of luggage, it was a bit of tetris, but it worked out OK. If you are heading to Kruger on a self-drive with five adults, definitely request a VW T6 Kombi or a Hyundai H1. I did extensive research beforehand and these were the best options that don’t involve squeezing somebody in the middle. Sadly, no one knows why, Kruger does not have those cool pop-top vans that other safari destinations have.

Kruger Tips:

• Lower Sabie and Crocodile Bridge are both lovely, amazing, smaller camps. Book if you can. Skukuza and Satara are “hub” camps that are super busy and should be avoided unless you’re just stopping for lunch
• While hiring a guide is definitely worth it, take advantage of self-driving at least a day. Kruger is made for self-driving and most of the guides will go on the exact same roads you’re on, unlike a lot of other safaris. If you see someone stopped, ask them what they’re looking at. Most of the sightings get shared by word of mouth!
• The park stores sell all the supplies you could need (including meat and groceries and even booze) but they have a rule that only people staying in the park can purchase alcohol. This rule was not enforced a single time, so feel free to roll the dice on that one
• If you’re driving from one camp to another, give yourself lots of time to go slow and stop. Having to rush around the park to make it into camp by closing times is never a good thing

Mauritius

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Personally, I had a LOT of trouble planning for Mauritius. There are a ton of different beaches to choose from and most of the options are super fancy all-inclusive resorts that were not what we were looking for. Our most important critera were being directly on a beach (most cheaper options are located across the street) and having access to bars and restaurants. We narrowed our options down to Trou aux Biches (pronounced true-oh-beesh) in the north or Flic-en-Flac in the west.

Flic en Flac vs. Trou aux Biches

We landed on Flic-en-Flac since it was more central in case we wanted to explore the hikes down south (which we didn’t even end up doing). We ended up driving up to Trou aux Biches to do our diving, which took about an hour through hectic port louis traffic, and honestly that beach was objectively nicer. The public beach was legit, they had sun chairs to rent for the day, and the town was cuter and more centralized as Flic en Flac is more of a long strip.

We also chose Flic-en-Flac because it was supposed to be more of a “party” town and our group really likes to drink and didn’t want to have to taxi everywhere. Everything in Trou aux Biches closes by 9pm, so having a few bars near our place seemed ideal. Unfortunately, Flic en Flac was basically dead every night anyway, and we all felt a little disappointed at what few bars we found.

Lastly, despite our accommodation Cap Ouest Apartments appearing to be beachfront, the beach was actually divided from the property with a hedge, and the beach itself was too narrow to lay out on. The snorkeling in front of our place was legit, but the snorkeling off the public beach in Trou Aux Biches was even better with some amaaaazing stag coral formations. The same company that owns Cap Ouest also has a beachfront property in Trou aux Biches, where we almost ended up staying: O’Biches Luxury Apartment.

It was a bit more expensive than Cap Ouest ($448 per night vs. $353 per night), but there appears to be an obvious reason for that! Spread out over 5 days it was only about $20 more per person per day. In hindsight, I would have 100% paid the extra to stay at O’Biches. Bonus, you can say OHHH BITCHES! the whole time you’re staying there.

Cap Ouest Flic en Flac:

Trou aux Biches:

Advice:

Stay in Trou aux Biches, go diving in Trou aux Biches, and take a taxi to Grand Baie (7km from Trou aux Biches) if you want to party. Do a day trip to the hikes in the south if you’re super keen. The landscapes down there are really stunning. Avoid Port Louis like the plague.

Other Beaches in Mauritius

Le Morne – Southwest

Le Morne is beautiful and has the iconic mountain and the kitesurfing, so if you’re coming for that, that’s where you stay. Very few bars or restaurants are available down here. Be aware that the fancy beach resorts at the end of the point have super sharp coral beaches and only one has views of the mountain from the beach, if that’s what you’re looking for. Only the Lux has views of the mountain from the beach. The better snorkeling here is reached by boat and isn’t great directly from the beach. The public beach is small, a little grassy, and there are lots of boats moored directly off the beach.

Belle Mare – East Coast

Belle Mare beach was gorgeous, we stayed one night at an adults-only resort called Solana. The snorkeling was pretty good, but also a sharp coral beach and very overpriced if you aren’t all-inclusive. While this is supposed to be one of the most gorgeous beaches on the island, the sharp corals and short beach area mean you are lounging on grass above the beach. Call me crazy, but I want some sand in between my toes.

Blue Bay Marine Reserve – East Coast

Blue Bay is a small public beach about 15 minutes from the airport in a small town. There are boats that will take you to snorkel in the marine reserve right from the beach. There are cheaper accommodation options here and amazingly blue water. A good cheaper option if you’re staying on the east coast, and also great if you need to kill some time before heading to the airport. Also, that water was SO DAMN BLUE.

Thoughts?

If you have the money, doing an all-inclusive seems to be one of the better options, even though I sort of hate all-inclusives. Sugar Beach in Flic en Flac was pretty great, and The Beachcomber in Trou aux Biches looked stunning (though they were pretty rude to non-guests). The food in Mauritius didn’t really blow me away anywhere, so you may not be missing much in terms of local flair by eating only at the hotel. Of course, the caveat there is IF you have the money. Many of them run $400+ a night BEFORE the all-inclusive.

Ultimately, I probably wouldn’t go back to Mauritius knowing that Zanzibar exists, has better beaches, is way cheaper, and has plenty of beachfront bungalow options that don’t cost $400 a night. Next up…maybe the Seychelles???

Mauritius Travel Tips:

• Many restaurants close at 2pm after lunch and don’t open again until dinner. Make sure to eat before the dead zone.
• Most tourist places take cards so you don’t need to worry too much about cash while you’re there
• Drive times are much longer than you would think for such a small island. 30km can somehow end up taking an hour. Don’t be like us: drive as little as possible.