Indian Ocean ports near Mauritius

Indian Ocean ports near Mauritius.

We are thinking of booking a cruise including these ports:-

Zanzibar, Mozambique Island, Madagascar (Toamasina), Madagascar, Port Reunion and Maurituius (Port Louis).

Has anyone been to these ports and if so can you tell me if there is anything near the ports, or would we need to arrange trips in most or all of those basis to get the most from the cruise?

We would be thinking of doing a post cruise stay in Mauritius, so would just stay in Port Louis on our day in port there at the end of the cruise.

I researched where I wanted to go in Mauritius and hired a taxi at the port, no problem. The cost for a taxi was reasonable. There are some nice hotels at Flic n Flac beach.

Port Reunion: One of my favourite ports. This island belongs to France and they use the euro. Prices here were on the moderate-high side. There was a car rental agency at the port. If you rent a car, there are not a lot of road signs on this island, and the maps available were very basic and not too useful. French is the language here, and I found most people do not communicate in English. I would recommend a full day island tour through the ship if it's offered if you enjoy see diverse landscapes. I often contemplate returning here to stay for a week or two.

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I researched where I wanted to go in Mauritius and hired a taxi at the port, no problem. The cost for a taxi was reasonable. There are some nice hotels at Flic n Flac beach.

 

Port Reunion: One of my favourite ports. This island belongs to France and they use the euro. Prices here were on the moderate-high side. There was a car rental agency at the port. If you rent a car, there are not a lot of road signs on this island, and the maps available were very basic and not too useful. French is the language here, and I found most people do not communicate in English. I would recommend a full day island tour through the ship if it's offered if you enjoy see diverse landscapes. I often contemplate returning here to stay for a week or two.

 

 

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Thank you very much for that information, especially about Mauritius as we want to stay there for about a week.

French is fine for us my husband did well at A level and I can cope with basic French. It is Spanish that is a problem for us, but my husband reckons he can order a beer in many languages.......... :)

Indian Ocean ports near Mauritius.

 

We are thinking of booking a cruise including these ports:-

 

Zanzibar, Mozambique Island, Madagascar (Toamasina), Madagascar, Port Reunion and Maurituius (Port Louis).

 

Has anyone been to these ports and if so can you tell me if there is anything near the ports, or would we need to arrange trips in most or all of those basis to get the most from the cruise?

 

We would be thinking of doing a post cruise stay in Mauritius, so would just stay in Port Louis on our day in port there at the end of the cruise.

We are booked on the Fred Olsen Boudicca cruise from Liverpool in October that visits those ports and we are really looking forward to seeing Zanzibar and Mozambique Island as they are new destinations for us. There are no tours as yet on the FO web site and there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of independent tours that I have found yet but I will keep looking.

We have been to Mauritius a couple of times, once as a resort holiday in Grand Baie and in 2013 on a cruise. Mauritius is quite a large island with a wide variety of scenery and some beautiful beaches. Below is my diary entry for the tours my husband and I did in 2013……

Mauritius is a large and beautiful island with a vast diversity of landscape, flora and fauna. We were there at the height of summer and it was very hot and humid with short lived but heavy showers. I did the ‘Beautiful Mauritius’ tour which included a trip to the market, a colonial plantation house, the botanical gardens and some viewing points. My husband did the ‘Enchanting landscape of Southern Mauritius’ and he has some wonderful photos of the volcanic scenery, waterfalls, the 7coloured rocks and the Black River Gorge.

• The international airport is in the south of the island and ships dock in the north at Port Louis, the capital city. It is, approximately, a 90minutes journey across the centre of the island from one to the other.

• The dock was just outside city and appears to be a new enterprise as the terminal building was a temporary marquee on the edge of a large field. There was some building work going on in the area so I’m assuming that this area will eventually become a proper terminal.

• The city seemed to be about 1½miles from the dock and not an easy walk as the land was quite rough and muddy.

• There were taxis available at the terminal.

• Port Louis has a pleasant waterfront with cafes and restaurants. There is also a vibrant local market where you bargain for souvenirs.

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We also went to Diego Suarez in Madagascar so have been to the island but not Toamasina so I can’t comment except to say that the scenery was lovely and the people were very happy to see us but the conditions of the roads, villages and tour busses were poor so don’t expect ‘first world’ conditions.

I have put the information that I have about La Reunion on a post by Tangerine Queen called Reunion Island tours.

That is the cruise we are considering, would be good for us as we live a 20 min taxi ride to the cruise terminal in Liverpool. We would be thinking of staying on for about a week in Mauritius.

Those pictures and your description sound great - thank you for posting them. Looks like Mauritius is not as expensive as we thought if we go for a studio apartment, and we would not have to buy meals all the time if we do not want to do so.

Someone has suggested Grand Baie - was it a good base? Did you hire a car, or consider doing so when there - it is often the best way to see something of a holiday base?

That is the cruise we are considering, would be good for us as we live a 20 min taxi ride to the cruise terminal in Liverpool. We would be thinking of staying on for about a week in Mauritius.

 

Those pictures and your description sound great - thank you for posting them. Looks like Mauritius is not as expensive as we thought if we go for a studio apartment, and we would not have to buy meals all the time if we do not want to do so.

 

Someone has suggested Grand Baie - was it a good base? Did you hire a car, or consider doing so when there - it is often the best way to see something of a holiday base?

Hi Tring,

Our resort holiday in Grand Baie was 20 years ago and came at the end of a hectic tour in Asia so we spent most of our time round the hotel. We did use the local bus service to get to Port Louis and we did an island tour booked through the hotel. Grand Baie has a beautiful beach and I would suspect that the village will have grown considerably since we were there.

An apartment sounds great and driving shouldn't bee too stressful once away from the capital as they drive on the left like us. Roads seemed quite good when we were there in 2013.

Hi Tring,

Our resort holiday in Grand Baie was 20 years ago and came at the end of a hectic tour in Asia so we spent most of our time round the hotel. We did use the local bus service to get to Port Louis and we did an island tour booked through the hotel. Grand Baie has a beautiful beach and I would suspect that the village will have grown considerably since we were there.

An apartment sounds great and driving shouldn't bee too stressful once away from the capital as they drive on the left like us. Roads seemed quite good when we were there in 2013.

Well, thank you again. This idea gets more enticing as time goes by, in fact we have now booked the cruise from Liverpool, so hope to see you on board (I have already made myself know on the roll call).

Cheers,

Barbara

Hi Barbara,

glad to know you have booked the cruise. I am also registered on the roll call so will keep looking there. I have just begun looking at the different ports to see what the options are. There are a few independent companies for Cadiz, probably local busses in Majorca and we are considering hiring a car in Malta as we have had resort holidays there in the past. Still not sure about Crete but will possibly do a ship's tour in Sharm for security reasons.

Enjoy your planning

Regards

Isabel

We are not happy about the ports in the med as they are all pretty run of the mill places - only one we have not visited previously (from land hol or cruise) is Iraklion, but had a land hol near chania in the east of the island a couple of years ago and hired a car - beautiful island. With so many sea days though we will just get off the ship and have fun in the med ports as they are all decent places. We do not see the point in being stuck in a vehicle if we do not need to be. Sharm is a bit worrying, not from the point of view of being in Egypt, but on the "will the port be pulled" basis, and could just end up with yet another day at sea. At least the weather will be good as the ship gets further south.