Interesting Things to Do in Port Louis Mauritius

27/04/2022 Indrani Ghose

It was a soothing wind on a clear day that welcomed us to Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius. We were on day two of our six day familiarization trip of Mauritius, thanks to the trip by Mauritius Tourism India. Before I got interested in things to do in Port Louis Mauritius, the history of how the city’s name kept changing, till it got back its original name, interested me more.

History of Port Louis Mauritius Names

Here is a bit into the history of names of Port Louis Mauritius. The town was known as Port Louis during the years 1790 to 1793. Port Louis became Port de La Montagne in 1794, but the very next year, in 1795, this name was changed to Port Nord-Ouest which stuck till 1803. When General Decaen took over as governor of the island in 1803 the town was named Port Napoléon. In 1810 when the island became a British colony, Governor Robert Farquhar gave back its original name of Port Louis to the town.

Naming, renaming, reverting back to original name isn’t a new phenomenon, I realized. It reminded me of something similar happening in my country India! So why is Yogi Adityanath being blamed for changing names? Anyways that is a different discussion, an offshoot of my thoughts that keep wandering.

Where is Mauritius?

Before we get to know more about the interesting things to do and see in Port Louis town let us find out where Mauritius is? Well, I searched this info only to find how long would be the flight duration to Mauritius from India. The beautiful island country is located off the southeast coast of Africa; distance from India is 4961 km from Mumbai, which would be six hours in flight. More about the flights to Mauritius is towards the end of the post.

La Caudan Front Port Louis Mauritius

One Day Tour of Port Louis Mauritius

Port Louis was scheduled in our itinerary during the day two of the familiarisation trip by Mauritius Tourism India. Just one day tour of Port Louis town is too little time to experience the historic town, the biggest and busiest city with many historic and colonial buildings.

Port Louis is home to the busiest commercial harbor of the country. On our way to Hotel Ravenala Attitude from the airport we sighted the great Moka Mountain Range that acts as a natural barrier to strong South East Trade Winds that can destroy/damage the port. The sight of white yachts and small ships from the restaurant where we had lunch is picture postcard perfect.

How many days do you need in Port Louis Mauritius? About 2 days would be perfect for a trip to the town and port to enjoy it in a hassle-free and leisurely manner.

Port Louis port Mauritius

Things to Do in Port Louis Mauritius

Sugar Museum of Mauritius

L’Aventure du Sucre, meaning Sugar Adventure, – the Sugar Museum, an old sugarcane factory turned museum. Sugar industry played a huge role in the development of this island nation. Sugarcane industry flourished for years, so did slavery. There were more than ninety sugar producing factories on Mauritius, only three factories presently working. L’Aventure du Sucre used to be a sugarcane factory but it was later converted into a museum in 1999. The old machines are kept for display with a lot of information on their functioning displayed beside it.

For the first time I came to know that Mauritius produces fifteen types of sugar and the quality is renowned for being extremely high.

If you are visiting Mauritius, keep this in your list of things to do in Mauritius. Time required to tour the museum can be anywhere from 1.5 hours to 3 hours depending on your interest. The museum is located near Pamplemousses Botanical Gardens.

Distance from Port Louis Port is 11 km. Address: B18 Pamplemousses MU, Pamplemousses 21001, Mauritius

Sugar Museum in Mauritius

La Caudan Front Port Louis

If leisure, entertainment and shopping are what you are looking for in Mauritius, then La Caudan Front is the place for you. Even with a mix of shops, banks, bars, casinos, cinemas, museums, restaurants, and hotels you are unlikely to get lost with your own self-guided route map of walking tours through the place. Duration of the walking tour of Port Louis Mauritius, a distance of less than half a kilometer, can take around an hour or less. There are plenty of souvenir and handicraft shops along the route. Feel free to bargain. They don’t accept credit cards so keep the cash ready.

Souvenirs from La Caudan Front Port Louis

Blue Penny Museum in Port Louis

You cannot miss this beautiful old mansion with blue windows. The museum housed in this is popular for one of the last stamps of the Blue penny and seed penny. A misprint in 1847 includes ‘Post Office’ on the stamps. It was soon changed to ‘Post Paid’. For conservation, the originals are illuminated only temporarily. Luckily our visit coincided with the time and we could see the historic stamp. If you are into philately make sure to inquire about the time when the stamps are illuminated. Sadly no photography is allowed anywhere inside the museum.

Besides the old stamps you can see the ship models, maps and sculptures. The museum is quite small but the tour time can extend beyond an hour if you intend to read all of the boards and information.

Open every day between 10AM and 5 PM, except on Sundays and public holidays.

Tickets: Adults Rs 245 and children – Rs 120.

Odysseo – Oceanarium Mauritius

It is a beautiful and interesting aquarium with detailed information about the marine life for each marine animal they have. The underwater tunnel was amazing. It has a few big sharks that were actively moving around, and sighting the open jaws was more than exciting. Definitely a must visit place in Mauritius if you are travelling with kids.

Visit can take around an hour. There is a food court and souvenir shop with plenty of soft toys. Prices are fair.

Distance from Port Louis Port is 2.31 km. Open every day – 9 AM to 6 PM.

Oceanarium Mauritius ticket price – Adults 13 to 64 years – Rs. 450, for 65 years and above – Rs. 350, for 4 years to 12 years – Rs.300.

Oceanarium Mauritius

Chateau Labourdonnais Mauritius

Mauritius has many colonial mansions with their Parthenon-style columns still standing strong. We visited the Château de Labourdonnais located 17.5 km north of Mauritius. The grand Creole mansion dates back to the 1800s. It was once owned by Christian Wiehe and his family. All the vintage furniture, dining ware they used are preserved and displayed well that give off a distinctly Victorian feel. We took a short walk through the old orchards and lush green gardens that had a good collection of exotic trees and shrubs. The gardens are home to quite a few giant tortoises.

There are remains of an old distillery. The tickets to the chateau include a tour where you can learn about the history and various techniques of production of agricultural rum.

At the tasting bar you can choose to sample the rum. Non drinkers can also choose to taste the locally-produced juices, jams, jellies, and sorbets, like I did.

At one corner of Château de Labourdonnais, just by the side of the restaurant there is a boutique and souvenir shop as well.

Distance from Port Louis port is 17.5 km.

Open timings: 10 AM to 5 PM. Tickets: Adults – 12 Euros, kids – 7 Euros.

Chateau Labourdonnais Mauritius

National History Museum Mauritius

The Museum is housed in the Gheude Castle. The façade, though worn out, looked grand. It was a French colonial mansion built around 1770. Mauritius Natural History Museum is located on the bank of La Chaux River amidst a thick growth of tall pine trees.

The displays are spread over two floors; the very first room had a huge sized painting of the extinct Dodo and the remains of the species’ bones. Having read about it in books during school days, seeing the remains of the beautiful bird was surreal! Why do invaders have to be so ruthless?

Besides the remains of the endemic species of Mauritius there are displays of information and artefacts of different colonisation periods of British, French and Dutch.

Coin collection that includes gold coins, silver Indian rupee of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb era, Chinese porcelain masterpieces, early maps, model sailing ships, paintings, household items like beds, palanquins and wooden chairs and much more are on display. One can easily spend a couple of hours here.

Open Timings: Monday to Saturday – 9 AM to 4 PM. Sunday – 9 AM to 12 PM. The museum is closed on Tuesdays. No tickets required, it is a free sight.

National History museum Mauritius

Hotels in Port Louis Mauritius

If you are planning to stay in Port Louis Mauritius you can choose from a wide range of properties. Labourdonnais Waterfront Hotel, Le Saint Georges and Le Suffren Hotel & Marina, are some of the most popular hotels for travellers looking to stay near Le Caudan Waterfront. Here I would like to highlight the Hotel Labourdonnais located right in front of the port. In the lobby I saw a board that displayed the signatures and words of praise for the hotel by world famous dignitaries who stayed there. One was by our ex Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Hotel Labourdonnais Port Louis

Restaurants in Port Louis Mauritius

During our six days road trip through Mauritius we discovered international cuisine is clearly present in the island country Mauritius. We could have food ranging from European to Chinese, Indian to Italian. They have local and internationally trained chefs using local ingredients to prepare the dishes. As food lovers you will not be disappointed in Mauritius.

In Port Louis we had sumptuous lip smacking lunch at the restaurant of Labourdonnais Waterfront Hotel.

Lunch at Labourdonnais Hotel Mauritius

Best Time to Visit Port Louis

Weather in Port Louis is moderate with no extreme summer or winter. The highest temperature on record for Port Louis Mauritius is 38.9°C, while the record for the lowest temperature is 7.2°C. It has an enviable subtropical climate, a kind of perfect beach weather for most of the year.

Mauritian currency – the local currency is the Mauritian Rupee, the currency code is MUR with the symbol ₨.

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