The St. Regis Le Morne Resort, Mauritius

Le Morne

I’d half braced myself for the kind of luxury that’s all surface and no substance. St. Regis proved me wrong almost immediately. I was barely through the door before someone appeared with coffee and a breakfast basket while my room was being readied, and that set the tone for everything that followed. My butler noticed within a day that I only drank one type of tea and had swapped out everything else in the room to match it by the next morning. Nobody mentioned it. It was just done.

The beach is one of the widest stretches I came across on the island, with enough space that you’re never negotiating for a spot and the main pool is deep enough to actually swim laps in rather than simply drift about, which was really rather nice. Dinner at Atsuko, the Japanese restaurant, was a highlight on its own merits. The real moment came afterwards: sabering a bottle of Champagne as the sun went down, staff timing it so the pop landed with the last of the light. Theatrical, certainly, but it worked – I was still thinking about it the next morning.

Rooms with a terrace or balcony are worth requesting, and Atsuko is worth booking ahead, particularly if you want a sunset table.

One&Only Le Saint Géran

Belle Mare

One&Only Le Saint Géran occupies one of the most striking settings on the island – a private peninsula with two coastlines, something most resorts simply don’t have access to. The rooms are some of the largest and best designed in Mauritius: big, beautifully finished, the sort you don’t want to leave even when you should be out exploring the rest of the property. The grounds match the ambition of the rooms, and the whole place has the feel of a grand original – open since 1975, with a considered refresh in 2017 that’s kept it current without losing its character.

This is a property to give time to. There’s enough space, enough variety and enough scale that our single night stay barely scratched the surface. Facilities for families are excellent, and the two coastlines mean there’s always a side of the peninsula working with the wind on any given day.

Shangri-La Le Touessrok

Trou d’Eau Douce

One of my personal favourites on the island, and hard to pin down exactly why – it’s just there from the moment you arrive. Two hundred rooms should feel substantial, and on paper it is, but it doesn’t read that way once you’re inside it. Six separate beaches ripple around the property, each with its own character, and a short boat ride gets you to Ilot Mangénie, a private island reserved for guests.

The Frangipani Wing, finished in its current form in October 2024, is the adults-only answer for couples who want the variety of Le Touessrok with a little more privacy – its own pool, its own butler service, suites that look straight out over open water. Mauritius’s first padel courts are here too, alongside a watersports centre based on its own island and free golf across two 18-hole courses for anyone staying five nights or more.

What stayed with me most was the staff. Guests come back year after year and, within a few hours of arriving, it’s easy to understand why. Skip the buffet dinners if you can; Tapasake, Republik Grill and Coco’s on the beach are where the kitchen does its best work.

LUX* Belle Mare

Belle Mare

A site inspection only, but one that left more of an impression than most overnight stays manage. The welcome here was the warmest of the entire trip. Everyone seemed pleased to see you and that feeling carried through every interaction afterwards.

The spa stands out for one reason in particular: every product used is natural and made locally by hand, so a routine treatment comes with a story behind it rather than just a brand name on the bottle. Down on the beach, a food truck and an ice cream parlour give the whole stretch a playful, sociable energy. At Mondo, the kids’ dining concept has food stations built at exactly the right height for children to serve themselves – a small detail, but parents stop hovering the moment they spot it.

There’s a coffee shop in the lobby that roasts its own beans, and the smell alone sets the mood for the whole entrance. Food across every venue we tried was excellent, and the flow of the property – lobby to restaurants to beach – feels natural rather than designed. It says something that a few hours of inspection left this strong a mark.

The Oberoi Mauritius

Baie Aux Tortues

I stayed in a Luxury Pavilion, and “spacious” undersells it. Thatched roofs and timber ceilings on the outside give no hint of what’s inside – a full wall of windows and patio doors floods the room with light, and the furnishings are all pale wood, which keeps things feeling current. Each pavilion has its own small patio with loungers looking over garden or ocean, and even set in rows, the planting around each one keeps things private. Four-poster beds big enough to get lost in, and sunken marble baths large enough for two. For something extra, the standalone Villas add a private pool and high ceilings. The cleverest move is giving the living room its own separate thatched pavilion – suddenly you’re not just in a larger room, you have an entire small retreat.

Watersports here are complimentary across the board: glass-bottom boat trips, Hobie cat, kayaking, water-skiing, windsurfing, paddleboard, pedalo and snorkelling trips out to Turtle Bay. For a property at this level, that’s a strong offering, and one most competitors charge for.

The detail that sets it apart from almost anywhere else on the island is what’s underfoot. The resort sits on ground that was once a French fortress, built in the mid-1700s to guard the northern entrance to what was then Baie aux Tortues. The old gunpowder store is now one of the hotel’s three restaurants. Four national monuments remain on the property – more fragments of history than a grand ruin – but the fact you’re walking past 18th-century landmarks on your way to dinner is surprisingly memorable.

Constance Prince Maurice

Poste de Flacq

A 60-acre property built around Feng Shui principles, wrapped in a natural mangrove lagoon, with 89 suites that never feel like 89 suites. I stayed in a Junior Suite with a garden view – traditional in style, dark woods and warm tones, with either a terrace or balcony depending on category. The balcony rooms are the better choice in this category: the ground-floor terrace rooms see guests crossing the gardens past them throughout the day, which takes the edge off the privacy. The overwater stilted suites were fully booked during my stay, so I only saw photographs, but they sit over the resort’s fish reserve in one of the quietest corners of the property. No direct water access, but noticeably lighter and more contemporary in feel than the garden rooms – almost a different hotel within the same one. The Family Suites work well for two adults and two children, with a separate kids’ room and its own bathroom giving everyone real space of their own. The Beach Villas were the accommodation I’d book in a heartbeat: direct beach access, small plunge pools, light and spacious, with patios big enough to spend a whole afternoon on. These felt the most special of everything I saw here.

Down in the wine cellar, a tasting confirmed what the numbers suggest – over 25,000 bottles, reportedly one of the largest collections in the Indian Ocean, and a real talking point. Beyond tastings, the space doubles as private dining or a venue for wine events, which makes it a lovely option for an anniversary or honeymoon dinner. Le Barachois, the floating restaurant, is the property’s signature experience. You reach it on wooden walkways suspended through the mangroves, lit by lanterns the whole way down, and the approach does most of the romance before you’ve even sat down. The restaurant itself sits across a series of lantern-lit pontoons and the food more than lives up to the setting. Time it for a sunset drink before dinner if you can – the light over the water at that hour will be worth the wait.

Constance Belle Mare Plage

Belle Mare

A site inspection only, but again enough time to understand exactly where Belle Mare Plage excels: space, value and one of the loveliest stretches of beach I saw anywhere on the island. The villas are the headline here – real space, real privacy, and a level of polish that lifts the whole experience above what the rest of the resort might suggest. Rooms across the board are light and well presented: Prestige rooms take a sofa bed for one child, Junior Suites comfortably hold two adults and two children, and every category comes with its own balcony or terrace. Even the lead-in rooms represent strong value.

Belle Mare beach is the kind you photograph from every angle and still don’t quite capture – calm, clear water and sand so fine it barely makes a sound underfoot.

La Citronnelle, the main buffet restaurant, is a cut above the standard resort buffet – eight live cooking stations, a dedicated boulangerie and patisserie, and a wine bar at its centre, all in a light, open space with ocean views. Indigo and LAKAZE, both right on the beachfront, were the two that stood out most: good music, relaxed energy, and an atmosphere that makes a quick lunch stretch happily into the afternoon. Indigo is the more refined of the pair, built around sushi, meat and seafood with the Blu Bar attached; LAKAZE is barefoot lunch territory – grilled fish and meat, a salad bar, afternoon tea, and a rum list that’s dangerously easy to keep ordering from. La Spiaggia, the Mediterranean restaurant under thatched roofs on the beach, wasn’t open during the visit, but the setting alone suggests it’s worth the booking. The Blue Penny wine cellar was closed too, but even a brief look round confirmed the scale – around 35,000 bottles from more than 2300 wineries, held in a space that feels surprisingly intimate against the size of the collection. Dinner only, smart dress, and a strong option for an evening out. Deer Hunter and Le Swing sit at the golf clubhouse and matter mainly to golfing guests.