Overview

Cap Malheureux Beach

Cap Malheureux Beach is located in the village of Cap Malheureux, in the north part of Mauritius. This is one of the many beaches of Mauritius situated in the Rivière du Rempart district.

Cap Malheureux Beach is also known as Notre-Dame.
Cap Malheureux, or ‘Cape of Misfortune’ as one translation would be, was named after the many ships that literally hit the rocks just outside the north coast. Cap Malheureux is also the spot where the English invasion forces landed in 1810 to attack the French.
Today, the village is a quiet place and mostly known for its red roofed church, the Notre Dame Auxiliatrice. To be honest, beyond visiting the church, there is little else to see and do here. Should you forget to take a picture of it, the red roof wonder can be found on postcards in virtually any store across the island.
The builders of the church chose the location carefully, and it is difficult to find a more picturesque spot in the north. The view of the distant Coin the Mire is stunning, the bay is shallow and sandy, and the water is as colourful and clear as ever.
Despite these positives, few visitors would class Cap Malheureux beach as a beach as such, and while it is true that the waters are perfectly fine for a quick dip, the sandy areas are indeed limited in size. Also, it is worth mentioning that the Cap Malheureux fish landing station is located nearby, and it is not uncommon to find fish offal around the beach here.
Still, the beach sports clean public restrooms and decent snack food, especially at weekends when competition is fierce. For a sit down meal, along with an unbeatable view of Coin de Mire, try the three storey restaurant Le Coin de Mire, right opposite the church. Don’t expect gourmet food (or prices for that matter), but the service is friendly, and the view from upstairs is hard to beat.
For the true beach bum, there is a well kept secret about Cap Malheureux, and it lies a brisk three minute walk to the northwest, on the other side of the black rocks: Pointe aux Roches beach.
Here you will find a longer, wider, more quiet beach, and for some obscure reason – not a single tourist in sight.

Pereybere Beach

Pereybere Beach is located in the village of Pereybere, in the northwest part of Mauritius. This is one of the many beaches of Mauritius situated in the Rivière du Rempart district.

Situated between Grand Baie and Cap Malheureux in the north, the lively Pereybere Beach is never far from anything. There is plenty of self catering accommodations in and around Pereybere, and this has made it a popular alternative to the more upmarket resorts around Grand Baie and Pointe aux Canonniers in the northwest.
For the beach enthusiast looking for peace and quiet, Pereybere beach will be a disappointing experience. Despite the fine sand and crystal clear waters, the beach itself is simply too small, considering the number of visitors that come here every year. At a mere 150 metres long, you can expect to literally rub shoulders with your fellow travellers, even if you visit the beach in low season.
If you don’t mind the crowds, or perhaps even enjoy it, Pereybere has a lot to offer. There’s a good variety of restaurants in the area, and beach hawkers from the local tour operators make sure that you can book that dolphin cruise or big game fishing trip without even having to leave your sunbed.
Right behind the beach, on the other side of the coastal road, you will find a few practical services, such as ATM/cash points, internet cafés and the odd souvenir boutique.
There is a well stocked supermarket, Store 2000, on the way to Grand Baie, and if this is not enough, the Super U Hypermarket in Grand Baie, one of the largest supermarkets in Mauritius – is only a couple of kilometres away.
The proximity to Grand Baie makes Pereybere a good location if you’re looking to sample the nightlife in Mauritius, but still don’t want to live in the middle of it all. If you don’t want to walk the 2 kilometres to Grand Baie, taxis are plentiful around Pereybere beach, just make sure you negotiate the price before getting in!

Mon Choisy Beach

Mon Choisy Beach is located near the village of Grand Baie, in the northwest part of Mauritius. This is one of the many beaches of Mauritius situated in the Pamplemousses district.

If Trou aux Biches is a wild Mauritian macaque monkey full of life, then Mon Choisy is definitely the Dodo. The big, quiet counterpart, that is, well, dead!
Mon Choisy beach is such a unique thing as a quiet remote beach, in one of the most populous districts of Mauritius. For almost two kilometres, you will find no hotels, no bars and no restaurants, as far as the eye can see. Not even a residential house near the beach? In one of the most populous districts of Mauritius? Correct. True story.
Mon Choisy is a deserted, forested coastline, right next to the commerical construction mayhem that is northwest Pamplemousses today. White sandy pleasure, crystal clear waters, and not a single hotel in sight. What’s the catch?
There is none. True story.
The beach is home to the same powder sand and crystal clear waters that you find in neighbouring Trou aux Biches, but that’s where the similarities stop. Apart from a small section of north Mon Choisy, there are no hotels here. No self catering accommodations or guest houses. No bars, no pubs, no restaurants. No nothing! Except for that quiet, two kilometre long white sugar beach with its inviting shallow waters and sandy seafloor.
Apart from the beach itself, the location is arguably the best benefit of Mon Choisy beach. Just forest, sand, clear waters and the tropical marine life in all its splendor – and only a few minutes away from the hustle and bustle of Grand Baie.
So why go to Trou aux Biches when you have all this at Mon Choisy? Ok, we lied. There is a catch. If you define it as a catch.
Due to the lack of hotels and other accommodations around the beach, there are few tourist operators in the area. Although you will find the odd glass bottom boat, most activities here are organised out of Grand Baie, with very little to be found at Mon Choisy beach itself.
That’s the catch. Really. If you can live without the comfort of the tourist services of Trou aux Biches, Mon Choisy is definitely where to head. The same beautiful clean waters, the same powder sand, and even the same length of the beach, but without the commercial life of Trou aux Biches.
During the peak season you will find several snack stands, burger vans, ice cream trucks and other mobile food vendors around the beach, especially at weekends, and the food quality is generally of a high standard. For the rest of the year, Mon Choisy is pleasantly quiet and free from the tourism frenzy of Grand Baie, Pereybere and other neighbouring resort and self catering areas.
You’d better hurry though! There are plans of developing the area and turn the sugarfields into resort like accommodations with residential estates in gated communities, complete with two (!) 18 hole championship golf courses. This would effectively shrink the public beach of Mon Choisy to a fraction of what it is today.
In other words, it might be wise to grab the opportunity soon, and kick back and enjoy one of the last undeveloped beaches in the north of Mauritius.

Trou aux Biches Beach

Trou aux Biches Beach is located in the village of Trou aux Biches, in the west part of Mauritius. This is one of the many beaches of Mauritius situated in the Pamplemousses district.

Trou aux Biches Beach is also known as Le Sakoa Beach.
Trou aux Biches, with its hotels, guesthouses, self catering accommodations and bars and restaurants, is a classic tourist resort per definition, but perhaps a little bit more relaxed than Flic en Flac or Grand Baie.
The beach itself is a good two kilometres long, and here you will find pretty much any water- or beach sports activities you can think of. From big game fishing and scuba diving, to beach volley and other more relaxing sports, such as a drink, a book, a beach umbrella and some of the most powderous sand in all of Mauritius.
Trou aux Biches beach shares its sand quality with only a few other beaches in Mauritius – the neighbouring Mont Choisy beach is one of them, and there are a few other beaches on the east coast and in the south with similar types of powder sand.
This does not necessarily mean that Trou aux Biches is the best beach in Mauritius, but as far as the sand goes – this beach definitely has a head start.
The sandiest part of the seafloor is the north part of the beach, close to the entrance of the public beach, but further to the south around the hotel Le Sakoa you will also find a stunning beach and crystal clear waters.
The beauty of this beach comes at a price of course. Not that the hotels or accommodations in Trou aux Biches area are particularly expensive – on the contrary, accommodation in the area is generally good value for money, and that’s the catch right there! Trou aux Biches is immensely popular, and attracts crowds not only from abroad, but also locally from Grand Baie and the neighbouring towns of Triolet and Pointe aux Piments.
This is really the only drawback, and it’s a small drawback for some, but a huge one for others. During high season, it can get crowded, despite the fact that the beach is two kilometres long. Outside of the peak season though, although still popular, Trou aux Biches beach should definitely be on your list.
The parking area sports a few snack stands and eateries with local Mauritian snack food, as well as vendors selling burgers, hot dogs, kebabs and other fast food, and there are also a couple of eateries closer to the beach.
Tip: If you are driving from the south, don’t bother following the signs for the public beach at the entrance of Trou aux Biches, as they will lead you to a rather uninteresting parking and a stop at the fish landing station, where you can overlook the beach but not access it. The main parking of the public beach is to be found at the end of town, in the north, near the road to Mont Choisy.

Belle Mare Beach

Belle Mare Beach is located near the village of Belle Mare, in the east part of Mauritius. This is one of the many beaches of Mauritius situated in the Flacq district.

Belle Mare beach is one of the more renowned beaches in Mauritius, highly popular with locals and visitors alike.
It stretches for several kilometres, from the village of Palmar and Palmar Beach in the south, past the world famous luxury resort of Lux* Belle Mare (formerly known as the Naïade Resorts Beau Rivage Hotel) and several others, all the way up to Emeraude Hotel in the north.
It is of course not a coincidence that many popular beach resorts in Mauritius are located in this area. Conveniently protected by the coral reef, Belle Mare beach is a shallow bay with fine white sand and crystal clear water, and parts of it offers some of the best snorkelling in Mauritius east coast waters.
Clean public restroom facilities are available near the SSR Recreation Centre and there are typically several snack food vendors towards the south end of the beach.
Thanks to the prescence of the Lux* Belle Mare resort, there are usually several water based activities on offer around the south part of the public beach.
The beach can get quite busy during peak season, especially in the weekends when many locals venture out for a day at the beach, but due to the sheer size of Belle Mare beach, it never really becomes a problem.
The sand and seafloor quality of Belle Mare varies greatly depending on location, but generally speaking, the north parts are rockier than the south.