Travel Guide Mahébourg

Located in the south-east of the island, in the beautiful bay of Grand Port, 45 km from Port Louis by freeway and 10 km from the airport, Mahébourg (the town of Mahé de La Bourdonnais) is neither lacking in charm nor in character. The object of future large-scale development plans, it still retains a very local soul and is rightly considered one of the most authentic metropolises in Mauritius. Strolling through the streets of the center or the maze of the big Monday market allows you to take the tempo of a city that has managed to remain very Mauritian and still offers parts of old architecture (typical Creole huts) and unchanged scenes of life. Inside the wooden stores with their past colors, an incredible jumble of objects of today and of the past is still amassed. At the back of a shop, an old dressmaker makes a costume. In the main street, the bicycle repairman is still working in his improbable workshop filled with machines and tools with a patina of time... We can't say that the city is beautiful at first sight, but it knows how to reveal its charms to the traveler who is not in a hurry..Geographically speaking, Mahébourg benefits from a pleasant opening on a string of interesting islets: the Ile aux Aigrettes, a protected piece of land sheltering a reserve of birds and endemic plants, the Ile de la Passe, known for having been the scene of the naval battle won by the French against the English in 1810, the Ile aux Fouquets, the Ile Vacoas and the Ile au Phare.