Public Beaches in Mauritius
Flic en Flac, La Preneuse

Flic en Flac public beach in winter (June). .

Many of Mauritius' best beaches, whilst not exactly reserved by five star hotels - which would be illegal as all beaches in the country are public - are not easy to get onto as you have to approach along an adjacent beach or via a boat and would find no facilities available when you got there.

Flic en Flac, however, offers an easily reached, long public stretch of fine sand and calm, shallow, reef-protected water, backed by the ubiquitous casuarina trees (which whilst offering shade, do drop pointy seed pods that can be a pain). Flic en Flac is on the west coast of Mauritius like most of the best beaches and is very popular with local people on Sundays and public holidays. Scuba Diving sites near the beach are supposed to be excellent.

The surrounding area may have become overdeveloped for some tastes but Flic en Flac village does at least offer the humble independent traveller a variety of guest houses, small hotels, shops, bars and restaurants at budget prices.

La Preneuse beach.

La Preneuse, near Tamarin (which also has a good, surfable beach) on the west side of Mauritius offers softer sand than Flic en Flac, less casuarina trees dropping painful pods and calm, shallow waters, so is a great place for small kids. Various water sports are available, as are a number of food stalls in season.
The nearby town has a supermarket and plenty of restaurants. It gets very busy at weekends in season.

Gris Gris beach, south Mauritius.

Gris Gris beach in the far south of the island looks wonderful but swimming is dangerous as the beach is not protected by reefs - like the more famous beaches - up north so waves and rips can be extremely forceful and there is no one to rescue drowning foreigners.

Grand Bay town in north Mauritius

This is the town of Grand Baie/Bay, just north of Trou aux Biches. Grand Bay is lively in the evenings and encompasses several reasonable hotels, B&Bs, restaurants and bars. This town could be a good place to find budget accommodation near northwest beaches such as Pereybere.

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Trou aux Biches | Paradis | Mauritius Maps