Since our South Africa safari trip in 2017, I have wanted to go back to Africa to see the Great Migration in Kenya/Tanzania. Once Kenya and Tanzania dropped their covid testing requirement, I asked Sokunna and Brian if they were up for a safari trip to see the Great Migration. Without hesitation, they said yes and Brian wanted to bring his kids too! That was how the planning got started. When I was looking for business-class flights to Africa with miles, I found Condor Airways flies to Mauritius and plenty of availability with Alaska Airlines miles. And there’s a nonstop flight between Mauritius and Seychelles with Air Seychelles so why not check off 2 more countries?
Our trip started on June 29th and with a long layover in Frankfurt, we arrived in Mauritius 2 days later on July 1st early in the morning at 5:30 AM. I booked the airport transfer via Viator, which was the cheapest option at $40 USD for both of us (plus 12% cash back with Rakuten as Amex points). Flying in business, we were the first ones to get off the plane and thus the first in line at passport control. It was a breeze and only a quick health form to fill out so we got to the baggage claim and got our luggage, all together in less than 20 minutes! I think the driver didn’t expect us to get out so quickly so he was a few minutes late; I got his contact info via WhatsApp so I was able to call him. The drive to JW Marriott (I redeemed with my free night certificate and points) was 1 hour 15 minutes and it was still dark out and rainy.
As it got lighter out, I started to see what Mauritius looked like, we felt it looked like Hawaii! We passed thru many small villages/towns, sugarcane plantations, and beaches. We finally arrived JW Marriott Mauritius and of course our room wasn’t ready yet. The receptionist invited us to have breakfast as our room was getting ready. Their breakfast room was the most beautiful of all the hotels that we had stayed in!
There is a whole row of Indian dishes and another row of Asian dishes. Unfortunately, they aren’t that great compared to the quality in Asian countries or the Maldives.
Their passion fruit juice was interesting, however, I preferred mango juice but they don’t have it. The hotel’s layout is the restaurants surrounding the main pool and reception area. The breakfast restaurant – Le Manoir Dinning Room faces the pool instead of the beach. It was still raining when we had breakfast.
There was an information card on each of the breakfast table, it outlined the activities of the day and the restaurants’ opening times:
Although they have many restaurants on site, only one is open for lunch, I guess they are expecting guests to venture out.
After breakfast, we walked back to the reception and our room was ready! We hopped onto the buggy and we got a quick tour of the hotel facilities on the way to our junior suite. Once enter the room, there’s the coffee/mini bar station.
The bottled water was complimentary and I love the reusable water bottles the hotel provided to guests. It makes sense since the bottled water is a glass bottle so you can’t carry that out.
Across from the minibar is the office, closet, and bathroom. It’s so weird that there’s no divider in between…I had a few meetings in the bathroom LOL!
In the closet, the hotel provided not only slippers but also flip-flops in both women’s and men’s sizes!
Then, the bedroom with a king-sized bed, the mattress was comfortable. On the left side of the bed is a sofa not shown in the photo.
There’s a balcony with seating area but no view at all so we didn’t spend any time there.
We were super tired and it was rainy out so we decided to take a nap and set the alarm to wake up at noon for lunch.
The rain finally stopped when we woke up! We walked to The Boathouse for lunch, it’s right across from the breakfast room on the other side of the pool. We ordered the mussels (MUR 750 around $16), it was quite expensive for the small portion and we were disappointed by the quality and taste!
The shrimp casserole (MUR 550, around $11) was much better, I like the spiciness of it.
As for the main course, I ordered the spicy steak sandwich (MUR 1300, around $28) and it was just okay.
Jason ordered the New Zealand lamp chop (MUR 3000, around $64) and it tasted good but the portion was small.
Lunch with a nice view:
After lunch, we walked along the beach to check out the hotel facilities. The signature view of the hotel with the Le Morne mountain as the backdrop. It was still cloudy so the photos didn’t do justice of the colors of the water.
Perhaps due to the weather, the row of beach chairs was empty!
There were two areas along the beach with iced-cold water, fruits, and complimentary use of sunscreen, how thoughtful the hotel was!
There are also two swings, one nearby the beach bar looked more picturesque.
Since the weather was cloudy, we didn’t do much on the first day so we took it easy. For dinner, we dined at the hotel’s Asian restaurant – Floating Market. I would love to try their Indian restaurant (lots of influence on Mauritius’ cuisine) but after spending 10 days in India, I was so tired of Indian food. Instead of bread, we got buns! Although they didn’t taste great, we like that better than plain bread.
For the drinks, they have a whole page of mocktails and Iced Matcha Green sounded great (MUR 300, around $6.40), it was surprisingly good even though the color didn’t look like matcha.
For starter, we ordered the Dynamite Shrimps (Crispy shrimps, spicy mayonnaise) but not much spiciness to it. It cost MUR 800, around $17, again expensive for the small portion.
For my main course, I got the wok-fried beef and it was super salty, yikes!
The crab fried rice saved the day, it was a huge portion and tasted very good for MUR 900, around $19!
Jason’s steamed fish was just okay; a few pieces of fillet only, not even a whole fish for MUR 1200, around $25.65. In general, the appetizers were expensive while the main courses were reasonable.
The next day, the weather was much better! I booked the Lagoon Flight at 1:00 PM but they moved us up to 11:30 AM due to the tide and it worked out much better for our lunch. We had breakfast and walked around the hotel to take photos.
The beach was empty, probably people were out sightseeing. Whichever the reason, it was peaceful and we loved it!
In the middle is the hotel reception which looks like in the middle of a pool.
This type of tree is everywhere around the resort.
Even surrounded by the pool!
The Floating Market restaurant where we had our dinner last night.
Lots of places in the hotel looked like floating on a pool.
We were picked up from the hotel lobby at 10:45 AM and shuttled to a beach on the other side of the mountain; Lagoon Flight’s “office” is there where the seaplanes took off. We were strapped in the safety belt and walked in water to reach our seaplanes. Their seaplanes are much smaller than the ones we flew in the Maldives; it can only hold two people including the pilot so we did the “duo flight” – two seaplanes fly together almost side by side.
Once inside the seaplane, the pilot gave a brief safety instruction (stay clear from the controls, I can open the window but make sure my camera is not fully stuck outside because the wind/pressure easily can suck it out) and within minutes, we were off the ground, I mean water 😀
We flew out to the lagoon and turned back, the pilot said there’s the underwater waterfall! Wow, it really looked like it! I got a radio call from Jason from the other seaplane, he asked “Lisa, do you see the underwater waterfall?” Yes!!!
This angle looked more like it. The underwater waterfall is a natural optical illusion created by sand and silt sediments moving by strong underwater currents. Amazing isn’t it?
The ripples from the wind made it less clear and I totally forgot about the polarizer opps!
We did one loop and I asked the pilot if we can fly out more so I can get the mountain as well in the picture, he said absolutely! He radio-called the other pilot and we did another loop. This time much better view and the waterfall looked more obvious! WOW incredible, nothing like I had ever seen before! Taking those photos was quite challenging because the safety belt was so tight that I couldn’t lean forward much so I could only point the camera at an angle out the window. Sometimes, I was clicking without actually seeing the frame but I was glad that the photos turned out great, just what I wanted to capture!
Inside the seaplane, very sleek and modern design that it has fewer buttons than I expected.
The 15-minute flight was fast but enough to see what I wanted to see – the underwater waterfall. It was totally worth the €348 for two people and MUR 1500 for the roundtrip shuttle!
Once we landed, there were two customers in line to go, they were fully booked so make advance reservation! Once we got back to the hotel, we went straight to lunch. We got the Greek Style Calamari as appetizer (MUR 750, around $16)
I ordered “The Wrap” (chicken wrap for MUR 1100, around $23.50), I like the wrap more than the steak sandwich.
Jason ordered the catch of the day fillet (MUR 1300, around $27.80) and it was decent.
After lunch, we took more photos along the beach as the sun now light up the mountain!
Yes, it was hardly anyone on the beach! Definitely not crowded unlike the touristy Caribbean islands!
This was the LUX Le Morne beach, right on top of the JW; more narrow.
We turned back and walked down along the beach. The JW has a much wider beach, although, the sand is not powdery soft.
Jason just want to sit there in the shade! When we were there at the end of June, it wasn’t that hot, in the lower 80s during the day but it was colder at night – upper 60s. I would say this was the perfect beach vacation temperature!
The 2-story houses of the JW, ours was on the 1st floor.
A kid’s pool:
We kept going…
The very end, we saw lots of people windsurfing there. This was the “One Eye Surfing Spot” according to Google Maps, right next to the Hotel RIU.
So many windsurfers!
This water sport looked weird and interesting! He was going around and around effortlessly.
More and more windsurfers arrived at the beach and set up their equipment.
The breeze was very comfortable!
We really enjoyed watching those two pros jumping and flipping up on the air! This guy took off his board, flip it around, and put it back on while on the air…added challenge?
Afterward, we headed back to the hotel’s swing and just relax there for the rest of the afternoon.
Got my dose of vitamin D 🙂
We headed back to the room for a break from the sun and I walked back out for sunset.
I felt that my luck with the sunset wasn’t great, most likely clouds covered the horizon and “cold sun” so not much colors.
A lot more people out on the beach at sunset than any other time for the past two days!
For dinner, there was a Mauritius-themed buffet for $50 per person with a cultural performance at Le Manoir. The price was inexpensive compared to the price of a main course. However, the food quality wasn’t that good so I was disappointed. Everything was overly salty and the variety of seafood was limited, I was surprised about that being in an island country. My plate…not many interesting choices to try:
Jason’s plate:
The dessert choices weren’t that great either, I only like the coconut mochi texture square and the custard pudding.
The traditional Mauritius dance, after the two dances, all other dances felt repetitive.
Overall, our short stay in Mauritius was relaxing and worth the effort to see the underwater waterfall. The JW Marriott Mauritius resort’s location and the beach were picturesque and no crowds. However, their food quality was not on par with the price they charged. Not sure if it was the Mauritius cuisine or the chefs, their food was overly salty. Also, Mauritius’ airport looked surprisingly modern like a big city airport instead of an island. Most flights land and depart early in the morning so that is the most busy time. Our flight to Seychelles was in the afternoon so the airport looked empty and even the big duty-free shop wasn’t open. There are two lounges in the airport that we accessed via our Priority Pass. Salon Nenuphar has “better” food than Amedee Maingard but both were hardly edible! The fried rice that Air Seychelles served on the 2.5 hours flight was way better than the lounge food. I was glad that we were able to visit an African island country to give a different perspective on our travel experiences.
