Grand Baie Things to Do

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Grand Baie is not particularly renowned for its beach, with many visitors there instead heading to one of the nearby beaches at Pereybere, Mont Choisy or Trou aux Biches for a swim.

The beach itself is nice enough – a lovely stretch of golden sand and warm, clean turquoise waters, backed by an area of tall Casuarina trees. Its main downfall is that the bay is so full of fishing boats that it is not the ideal place for a swim. You will therefore tend to find a few people sunbathing on the sand, a few more people sitting on shaded benches beneath the trees and very few people in the sea.

The end of the beach closest to Sunset Boulevard offers a few beachside apartments and cafes with superb sea views, as well as a handful of tall palm trees and small wooden fishing boats on the beach that make for the ideal tropical beach photographs.

The other end of the beach, close to the fish market and the Indian food stalls is where you’ll see fishermen unloading their day’s catch. There is a small grassy area with a couple of benches where you can sit in the sun and relax.

Beyond the main stretch of sand in the centre of Grand Baie, you can follow the coast to the east in the direction of Pereybere and find a handful of small, sandy beaches – some of which look like private hotel beaches, but none of which are. Unfortunately, you cannot walk the whole way to Pereybere on the beach as you will soon reach an impassable rocky headland.

Relax on the beach and have a local lunch thats quite cheap and very tasty . I usually pack in my own plastic plate and plastic fork, then I can roam to a quiet place to watch boats and relax,also many places that hire out chairs to lie on.

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this is the first day i arrived, our room in mont choisy wasn't ready yet, so we head here and i was so tired from the flight and the hard work of the passed weeks
hahaha
but i didn't rent this, i just laid for a pic

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Grand Baie has plenty of local tour operators which provide excursions around the island and to the close islands.

I will put here some examples of tours they make:
NORTHVIEW TOURS
- Ile aux Cerfs (daily)
Departure around 8.30 by van (an hour or twos drive). To Ile aux Cerfs by motor boat. Visite of the Grand-River-South-East waterfall by speed boat (you will get wet on the way, be warned but yes it was FUN). Back to Grand Baie by 6pm via the island. (time to enjoy the sea and georgerous beaches)
Lunch: Chicken & fish BBQ (chicken was the size of my tumb-> small!!), salad (hardly could find it on my plate, so small), drinks (plenty) & dessert (grilled banana...) 750Rs
Lunch option: grilled lobster in addition to the above 950Rs
Option: Grand Baie - Ile Aux Cerfs (trip only) 300Rs.

KEIFFEL TOURS
-SOUTH / CHAMOUNY
Dept around 8.30am. Visit of Bois Cheri tea plantation and tea factory. You may enjoy the taste of Bois Cheri tea (marvellouse place). The tour will then proceed to Grand Bassin sacred lake, to Vallee des couleurs Nature Park of breathtaking beauty with its enchonting waterfalls, ferm gardens, endemic plants and its famous 23 coloured earth, to the cliffs of Gris Gris of souillac, and finally to the Riviere des Anguilles Crocodile Farm and Nature Park. Back to GB at 6pm. Price 350 Rs.

The tour operators seems to have similar excursions all but be sure to ask what does the trips include! Additional entrance fees where only mentioned in Ebrahim Travel & Tours papers.

Contact infos:
Northview Tours, Royal Road, tel (230)2635023, fax: (230) 2637791

Ebrahim Travel & Tours, Royal Road, tel. (230) 263 7845,
email: gbccar@intnet.mu

We did not book advance, one day notice is enough normally. All the trips are not available daily. It would be best to pick up the brochures (A4 papers) at your arrival and read them on the first day. Then the next day you could go and ask when they do the trips you are interested in.

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This was something that we really were looking forward: a cruise with the Isla Mauricia, which is claimed to be the oldest active working schooner in the world! It is build in 1852 and now operates only for cruises.
Unfortunately we could not make it because of the weather but I hope that you will make it.

The cruise is offered by Yacht Charters and also almost every tour operator in Grand Baie has it on their list. We found out that the tour operators did not want to sell the Isla Mauricia cruises but instead they tried to sell their catamaran trips to the close islands! Nah, would they be as great as the working shooner? I dont think so.

Anyway Isla Mauricia does cuises with snorkelling, lunch and with Sega (traditional music) for around 1950Rs. Everything included.

Since we had trouble booking the ship from the local tour operators (Keiffel Tours, Northview Tours) we decided to search the Yacht Charters office and book it directly from there. The office was hard to find as it did not say Yach Charters anywhere but it had ISLATAVERN written on the sign outside!

We could have booked the trip but they go out (sailing) only on Thurdays and Saturdays from Grand Baie, and we left on Thursday :-(

According to their website they do offer kayaking and diving.