Mauritius Tourist Traps

Ads say it's paradise, but we encountered dishonest front desk staff, and also a manager condoning discrimination against clients. The facade may fool tourists: typical fake smile, but really overpriced, and over-rated, especially when they try to cover-up their own mistakes. big rip-off for the money spent.

Unique Suggestions: Do NOT go there

Fun Alternatives: Perhaps other hotels in Mauritius in the North

We have just came back from Mauritius (spent Xmas & New Years there) totally NOT worth it!.
We have NEVER been more aware of how much they are ripping you off - starting from the exchange rates at the hotel to buying ANYTHING in the hotel (i.e. one bottle of water is 25 RS in the supermarket hotel charges a whopping 130RS!) to the taxis, branded clothing

Unique Suggestions: Exchange money in the towns, buy in the supermarkets and hire a car!

Fun Alternatives: We have spent 14 days - and came away with one unanswered question: why is Mauritius so expensive and why does it hold this 'exclusive' title when EVERYTHING is dated, run down, filthy????

Now, factory shops are a natural tourist trap but the ones at Mauritius is a big rip off. This tip is specially for Indian tourists who go to Mauritius. The standard package includes three full day sightseing which kicks off with visits to the glass and ship factory shops. The glass factory also houses a glass museum which has hand imprints on glass of celebrities who have visited Mauritius. There is actully an entry fee of Rs 50 for this museum. This is a big tourist trap, though the fee is not huge the museum is like a small room and for soccer buffs the real thing to see is outside the museum.. a foot imprint of Johann Cryuff!!..One can easily avoid this glass museum visit.. The ship factory does not have such museum and so no cover charge but the factory shop is 3-4x overpriced.. never touch a product there

Unique Suggestions: At the glass factory do not go to the museum. One can have a small dekko of the factory(10 by 10 ft) from the shop and also avoid buying anything from there.

At the ship factory/shop.. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING

Fun Alternatives: One can buy cheaper ship models outside in the city and even at hotel shops.. check out my shopping tip..

If you go all inclusive in La Pirogue then you need to sup about 30 pints of beer each just to break even.Beer is 200 rps in hotel but in the local bars it is 40rps for imported beers,local stella is even cheaper and good, brewed by Carlsberg.
Whisky 350rps in hotel a shot 300 rps a bottle in local supermarkets.
save your money go half board.

While on the Island we had some great, friendly taxi drivers, but then there was one who was just trying to scam us by saying that the place we wanted to go was too far away, (he quoted 40 mins!) and instead he would take us somewhere else.

We knew the destination was only 7 mins away, but he was very argumentative so we told him if he wouldn't take us straight there, then he could just turn the taxi around and take us back to the hotel, and after much protest, he took us where we wanted to go.

As expected, after 7 mins we reached our destination. On the way home he tried to force us to go to an outlet store, and got really angry at us when we said we didn't want to go, because we'd already visited one the day before.

I have read in other discussions that some taxi drivers get commissions from shop owners or people who own attractions, if they bring people to them instead of the competition. So I suspect this was his motivation.

Having said that, this was only one experience during an otherwise happy stay!

Be careful of hotel prices. Hotels are a bit of a rip off. For example, you will buy a bottle of water, which is three times as much as if you go down to the local shop to buy your own.

Taxis are the same, if you order one through your hotel, they will charge you about twice as much than if you go out on the street and hail one down.

Fun Alternatives: Hotels know what they are doing, but my advice would be to venture outside your hotel/complex, see the country for what it truely is, and don't get trapped into your expensive hotel.