With hindsight, it was actually my 16-month old daughter Blake who decided where we should go for our first proper family holiday. Her favourite sound is “Doh” so when we touched down in Mauritius and were confronted with a gift shop full of the cuddly now-extinct birds which once populated this island, we knew we’d come to the right place. “Doh Doh” she exclaimed. Would this count as her first word?
It was to be a trip of firsts for all of us. The less said about our first long-haul flight with a toddler the better. But when we were greeted in arrivals by our driver in a spacious air-conditioned car, complete with already-fitted baby seat and fresh cookies, it was the first time I’ve ever felt delirious with happiness about an airport pick-up.
Heritage Awali, located just 45-minutes drive from the airport in the south of Mauritius, might be the most baby-friendly hotel on the island. Our room was right on the beach which meant we could sunbathe on the sand while Blake napped (the holiday holy grail for parents). Most resorts will offer a kids’ club for kids three and above, but at Heritage Awali they also have a baby club which will look after even the tiniest tots. Blake was only too happy to be dropped off here for the day to enjoy the treehouses, multiple sandpits and even a mini swimming pool, complete with tiny loungers.
While Blake was busy living her best baby life, we made the most of our time without a toddler in tow. We enjoyed a blissful Mauritian massage in the spa (like a normal one but with more attention paid to head and feet) and some heavenly uninterrupted reading time on the beach. When we felt a bit more active, we went quad biking at the Bel Ombre Nature Reserve, zooming through muddy mountainous tracks and spotting wild deer and monkeys.
There was also plenty to do as a family in the south of the island. We spent a morning marvelling at The Seven Coloured Earths, a lunar-like landscape of multi-coloured sand which continues to baffle geologists. Blake loved meeting the giant tortoises which mooch about here and then we all toddled over to the nearby Chamarel Waterfall.
Heritage Awali is an all-inclusive resort and there are 12 restaurants to choose from. Some nights we kept Blake up late and we all ate together (the four hours’ ahead time difference is a real plus for young kids). Other nights we ordered her dinner to the beach bar, where we watched the sun set over the ocean and sipped a cocktail while she shovelled in a kids’ menu which featured everything from steak to fresh fish. Not having to wipe down her highchair or pick up food from the floor felt like a holiday in itself.
Once she’d gone to bed, we hired one of the hotel’s resident babysitters and treated ourselves to a thali dinner at Zafarani, an adults’ only Indian restaurant, or the tasting menu at Le Chateau, a 19th-century plantation house tastefully renovated into a fine-dining restaurant and private suite.
After a week in the south we decide it’s time for a change of scene and it’s just an hour’s drive to the north of the island. Here we check into LUX* Grand Gaube, a retro-chic hotel with rooms designed by Kelly Hoppen. All the suites face the sea and some have outdoor bath tubs on the balcony big enough for Blake to learn to swim in.
It may be super stylish but it’s also family-friendly, and thoughtful touches like a highchair, bottle steriliser and a nappy bin in our room make all the difference. There’s also a kids’ club, tennis courts, an art gallery in a Banyan tree and a cinema. There are five restaurants here and we tuck in to mezze (£15) in the Turkish over-water restaurant Bodrum Blue and sip Pisco Sours (£12) at the Peruvian spot Inti. But Blake’s favourite is Ici, the cute ice-cream truck with changing flavours including charcoal and coconut sorbet (£3).
After a few days, we drive an hour east to sister property LUX* Belle Mare. This hotel was the first ever LUX* resort and it’s known for having the best beach on the island. With wide, white sand, calm turquoise sea and a scattering of palm trees it looks like it stepped out of a screensaver.
We could happily spend all day, every day here, so we do. Days whizz by in a blur of snorkelling and paddling and building sandcastles. It’s a well-known fact that toddlers love water and the fact that Blake now spends all day launching herself into the shallow end of a swimming pool, rather than freezing cold puddles in our local park, felt like a massive upgrade on all our lives.
Mauritius made me realise that with the right destination, relaxing holidays don’t have to go the way of the dodo when you have kids. Phew.
Details
Rates from £365 per room /night on an all-inclusive basis in a Deluxe Garden View Room at Heritage Awali; heritageresorts.mu
Rates from £211 / night at LUX* Grand Gaube and £260 / night at LUX* Belle Mare; luxresorts.com
