Best Things to Do in Port Louis

Port Louis rewards curious walkers with layered Indian Ocean history, volcanic viewpoints and one of the most diverse street-food cultures in the Southern Hemisphere. Everything in the central harbour basin lies within a twenty-minute radius on foot.

1. Walk the stone steps of UNESCO-listed Aapravasi Ghat. Visit the 1849 harbourside immigration depot where nearly half a million indentured labourers from India first stepped ashore, changing the demographic history of Mauritius and the wider colonial world.
2. See the 1847 Mauritius stamps at the Blue Penny Museum and stroll Le Caudan Waterfront. Admire two of the rarest philatelic treasures on earth alongside maps, ship models and the original statue of Paul et Virginie, then walk under the colourful canopy of Umbrella Alley.
3. Graze through Port Louis Central Market (Bazar de Port Louis). Taste warm split-pea dholl puri, crispy lentil gateaux piments and pink basil-seed alouda milk inside the historic cast-iron market hall dating back to the 1840s.
4. Explore Chinatown along Royal Road and Jummah Mosque. Pass through the traditional Chinese ceremonial arch to spot 3D street-art murals, herbal apothecaries and steaming boulette dumpling stalls, stopping at the white-and-green 1850s Jummah Mosque on the border of the quarter.
5. Climb to Fort Adelaide (La Citadelle) for a 360-degree harbour view. Ascend Petite Montagne to the 1830s British basalt fortress looking north over the harbour cranes and south across the historic Champ de Mars racecourse framed by the Moka Range.
6. Walk down palm-lined Place d'Armes to Government House and Port Louis Theatre. Follow the royal palms from the waterfront to the 1738 French colonial Government House and the 1822 neoclassical municipal theatre.
7. Meet a dodo skeleton at the Natural History Museum and Jardin de la Compagnie. Stroll beneath giant aerial roots of banyan trees in the shaded public garden and step inside the 1880 Mauritius Institute building to learn about the island's extinct flightless bird.
8. Take a short trip to Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam (Pamplemousses) Botanical Garden. Fifteen minutes north-east of the capital, walk beside the long pond of giant Victoria amazonica water lilies and talipot palms that flower once before dying.
9. Hike Signal Mountain or the thumb peak of Le Pouce. Follow the paved viewpoint road up Signal Mountain directly above town for sunset, or climb the grassy basalt ridge of Le Pouce (812 m) from Moka.
10. Visit Kaylasson (Sockalingum Meenatchee Ammen) Kovil in Sainte Croix. Admire the oldest and grandest Dravidian Tamil temple on the island on the northern edge of Port Louis.