5 Island boat tour in Mauritius!

As I was scouting for tours to take in Mauritius, the 5 island tour seemed interesting. While you can book a catamaran/boat cruise from anywhere, 5 island tour seem to start from the town of Trou d'Eau Douce, some 45 kms north of Mauritius airport. Due to lack of convenient transport, I planned to stay 2 nights at Trou d'Eau Douce only so that I can walk to boat tour starting point.

What is 5 island tour in Mauritius & why consider it?

• Island #1 Île aux Cerfs which houses a golf course, a resort, some public areas and some watersport activities
• A Waterfall- Grand River South East waterfall, said to accessible only by boat
• Island 2: Île aux Phares, Another island where there's an old lighthouse, in fact, Mauritius's oldest lighthouse, now non operational
• Island 3: Île de la Passe: One more island which was once a fort and serves as point of defense against enemy ships
• Dolphin watching on the way, if luck permits
• Island 4: name not known: Can't enter, view from edge-a small islet with lagoon, corals and shallow water
• Island 5: Île aux Aigrettes nature preserve- no entry but can swim nearby and watch tortoises 
• Back to first island Île aux Cerfs we'd visited, another side this time, for lunch, around 1.45, 2 Pm
• Time for parasailing (extra cost)
• Back to starting point by 3.30 PM

Cost of 5 island tour in Mauritius: 3000-3500 Mauritius Rupee (6000-7000 INR) per person for shared boat private boat option also available for much higher price tag)

Booking Process: 

There was a website listing 5 island tour details- I messaged whatsapp number given in the website asking for availability- Absolutely no response for 4 full days. So upon arrival, I walked around Trou d'Eau Douce and found below display, spoke to the guy there, he works as an agent, initially offered us a small boat tour for 800 MUR, I said I need 5 island tour- he spoke to operator, confirmed availability, quoted 3000 MUR per person, paid 1000 MUR advance, got a receipt.

5 Island boat tour experience in Mauritius

The start:

Walked into the shop where I had paid, we were driven to boat start point by person 1 (to whom we had paid advance). Here a well dressed gentleman (person 2) in red jacket explained the tour to us, collected balance money- no receipts, no wristband, no access control nothing. We were handed over to another person, Person 3

Person 3 walked us some 200 meters and handed over to another person- Person 04

Person 4 asked us to wait by the beach, said they are awaiting 4 other people and vanished

15 minutes passed and nothing happened- I felt I was scammed. Walked back to office area, caught hold of person who had taken money- he spoke to someone and asked me to go back. Luckily other tourists had come and we were guided to a boat.

The boat was small open speedboat. No roof, no toilets, not much space. No life jacket was given, no nationality was noted.

• No life jackets
• No documentation of nationality, ID
• No wrist bands, access control, proper invoice - the system runs on faith and all manual.

Similar tour in Fiji boarding happens through a proper jetty, with wrist bands, access control etc. In Andaman boat operators reports number of passengers, male, female count to office before commencing a ride, just so that rescue team has precise count if needed. No such thing in Mauritius.

We started at about 9.20 AM, were dropped off at Island #1 Île aux Cerfs by 9.50 and given 20 minutes free time. The island had a restaurant, we thought of having tea but staff were not ready yet. We used restroom, walked around and returned to boat. Some watersports activities are available here but no time for us.

We were given some complementary soft drinks on the boat. 

Next we were taken to waterfall- The path to waterfall is narrow, so big boats can;t reach. Those who had come in large catamarans had to shift their passengers to small boat for last few kms. On the way to waterfall we fed some monkeys.

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Next stop was Island 2: Île aux Phares, which houses a lighthouse building in ruins. We were given 15-20 minutes to explore.

Next stop was Island 3:  Île de la Passe, right next to lighthouse island- we were told it is not in package but they are letting us in- took small walk to see remains of the buildings which were once bunkers or storage units for armed forces.

We were lucky to see some dolphins along the way.

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 Next stop was Island 4:  name I need to recall- didn't enter, just went close and took some pics

Next we stopped for a swim:  Island 5: Île aux Aigrettes nature preserve: No entry into island- saw a giant tortoise from the boat

Next we were back to  Île aux Cerfs for lunch. We were served vegetarian noodles, some rice and fruit juices. A small live music show was also put up. The restaurant area didn't have toilet, we had to walk around and find a resort's toilet and use it.

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We didn't stop for parasailing.

Back to starting point by 3.30 PM and end of 5 island tour. The person who had dropped us wasn't there and didn't receive our call either, so we had to walk about 1.2 kms to our hotel Le Rosier

The original tour operator to whom I had messaged on whatsapp replied finally quoting 3500 MUR per person when I had already completed the tour for 3000 MUR. Too late, so didn't bother replying. 

Overall the 6 hour, 5 island tour is a nice experience to try in Mauritius. Most commercial tour packages do not include this as starting point is far from Port Louis and getting tourists to Trou d'Eau Douce by 9 AM will be a challenge. Commercial packages usually include some short catamaran ride covering maybe 1 island. 6000 INR per person was on a higher side- if they had large boat with more capacity per passenger cost could have been less. But no regrets.