My first few hours in Mauritius began with a rental car, a quick fuel stop and a drive from the airport towards the busy streets of Port Louis.
There is something I like about having a car when I travel. You don't have to wait for a tour, follow somebody else's timetable or decide everything before leaving the hotel. That was how my Mauritius trip started.
I had arranged a rental car online before travelling. After landing at the airport, I collected the car and pretty much started the trip straight away. One of the first practical jobs was finding a petrol station and putting some fuel in. Nothing particularly exciting about that, but these are the small things I tend to remember from a trip. Once that was sorted, I started driving towards Port Louis.
The drive was my first introduction to Mauritius
One thing I noticed quite quickly was how enjoyable Mauritius was from behind the wheel. It wasn't simply a matter of getting from the airport to the hotel. As I travelled around the island over the next few days, there were stretches where the road itself became part of the experience. At times there was the coast on one side, with blue water appearing between buildings and trees. Then the scenery would change again and become greener.
I found myself looking forward to the drives almost as much as some of the places I was visiting.
Arriving in Port Louis
Port Louis was where I stayed, and it gave me a completely different first impression from the quiet tropical-island image people normally associate with Mauritius. It was busy. There were people moving everywhere, shops, traffic, food, market stalls and the normal rhythm of a working city. I actually liked that. Instead of arriving in Mauritius and immediately disappearing into a beach resort, I was seeing ordinary city life.
Walking through the market
The market was one of the places I enjoyed most in Port Louis. It was crowded and colourful, with different sections selling food, vegetables, spices, clothing, souvenirs and other everyday things. I wasn't going there with a shopping list. I was mostly walking around and looking. That's usually how I enjoy markets when travelling. You don't necessarily have to buy anything. Walking through one tells you quite a lot about a place.
I did a little shopping and spent some time looking through the stalls before heading back into the city.
Food wasn't difficult at all
Another thing I remember is that finding familiar food wasn't a problem. Mauritius has a strong Indian influence, so Indian food was easy to find alongside other local choices. That made meals quite straightforward for me. Sometimes when travelling, food becomes part of the planning every day. Mauritius didn't feel like that. If I wanted something familiar, I could find it.
The advantage of having my own car
Looking back, renting the car was probably one of the best decisions I made for this trip. Port Louis was only the beginning. Over the following days, that same car would take me away from the city, along coastal roads and eventually into the greener, hillier parts of Mauritius. There were places I had planned to visit, but there were also moments when I simply enjoyed the road.
And that is probably my strongest memory of arriving in Mauritius: I landed, picked up the keys, filled the tank and started driving. The holiday had already begun before I reached the hotel.
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