Maradiva: Mauritius in five-star style
It is rare that I feel an urge to return to a hotel – part of the joy of travel is to experience a place for the first time, after all. But I’ll make an exception for Maradiva, the five star resort in Mauritius where your dreams of borderline-pornographic beachfront perfection are dragged, startled and blinking, into reality.
This all-villa resort – the only one on the island – features 64 residences over a sprawling 11-hectares. It is a place where you will share your breakfast with some bequiffed bird of paradise or other, where you could happily while away an entire trip lounging beside your own personal plunge pool, and where a manicured coral beach is never more than staggering distance away.
The last time I checked in was 2019, just before the world shut down. Had I visited a month later, I might have been stranded like that couple who got stuck in the Maldives, forced to endure paradise day after day.
Back then the design ethos centered around heavy, colonial-chic furnishings, all dark mahogany and rustic terracotta. A £21m redesign in 2023 saw the resort adopt a lighter, breezier style, which, while less distinctive, sits more comfortably with the picture of beachside living that probably exists in your mind’s eye.
It is a place where cliches take solid form. You enter a covered reception with views through the resort to the ocean beyond. Guests are ferried from bar to pool to restaurant by a fleet of golf buggies. Hang in a hammock, swim in the ocean, or swap one body of water for another and sink ice cold cocktails in the infinity pool.
Despite being a sizeable resort, Maradiva feels incredibly discreet – even during peak season, I barely saw another guest. The villas are designed with privacy in mind, with artfully placed shrubbery ensuring you never have to look upon another human being, should you wish. This kind of discretion has made it popular with slebs, with notable guests including Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway (separately as far as I know; this isn’t Popbitch), who each planted an indigenous bois clou tree.
I can picture McConaughey sidling into the walk-in humidor, drawling his order for one of the 1,500 cigars before retreating to his villa to research the local flora, eventually settling upon the “erect and slender” bois clou, elegant but understated, the connoisseur’s choice.
There are five dining options, including the barefoot Beach Grill, the fine dining Cassine, the Japanese restaurant Haiku and – for my money the pick of the bunch – the Indian Cilantro. You will eat well, my friend.
Should you wish to escape all this pampered opulence, you will discover a more rugged island than you might at first expect. While you will certainly recognise the picture postcard beaches, Mauritius is a place of volcanos and forests, of dense towns with labyrinthine markets and sprawling colonial estates.
A trip through the gorges of the Black River is highly recommended: here you can wander vast and ancient forests filled with centuries-old Banyan trees and crystal-clear pools that are perfect for a spot of skinny dipping.
Mauritius doesn’t attempt to hide its colonial past – this would be difficult on an island still covered with sugar plantations – and the stunning Maison Eureka is a wonderfully preserved glimpse into the history of the island. Here you can enjoy a traditional Mauritian lunch before exploring the grounds, which end with a series of waterfalls and more opportunities to swim.
Even bigger is Chateau de Labourdonnais, a gigantic Victorian mansion on a sugarcane plantation that’s been preserved as a museum (here you can find a huge amount of memorabilia relating to the Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre novel Paul et Virginie, set on the island). Chateau de Labourdonnais hosts rum tastings, too, should you wish to become more closely acquainted with another Mauritian industry.
Personally, against my usual instincts to explore, I went straight back to the resort, stopping on the way to buy sticky-sweet lychees at the side of the road, eager to luxuriate in the cosseted quietude of Maradiva, a place that forever draws you back.
• Maradiva is a member of the Leading Hotels of the World. Villas at Maradiva in Mauritius start from €800 per night. For more information visit maradiva.com.