With it’s cosmopolitan buzz, sweeping golden beaches, wide choice of bars, restaurants and thriving nightlife, the resort of Grand Baie (or Grand Bay) offers couples a lively setting for a honeymoon or romantic getaway.
Known for its thriving nightlife, Grand Bay boasts most of the island’s best bars and night-clubs such as Banana Café, Zanzibar, Les Enfants Terribles and Buddha Bar.
Grand Bay is also renowned for its choice of fashion boutiques, traditional craft shops and modern shopping centres where it’s easy to browse for clothes, jewellery, textiles and souvenirs.
La Cuvette
Framed by rocks and a vegetation covered headland, La Cuvette is a small and intimate white-sand beach fronting calm and crystal clear water.
Behind the 80-metre long beach lies a small park complete with food vendors, benches and manicured walkways. The restrooms, changing rooms and shower facilities are all well maintained during high season.
Should the main beach get busy, stroll to the southern end where you can find a couple of quiet white-sand beaches hidden by rocky outcrops and lapped by shallow, crystal clear waters.
La Cuvette Beach is also known as Royal Palm Beach or La Mauricia Beach (owing to the neighbouring resorts).
Located on the bay’s north side adjacent to the Beachcomber Royal Palm Hotel, La Cuvette is easily reached when heading from Grand Bay centre to Pereybere.
Grand Baie Beach
Grand Baie Beach (also known as Grand Bay Beach) is probably the most popular beach in Mauritius due to the abundance of tour operators, tourist shops, restaurants, bars, nighclubs and accommodation options.
While not the best swimming beach (try nearby La Cuvette), this is the place to hook up a game fishing charter or dolphin cruise, go scuba diving and try kite surfing.
For gourmet dining, pub-crawling, night-clubbing and action packed nights out, Grand Bay Beach is where to head.
What to do and see
Besides lounging on the beach or beside the swimming pool of your luxury hotel, Grand Bay offers an excellent range of water sport activities for adventurous couples, including swimming, sailing, water skiing, parasailing, windsurfing and scuba diving – numerous dive sites lie within a few kilometres of the beach.
Alternatively, check out colourful coral gardens teeming with rainbow-hued reef fish through the mask of a diving helmet on an underwater sea walk along the ocean floor. Or perhaps try a submarine tour or underwater scooter to view the rich native sea life.
