Île aux Cerfs
An island in the east-coast lagoon with beaches, a golf course and water sports, five minutes by boat — the best-selling excursion on Mauritius and the one done on your own for a tenth of the price
- When to go
- October 23° · 21 rainy days
- Per day
- €€€€price 4 of 5
- How many days
- 1days
- For you
- 6 questions →
- Nearest airport
- 27 km Mauritius
- Right now
Île aux Cerfs is the island every hotel sells as a full-day excursion with a catamaran, lunch and a waterfall, for €85–175 a head — and which is five minutes from the village of Trou d'Eau Douce by a boat that runs every half hour for €5.50. The beaches are real, the lagoon is real, so is the crowd; the only difference is how much each person pays to get there.
The island is in the east-coast lagoon, three kilometres long, with a golf course in the middle and beaches on the western side where the boats land: sand, casuarinas, restaurants, sunbed hire and every kind of motorised craft. There is no hotel, so nobody stays — you come in the morning and leave before evening. The lagoon is shallow and warm, right for swimming and for children, and the sand at the northern end, twenty minutes' walk from the jetty, is the one the photographs promise and the one the groups never reach because they stay by the restaurants.
There are two ways to get there. The organised excursion — a catamaran from Belle Mare or Trou d'Eau Douce, with a sail across the lagoon, a stop at the GRSE waterfall, a barbecue lunch and drinks, for €85–175 a head — is a day on the water worth it if you want the catamaran, not the island. Independently: a taxi or bus to the village of Trou d'Eau Douce, the public boat from the jetty every half hour for €5.50, and a whole day on the island at your own pace; food is carried or bought at the beach restaurant at tourist prices.
From the island you go further: boats from the island's jetty run to the GRSE waterfall — Grand Rivière Sud-Est, where the river falls into the lagoon and monkeys sit in the trees — for an hour with snorkelling on the way, per boat. Parasailing, the banana and jet skis are on the beach by the jetty, with prices asked beforehand. The east coast around the island — Belle Mare, Palmar — has the finest beaches on Mauritius and a trade wind from May to October that makes them cooler than they look; Île aux Cerfs' lagoon is shielded by an outer reef, so it stays calm even then.
What to see in Île aux Cerfs
The northern beach
Twenty minutes' walk from the jetty along the island's west shore, sand and lagoon without restaurants and without the groups, who stay by the boats. This is where you spend the day; shade under the casuarinas, food carried in.
The public boat from Trou d'Eau Douce
The jetty in the village, boats every half hour from nine to four, €5.50 per person. Alone, without a tour, and back when you like — just watch the last departure.
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The GRSE waterfall
A river falling into the lagoon in the south, with monkeys in the trees and boats that go in underneath. An hour from the island, per boat; included in the catamaran trips, arranged at the jetty when going alone.
A catamaran from Belle Mare
A full day on the water: a sail across the lagoon, the waterfall, a barbecue lunch on deck, music and rum. €85–175 a head, for those who want the boat; the island is on the way.
Le Touessrok golf
Eighteen holes on the island, with the lagoon in view from every one, and a boat that brings players from the shore. For golfers, booked ahead; everyone else walks around it on the beach path.
Belle Mare and Palmar
The east coast opposite the island, with the finest beaches on Mauritius and the hotels along them. The trade wind from May to October; swim in the morning before the wind, the island in the afternoon in the lee.
Two things you probably did not know
Ile aux Cerfs is an island inside the lagoon, sheltered by reef on every side. The water around it is shallow and warm all year, and visibility underwater goes past thirty metres.
The name means island of deer, after deer the Dutch brought in the seventeenth century. The deer are long gone, but the name stayed.
Ready for Île aux Cerfs?
Within reach from here
Places sorted by straight-line distance from Île aux Cerfs — day trips or weekends.
Mauritius
→An island where you do not choose a hotel but a coast — west for sunsets and calm sea, north for nightlife, east for wind, south for kitesurfing
Tanzania
→The Serengeti, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar in one country — and three different bills: the safari by the day, the mountain by the night, the island by an insurance paid at the door
South Africa
→A country of long distances and reversed seasons, driven on the left throughout
Thailand
→Two coasts the monsoon never reaches at the same time, and a north seen through smoke in March
All 277 places we write about sit on one page — narrow them down by continent, country, price or what you are travelling for.
Within reach from here: Port Louis, Grand Baie and Flic-en-Flac
See how much of that actually suits you — or pin Île aux Cerfs if you have been.
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