Mauritius is a one-tank island. Nothing is more than about two hours from anything else, which means the good days out are loops rather than expeditions: leave after breakfast, stop four or five times, be back for a swim before dark.
Here are three that work from almost any base — the northern loop, the east coast run and the wild south. Each is a full but unhurried day.
Before you set off
Four small things make the difference between a good day and a long one.
Start early. The island wakes at six, the light is best before nine, and the roads and the car parks are both empty. By eleven the coast roads are busy and the sun is unpleasant.
Fill the tank the evening before. Stations cluster around towns and the main roads, and thin out in the south and east.
Take cash. Small entrance kiosks, roadside fruit sellers and village bakeries do not all take cards.
And plan on driving slower than the map says. Village roads, buses and pedestrians set the pace here — the driving guide covers what that feels like.
North loop: Cap Malheureux and Pamplemousses
A half-day if you are staying in the north, a full one from anywhere else. This is the gentlest of the three drives: flat, short hops, nothing technical.
Start at Trou aux Biches or Mont Choisy for an early swim before the beach fills. Head north through Pereybere to Cap Malheureux, where the red-roofed chapel looks across to Coin de Mire and the northern islets. It is the postcard shot of the island and it takes ten minutes.
Turn inland and east towards Grand Gaube, a working fishing village where the pace drops noticeably, then run south through the cane fields to the Pamplemousses botanical garden — giant water lilies, palm avenues, and shade, which by midday is the point.
From there it is a short hop to Port Louis if you want the market and the waterfront, or back up to Grand Baie for a late lunch and the boats. Check the day of the week before committing to Port Louis; the capital is a different place at the weekend.
The whole loop is maybe 60 kilometres of driving spread over a day. The north page covers the local fleet.
East run: Belle Mare and the Ile aux Cerfs side
The east coast drive is the most relaxing on the island. Long, straight coast roads, very little traffic, and a lagoon on your left for most of it.
Begin at Belle Mare, whose public beach is the widest on the island and best before the wind gets up. Drive south through Palmar and Trou d'Eau Douce, the departure village for boats out to Ile aux Cerfs — leave the car and take a boat if that is the plan, because the island itself is not reachable by road.
Continuing south, the road runs through Quatre Soeurs and Bois des Amourettes towards Mahebourg, the old harbour town at the south-east corner, with its waterfront, its museum and its Monday market. Blue Bay, a few minutes on, has the marine park and the clearest easy snorkelling on the island.
Northbound instead, the coast past Poste Lafayette and Roches Noires is emptier still, with black rock, casuarina trees and almost no development.
Either direction is about an hour and a half of actual driving. The east page is the local starting point.
South: Chamarel, Gris Gris and Le Morne
The most spectacular of the three, and the most driving. Expect a full day.
Come down the west coast through Tamarin and Black River, then turn up into the hills for Chamarel — the Seven Coloured Earths, the waterfall, and the viewpoints on the way up, which are worth as much as the destination. This is the steepest and most winding road of the three routes.
Drop back down to the coast at Le Morne, where the mountain stands over the south-west corner. Then follow the south coast east through Baie du Cap and Bel Ombre — this is the emptiest, most beautiful stretch of road on the island, with the ocean on one side and cane on the other.
Stop at Gris Gris near Souillac, where the cliffs face the open ocean with no reef in front of them and the sea behind. Finish at Rochester Falls or carry on to Mahebourg if you still have light.
That is a long day and a genuinely great one. The south fleet leans towards higher cars for a reason.
The mountain roads, and what they ask of a car
The climbs to Chamarel and up into Black River Gorges are the steepest driving you will do here: narrow, winding, and slow behind a lorry. Nothing about them requires an off-road vehicle, and every category on this site does them daily.
What they do ask for is a car you are comfortable in. A small engine fully loaded with people and bags will climb in a low gear and take its time. Ground clearance is worth more on the rough approaches in the south than on the mountain roads themselves, which are surfaced.
If the south is your main plan, an SUV is the easy answer. If you are in the north and the west, a compact is fine and cheaper to run.
Fuel, lunch and the practical stops
Fuel stations are common around Port Louis, Grand Baie, Quatre Bornes and Curepipe, and sparse along the south and east coasts. Fill before you leave the built-up areas rather than during the drive.
For lunch, the reliable pattern anywhere on the island is a village snack or a roadside stall: dholl puri, rotis, gateaux piments, fresh pineapple with chilli salt. Coastal restaurants around Grand Baie, Tamarin, Trou d'Eau Douce and Mahebourg cover the sit-down version.
Public toilets are scarce outside the paid attractions and the larger beaches, which is a good reason to structure the day around one of them.
Parking at the sights
Paid attractions have their own car parks and they are straightforward. Everything else is informal: a widening at the roadside, a patch of gravel under the casuarinas, a village street.
Three habits are worth having. Arrive early at the popular beaches, especially at the weekend, when Mauritian families come out with picnics and the car parks fill by ten. Leave nothing visible in the car, ever. And do not block a bus stop, a driveway or a lane — the roads are narrow enough that one badly parked car stops a village.
Doing all three in a week
They fit comfortably into a seven-day trip with beach days between them. A workable shape: the north loop on your second day, once you are used to the car; the east run mid-week; the south on a day with a clear forecast, because it is the one where the views are the reason.
Add a plateau morning — Curepipe, Trou aux Cerfs, the Moka mountains — if you want a fourth, and keep one day entirely free. The best afternoon of most Mauritius trips is the unplanned one.