Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for mauritius
The Cosmo Side of Mauritius
By Linda Tancs
Port Louis is the cosmopolitan capital of the island of Mauritius. Founded in 1735 by the French governor and pioneer Bertrand-François Mahé de La Bourdonnais, it offers a plethora of cultural and historical treasures. For one thing, it boasts the oldest racecourse in the Southern Hemisphere, Champ de Mars, where lively horse racing ensues on weekends from March to December. The theater is another pearl, one of the oldest in the region, fashioned after a typical London theater. Did you know that the extinct dodo was endemic to the island? Just as priceless is the Twopenny Blue stamp; an original issue is at the Blue Penny Museum. Originally printed in 1847, the stamps were issued by the then-British colony of Mauritius, the first empire stamps produced outside Britain. The remaining specimens belong to the Crown, some postal museums and some very lucky collectors.
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Morne Brabant
By Linda Tancs
Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean. At the extreme southwestern tip is a peninsula, Le Morne Brabant. Its cultural landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, includes a basaltic rock with a summit of 556 metres above sea level. At this most scenic site is the Dinarobin Hotel Golf & Spa offering, among other things, a private club reserved to guests of Club Suites. The atmosphere is typically British colonial, bearing testimony to Mauritius’ rich colonial past. The circular shape of the tower and thick walls in stone replicate the structures which hark back to the days of the British Empire when several were built as protection against enemies during Napoleonic wars.
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Mauritius Readies for More Upmarket Tourism
By Linda Tancs
In 2008 Mauritians will welcome another luxury resort overlooking the Indian Ocean, courtesy of Intercontinental Hotels. There was a time when Mauritius was an overlooked pearl in the middle of the Indian Ocean, frequented by rock stars and royalty. Well, the secret’s obviously out as its coastline undergoes more and more development. The crucial issue is whether the natural beauty of its coastline can–and will–be preserved before it turns into the African region’s version of South Beach.
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