Grand Baie, Pereybere or Cap Malheureux: where to stay in the north?

I live in Pereybere, between Grand Baie and Cap Malheureux. It is the stretch of coast I know best, and where most of my guests choose to sleep. Here is how I tell the villages apart.

Grand Baie: everything within walking distance

Grand Baie is the liveliest village in the north. The shops, restaurants, bars, dive centres and the departure point for most boat trips fit into a few hundred metres.

The bay itself is sheltered and shallow. It is not the finest beach in the north — let us be clear about that — but it is the most practical spot on the island. You can spend a week here without ever taking the car.

Azur Paradise, from 100 € a night. Three stars with a pool and rooftop, in the heart of the village. This is my budget address for anyone who wants to be where things happen without paying resort prices.

Everything else I offer in Grand Baie is on the Grand Baie page.

Pereybere: the compromise I recommend most

Quiet enough to sleep, close enough to Grand Baie to walk or drive in five minutes. A small public beach lined with filao trees, and a few places where you eat well without spending much.

The hotels here are smaller than elsewhere in the north, often family-run.

• Hibiscus Boutique Hotel, from 209 €. Small, quiet, steps from the beach.
• Ocean V Hotel, from 209 €. Four stars, more recent.

If you stay here, you are on my doorstep. I will come and say hello, and if anything goes wrong during your stay, I am minutes away. That is a difference no booking site can sell you.

Cap Malheureux: the northern tip

The small red-roofed church facing the lagoon, with Coin de Mire behind it — the photo almost everyone brings home from Mauritius. The village stays very quiet: a few hotels, a restaurant or two, and that is it.

It is also the shortest departure point for the northern islets.

• Coin de Mire Attitude, from 239 €. Three stars, facing the islet it is named after.
• Paradise Cove Boutique Hotel, from 569 €. Five stars, adults only, in a private cove. The top of the range in the north and what I suggest for a honeymoon.

A little further east, at Grand Gaube, Zilwa Attitude from 339 €: four stars with a genuinely Mauritian character, in a fishing village.

How I actually choose

First visit, you want life and restaurants: Grand Baie.

You want to sleep at night but go out in the evening: Pereybere. That is what I pick for most couples.

You want quiet and the postcard: Cap Malheureux.

You want a long beach rather than a village: look instead at Trou aux Biches and Mont Choisy, fifteen minutes away. I cover them in my guide to that stretch of coast.

What matters more than the village

On this coast everything is under twenty minutes from everything else. Which village you pick changes your evening, not your days: excursions collect you at your hotel, wherever it is.

What really changes things is the star rating, the meal plan, and whether you are on the beach or two streets back. Tell me your budget per night and how many of you there are, and I will tell you straight which addresses hold up — and which I would not recommend, even though they are in my catalogue.

For the rest of the north, there is my guide on what to do in the north of Mauritius.