Île aux Cerfs, Mauritius: The Complete Guide

Île aux Cerfs sits just off the east coast of Mauritius, in the Flacq district, inside the biggest lagoon on the island. The nearest village on the mainland is Trou d'Eau Douce, a fishing village with a public jetty that has been the departure point for the island for as long as anyone can remember. Our family has been sailing from that jetty since 1995.

The island is roughly 87 hectares, low and flat, fringed with casuarina trees and ringed by sandbanks that appear and vanish with the tide. It is a day-trip island: there are no hotels on it, a golf course occupies its interior, and almost everyone who visits comes for the beaches on its northern and western shores.

From the airport in the south-east, Trou d'Eau Douce is about 45 minutes by car. From the northern resorts around Grand Baie, allow an hour and a quarter; from the west coast around Flic en Flac, closer to an hour and a half. Most of our guests either drive themselves to the jetty or book a hotel pick-up.

There is exactly one way onto the island: by boat. The question is which boat, and that choice shapes your whole day. The crossing itself is short, so the difference between the options is not the ten minutes on the water but everything that happens before and after.

From Trou d'Eau Douce, the departure point

Trou d'Eau Douce is where the shuttles, the catamarans and the speedboats all leave from. The public jetty is signposted as the Débarcadère, on the Route Royale through the village, with parking nearby. Operators gather here from early morning; shared trips cast off around nine, when the lagoon is at its calmest and the light is at its best.

If you arrive without a booking you will be offered a crossing within minutes, but you will pay whatever the jetty asks that day and you will not know who is skippering. If you have a booking, your crew will be waiting with your name on a list, which is a calmer way to start a day on the water.

Ferry versus speedboat versus catamaran versus private charter

A shuttle (what most people mean by the Île aux Cerfs ferry) is a small open boat that takes you straight across and brings you back at an agreed time. It is the cheapest option and the least comfortable, and it includes nothing but the ride. You reach the busiest beach, right by the arrival pontoons, and you organise your own lunch and activities.

A full-day trip treats the island as the finale rather than the destination. A speedboat day goes straight to the island, serves lunch on the quiet beach at its back, and calls at the GRSE waterfall on the way home. A catamaran takes the slower, roomier route under sail, adds a snorkelling stop at the reef, and grills a barbecue on deck with an open bar. The Sirène d'Or, our wooden pirate boat, adds live music and a waterslide straight off the deck into the lagoon. A private charter is any of these boats for your own group, on your own timetable.

What it costs

The beach you land on is the famous one: a wide crescent of white sand facing the mainland, shallow for a long way out, with restaurants, loungers and the watersports counters behind it. It is beautiful and, by late morning, busy. This is where the shuttles drop and collect, and where most organised tours anchor.

Walk ten or fifteen minutes along the shore to the east and the crowd thins quickly. The sand continues in a series of smaller coves separated by rocks and casuarinas, the water stays knee-deep and clear, and at low tide sandbanks appear a short wade offshore where you can stand in the middle of the lagoon. Boats with their own crew, ours included, often anchor at these quieter stretches rather than at the main pontoons.

The sea here is lagoon water: calm, warm and protected by the reef a kilometre or two out. Children can paddle safely, and it is one of the easiest places in Mauritius for a nervous swimmer to get comfortable. Shade is limited to the trees, so a hat matters more than you expect.

Snorkelling the reef

The best snorkelling is not at the beach but out at the reef, where the lagoon meets deeper water. The spot we have used for thirty years is shallow enough for beginners, sheltered from the swell, and busy with parrotfish, butterflyfish, trumpetfish and the occasional sea turtle. Full-day trips stop here before the island, with masks, snorkels and fins provided and a crew member in the water with you. We cover the whole subject in our guide to snorkelling in Mauritius.

The GRSE waterfall

The Grande Rivière Sud-Est, the longest river in Mauritius, meets the sea a short run south of Trou d'Eau Douce. Boats can nose a little way up the river mouth between green cliffs to the waterfall at its head. It is modest in height but dramatic in its setting, and the macaques in the trees usually come down to watch the boats. It is the first stop on most full-day trips and the reason to leave the jetty at nine rather than noon.

Watersports and parasailing

The main beach has counters for parasailing, banana boats, tube rides, water-skiing and speedboat spins, all paid for on the spot in rupees or by card. Parasailing is the one most people remember: ten minutes above the lagoon with the whole east coast laid out below. If you are on one of our trips, we can arrange it in advance for Rs 3,000 for a couple so you are not negotiating on the sand.

The golf course

The interior of the island is an 18-hole championship course designed by Bernhard Langer, with fairways that run along the water and over mangrove inlets. It is operated by the resort group that manages the island, and tee times, club hire and the golfers' boat transfer are booked through them rather than through boat operators.

On the island there is a handful of restaurants and beach bars run by the resort group near the main beach, from grills to a more formal lunch, plus local stalls selling barbecue plates, fresh fruit and coconuts. Expect resort prices at the restaurants and village prices at the stalls.

Most people on a full-day trip do not need any of it, because lunch is part of the day. On our catamaran it is a barbecue of chicken, fish and sausages with salads, grilled on deck while we sail, with soft drinks, beer and rum on the open bar. On the speedboat and 5 Island trips lunch is served on the beach at Île aux Cerfs itself. If you cross by shuttle, bring water at least: the island shop prices reflect the boat ride everything took to get there.

The lagoon is swimmable all year, so the question is really about wind and rain. From October to April the water is at its warmest and the east coast is at its calmest in the mornings, which is why that stretch is the peak season. January to March is also the cyclone season; actual cyclones are rare, but a few days of heavy rain are not, and trips are rescheduled for safety when the forecast says so.

From June to September the south-east trade winds blow steadily onto this coast. Mornings are still fine for the crossing and the island is quieter and cooler, but afternoons can be choppy outside the sheltered spots, and the snorkelling is clearer in the morning. Whatever the month, be at the jetty for nine: the sea is flattest, the light is softest and the beach is yours for an hour before the shuttles arrive.

Honestly, it depends on how you go. Crossed by shuttle at midday and spent on the busiest fifty metres of beach, it can feel like a crowded postcard. Reached by boat after a morning at the waterfall and the reef, with lunch already handled and the afternoon free on a quieter stretch of sand, it is the best day most of our guests have in Mauritius, and they have been telling us so for three decades.

If you have one boat day on the east coast, make it a full one. The island is the reward at the end of it, not the whole point.