Belle Mare is where Mauritius looks the way the brochures promise. A three-kilometre arc of powder-white sand on the east coast, it faces a lagoon of extraordinary clarity — turquoise shading to aquamarine, so shallow in places that you can wade 200 metres and still see your feet in fine detail on the sandy bottom. The reef that runs parallel to the coast keeps the Indian Ocean swell out entirely, and the result is water that is mirror-calm year-round. On a windless morning, the surface barely registers a ripple.

The beach is flanked by the island's most celebrated five-star hotels — Constance Belle Mare Plage, One&Only Le Saint Géran, and Shangri-La Le Touessrok are all within the immediate stretch — but the sand itself is public for its entire length. There is a pedestrian right of way along the beach front, and the sections between the hotel grounds are genuinely accessible to anyone who wants to spend a day here without being a guest. Bring your own shade and water: public facilities are limited to the small beach shacks near the public access points that sell cold drinks, fresh coconut, and grilled corn.

The snorkelling along the reef's inner edge is among the best accessible from shore anywhere on the island. The coral formations at the northern end of the beach, reachable with a 20-minute swim or a short kayak, host parrotfish, triggerfish, sea turtles, and the occasional octopus sheltering in the reef's overhangs. The water temperature stays between 24°C in August and 29°C in February, making it comfortable year-round without a wetsuit.

Belle Mare is most beautiful in the early morning — before 9am, when the sand is raked, the water is at its glassiest, and the light is low enough to turn the lagoon every shade of blue simultaneously. Mid-afternoon brings a breeze off the sea that makes the heat manageable and the palms sway picturesquely. Sunsets on the east coast are quieter than the west, but the afterglow of a clear evening turns the water pink and the sky over the mountains behind the resort belt a deep amber.