Pereybere Beach

Pereybere is what a Mauritius beach used to look like before the resort hotels claimed every stretch of sand: a compact bay in a small village at the northern tip of the island, with a casuarina-shaded public beach, a cluster of beach restaurants and bars, snorkel hire available from the shade of a tree, and a mix of people — Mauritian families, European tourists, surfers, expats who live nearby — that makes the atmosphere more interesting than anything a managed resort can produce.

The beach is only about 300 metres long, which gives it an intimacy that the longer north-coast beaches don't have. The lagoon is calm and clear, with a small coral reef visible from the surface at the northern and southern ends of the bay. The snorkelling here, particularly among the reef formations at the southern rocky headland, is the best of any beach in the immediate Grand Baie area — parrotfish, sergeant majors, and lionfish are all reliably present in the shallow coral gardens, and the occasional turtle drifts through from the open water beyond the reef.

The beach restaurants — Gecko is the most cited, but several others operate from the promenade — are what set Pereybere apart from any beach that only has hotel beach bars. Proper restaurant food at tables on the sand, cold Phoenix beer within reach of the water, wood-fired pizza, seafood platters served sharing-style: it is possible to spend an entire day at Pereybere and eat and drink very well without leaving the beach. The DJ nights at Gecko on Fridays and Saturdays make the beach the liveliest spot on the north coast after 9pm.

The beach is a 10-minute taxi or tuk-tuk from Grand Baie and about 45 minutes from the international airport. It has become the accommodation cluster choice for independent travellers who want to be near the action of Grand Baie without being in the middle of it.