8 INCREDIBLE DAYS IN MAURITIUS

If you follow me on Instagram, you might've seen that I went on the holiday of a lifetime a couple of weeks ago. The boy's mum very kindly took me, the boy, his brother and his brother's lady off to Mauritius for a break. It was the furthest I've ever travelled and my first time in the Southern hemisphere, so I wanted to share some of my photos, experiences and food discoveries with you here.

We took a night flight direct from Heathrow to Mauritius and arrived to be hit by a wall of heat and humidity, all slightly dazed from a sleep-lacking flight! We were picked up by our driver and driven from the airport, on the south-east of the island, to the hotel, on the north-west. Mauritius is in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, and is about 70km in length, so it only took an hour to reach the hotel. We were staying at the gorgeous Maritim, Balaclava, and were greeted with the most stunning view through the reception foyer, out over the infinity pool to the crystal blue sea. The views were unlike anything I've seen before, as was the heat!

The hotel package was all inclusive so we made the most of our time there. We went horse riding on the ex racehorses that the hotel adopts; we spent a morning kayaking up the creek to the ruins; we took a private boat out to swim with dolphins, which was incredible, and then spent the rest of the day on an uninhabited island in the south of Mauritius, drinking rum punch and eating barbecued food; we spent 4 hours snorkelling on the reef by the hotel one day; we went on a 12km bike ride to the local village and were taken round the back streets to learn about the fruit that grows there; we played ping pong and mini golf; we went sailing on a catamaran; we walked up to the animal sanctuary at the top of the estate to meet giant tortoises and the resident goats; the boys spent hours water-skiing and we also actually relaxed and spent time on the beach loungers reading, snoozing and drinking pina coladas. And of course I spent a lot of time at the dog sanctuary on the beach, where the hotel adopts, feeds and gives medicine to stray island dogs.

The hotel had various restaurants on site. There was a buffet, a beach restaurant (where we ate most of our lunches), a German "pub"(!?) and our favourite, the Banyan, a pan Asian restaurant situated on the veranda area, overlooking a huge banyan tree. We ate there a couple of times and feasted on incredible sushi, dim sum, crispy duck and noodles.

We also ventured out of the hotel on a couple of evenings to local towns. First we went to La Rougaille Creole, in Grand Baie, that we had found via Tripadvisor. It was a small place, with just a roof and no walls in the back streets off the main beachfront. It had great reviews online and the friendliest staff greeted us. The menu looked divine, with loads of seafood and fresh fish, something we were craving after lots of meals at the hotel, that seemed to feature more meat than fish. For starters we chose octopus salad, sashimi, fish gratin and seafood soup, all of which were really delicious, each cost about £4 and they came in huge portions!

Thank you to the boy's family for waiting for me to photo everything before starting!

Mains were whole catch of the day, and seafood skewers, of which 3 came on the plate, and each was ginormous. I didn't get photos of all of these, but they were also fantastic. We finally waddled out of the restaurant after spending about £20 each including lots of booze.

The boy and I went out a few nights later to a place called Souvenir in Trou au Biches, where we had more of the same - sashimi, octopus salad and catch of the day, and extremely strong rum cocktails!!

Mauritius was incredible. I had the best 8 days, and made some wonderful memories. It was so much fun, relaxing and exciting and just magical. Huge thank you to the boy's mum for treating us all to such an amazing holiday.