If you are planning a tropical getaway with your girlfriends, let the winds of Mauritius sway you with a budget far less than anticipated

More often than not, an all-girls’ trip breaks away from all budget restraints for one simple reason: women have to be particular about a lot of things. Therefore, we opt for places that are travel friendly and provide safe accommodations, which always come at a cost higher than expected. But what if I tell you, there’s a picture perfect east African island waiting for you – that is not just breathtakingly beautiful, but safe, clean, hygienic, pocket-friendly and an adventure-filled terrain?

Mauritius, just a seven-hour flight away from India, is an African paradise. Adjacent to Madagascar and the Seychelles, Mauritius is an island with a historical undertone too important to miss. A volcanic island populated by immigrants, Mauritius boasts a confluence of culture, religion and tradition, and at the same time, exhibits a surreally strong bond between locals and tourists. With the sapphire blue ocean and the sky blending at the horizon and white sands sparkling at your feet, Mauritius is a tropical paradise bound to allure any mortal. So, if you are planning a getaway with your girlfriends or sisters, let the winds of Mauritius sway you with a budget far less than anticipated.

Visa on arrival

First things first, Mauritius has a visa-on-arrival system, which easily saves a lot of money and the extra hassle for you and the girls. If you’ve got the return ticket and proof of accommodation, Mauritius will grant you a 60-day visa on arrival.

Best time to visit

Keep in mind that located in the southern hemisphere, seasons and temperature patterns in Mauritius are opposite to ours. Hence, Christmas is celebrated in peak summer, whereas July and August experience the coolest weather conditions. Mauritius is also cheaper during its pleasant winter season.

Getting there

For the cheapest flight option, select a price-drop option on your desired flight booking website so that you are notified whenever there’s a cheap flight available to Mauritius. If you book 3-4 months prior, you might also get a return flight in less than 30k. Air Mauritius is a good option if you want direct flights, which operates through Air India in the country.

Money matters

1 Mauritian Rupee (MUR) is equivalent to 1.97 (almost 2) INR. The best and most hassle-free place to get your currency exchanged is at the Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport after you land. In India, banks charge more, so get hold of an agency that might sort you out. You can also carry your Forex card with a decent balance, since International credit and debit cards charge a lot of hidden money that we only get to see once we get back home.

Commuting in Mauritius

Mauritius is a tiny island with majestic views at every corner. Taxis stationed at every hotel provide for a good commute option, although the cheapest option is to hire Minibus excursions, which is a great way to get around as tourists. But rely on public transport. You can find buses to the north and south conveniently from Curepipe, the central point. Buses going to the West coast (Flic en Flac, Chamarel, etc.) can be taken from Quatre Bornes.

Where to stay

There is no dearth of good stay options in Mauritius. Look for homestays and service apartments with kitchen and basic amenities. For a group of women, these apartments and homestays come even cheaper than hostels. Most of these places offer complimentary water and have a stocked fridge. All you need to do is just cook. Instant noodles is a great way to survive on a budget vacation, and so is good old-fashioned bread-butter. If booked in advance, Airbnb will get you good sea-facing villas or apartments at 2-5k INR per day, which is a steal! But also be open to trying the local Creole cuisine, as food is always an integral part of travel. For one lavish dinner, you could opt for Palm Court at Lux* Grand Gaube. The ocean-view dinner table with soft breeze and delectable food is something worth mentioning.

Primarily divided into five regions, the island of Mauritius has much to offer at every location. Utilise the best of the island and divide your stay accordingly. To stay, pick the west and north, for these will get you ocean views unmatched by any other destination in the world.

What to do

Mauritius is a heaven for any adrenaline junkie. From sea adventure to quad-biking, zip-lining, submarine diving, scuba and snorkeling – there is no stop to how your girlfriends and you can have unlimited fun.

Other than these, there is Casela World of Adventure Nature Park for your typical African safari. There’s La Vallée de Couleurs, a scenic park known for its landscape with 23 coloured earth. Big on sugarcane plantation, Mauritius has some of the best rum distilleries in the world. Rhumerie de Chamarel is one such place that will take you around the factory, explaining the interesting distilling process and ending with a tasting of some over 15 kinds of rum! Tickets to most of these can be booked online prior to your visit. A decent 25,000 INR will cover your expenses for these activities.

Just plan ahead, and get the best of Mauritius on a budget.

As a travel journalist for over 28 years, I’ve visited 70 countries (and counting). Here, are my top tips for those planning travel for the year ahead.

1. Betas Are Best

A stay in a beta city—think: Verona over Venice and Memphis instead of Nashville—means fewer crowds and the chance to explore a lesser-known destination, discovering all its treasures that you didn’t even know about. Picking a place that is not among the most popular spots in a country (so, avoiding ‘big hitters’ such as New York, Rome or Phuket, for example) has a number of benefits as well as being a discernable way to help with over-tourism. These ‘unsung heroes’ often offer up more authentic travel experiences as they are away from the main tourist paths, with restaurants and shops largely catering to locals. Choose carefully and you can not only tap into a new place, but you can use it as a base to travel further afield and find areas that are not well documented. So, for example, head to Oman instead of Dubai to discover its Middle Eastern cultural riches. What’s more, from here you can still make side-trips to other Emirates, including Dubai, if you wanted.

2. Soak Up September

With children back at school, meaning cheaper fares and fewer crowds, September is one of the best months to travel. In many places across the world, this ‘cross-over’ month (not quite summer, not quite autumn) means that you will still find sunny days and balmy temperatures. This time of year, before the shops and restaurants shutter up for the season, means it is still too early for the more unpredictable weather of late autumn and winter. Top destinations include the Greek Islands, the French Riviera and Portugal, for sun-drenched days, andSouth East Asia is also a good choice, as it is emerging from its wet season.

Another bonus is that with September comes many spectacles of nature—from harvest bounties (meaning that local cuisine is at its best, bursting with fresh flavours) and New England’s leaf-peeping displays to the great migration of wildebeest in the Serengeti.

3. When A Hotel Is Not A Hotel

For those wanting a break with extended family or with a group of friends, it might be tempting to book a villa for the perfect regroup. For many, however, this simply means transferring the chores—cooking and tidying up—from home to a new address. So why not avoid (most of) the washing up, by booking a cottage, treehouse or villa in the grounds of a hotel. The trend of hotels offering standalone accommodation exploded during and following the pandemic, when travellers wanted a way to escape their four walls again, but were still nervous about mixing with others (many hotels at the time started converting buildings in their grounds or creating new offerings to offer a choice of luxury boltholes and to get their businesses back on their feet). Lucknam Park near Bath, Beaverbrook in Surrey and Chewton Glen in the New Forest are just three examples in the UK. It means you can have the privacy and flexibility of a home-from-home, but are still able to tap into the luxury hotel facilities that are on offer, such as the spa, restaurants and sporting offerings.

4. Read Up And Research

It may sound basic, but do some ground work before you arrive, so that you won’t find that the best restaurants are already booked or that you waste time aimlessly wandering around unfamiliar streets. For lovers of impromptu travel, this may go against the grain, but in reality, you don’t have to be rigid about things. It’s just a way to have reference points so that you have an idea of what to do in your chosen destination. While the likes of Tik Tok and Instagram might have a bad rap, they are actually very useful for honing down specific interests. Want to shop in a French pharmacy in Paris? Search it up for the best addresses to head to and what to buy. Influencers have nailed this sort of thing. Same with the hottest restaurants (although it can mean that the best places are booked out months ahead). Guidebooks and online travel guides still have their place, however, and are a good way to gain an overall understanding of a place or culture so you don’t miss out.

5. Look Up To Locals

The best way to get under the skin of a city is for a local person to show you its hidden gems. From companies, such as Tours by Locals and GetYourGuide, you can uncover the best cultural experiences from the knowledge of those that live there. If you are only in a place for a short time, talk to those who you encounter—taxi drivers, shop owners and, of course, the hotel concierge, and ask for local recommendations and suggestions of where to go and what to eat. Follow it up with your own research and the chances are you will find the best in authentic travel experiences.

Traveling with senior parents is both stressful and incredibly rewarding. Here’s how to make it more the latter.

So you’ve decided to book a family vacation that includes your aging parents. Now you’re wondering how you can make sure the memories you create on the trip are the kind you’ll remember fondly (not the ones you’ll want to forget). The answer, according to adult children who have done it, is to plan carefully — and then to expect that those plans will change.

A few years after her father passed away, Kathleen Payne flew her mother across the country from New York to Portland, Oregon, and then to Los Angeles. She and her wife wanted to visit family on the West Coast and Payne was eager to show her mother a place she had never been.

“My parents had really loved to travel,” she says.

And while they had been all over the world, her mother had never been to Portland. Payne’s mother had dementia.

“She was getting to the point where she would forget things soon after you told them to her and so she would get easily confused,” Payne says. “We figured out that it would be nice while my mother was able to pay attention to the world, to go on one last trip.”

Tips for traveling with senior parens

Thinking of taking a trip with your aging parent? Here, Payne and others share important tips for traveling with senior parents.

1. Plan meticulously

Whether your loved one has dementia or not, planning meticulously for a trip with older adults is the key to success.

“It made me feel like Napoleon plotting to win one of his campaigns,” Payne says.

She arranged for someone to care for her mother’s cat while she was away, as well as someone to care for her own cats. She made sure she had an ample supply of her mother’s medications. She carefully considered how and when to fly. Should they make a stop or fly straight through? What was the best time to arrive so her mother could adjust to the three hour time difference?

Anthony Cirillo, president of the Aging Experience, suggests using this checklist to plan a vacation that both you and your parent will enjoy.

• Get medical clearance. Start with your parent’s physician to determine if they are capable of handling a trip and use your best judgment.
• Pack medicine and paperwork. Take all pertinent medical information with you including a list of medications, advance directives and medical records.
• Plan out flying. Allow for longer connection times and arrange for cart transportation inside the airport.
• Make driving comfortable. Consider a rental vehicle with more space and accessible features.
• Ensure safety abroad. If you are leaving the country consider the Smart Traveler Enrollment Plan, a free service from the U.S. Department of State that allows U.S. citizens traveling abroad to enroll their trip with the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate.

2. Try to maintain routines

Focus on preserving your loved one’s routine as best as possible, particularly their eating and sleeping schedules, because small or unfamiliar changes can often feel overwhelming and stressful, particularly to someone living with dementia.

“For those taking a trip with someone with Alzheimer’s, the normal stresses of traveling can be even more challenging,” says Charles J. Fuschillo Jr., president and CEO of the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (AFA). “Following a few simple, important steps can help caregivers make the trip as safe, pleasant and comfortable as possible for their loved one.”

If they have certain meal and bed times, stick as closely as possible to them. For Payne, that also meant making sure her mother could watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! every night, just like she did at home.

3. Allot time for adjustment

Payne and her wife rented a house on the Oregon coast so both their families could vacation together. Due to her mother’s dementia, Payne even thought through when everyone would arrive. They decided to give her mother time to settle in and adjust to her new surroundings before the others arrived.

“We got to the house two days early and arranged for her to have own TV and her own bathroom,” she says.

To keep her mother occupied, Payne came prepared with her mother’s favorite audiobooks and a jigsaw puzzle.

4. Plan frequent breaks

The AFA also advises planning your mode of travel and timing your trip in a manner that causes the least amount of anxiety and stress, and then taking breaks along the way for snacks, restroom visits or rest. Elizabeth Miller, who has taken several road trips with her mother, concurs. Miller’s mother does not have dementia, but due to other health issues, she is oxygen dependent and wheelchair bound. Miller has had to carefully plot out drive times, rest area strategies and overnight breaks.

“I learned that McDonald’s is the best place to take an aging parent to the bathroom,” she says, because she can park right by the door.

Rest areas typically place the facilities a distance from the parking area and the walk tires Miller’s mother. Miller has driven with her mother from her home in Atlanta to a family home on northern Michigan several times.

“It’s a journey,” she says.

The normally 16-hour drive takes them much longer. Well before they hit the road, Miller starts planning. The trip requires her to get an approved oxygen tank on wheels, keep her mother’s insulin refrigerated, find hotels with handicap accessible rooms and that are easy for Miller to set up her mother’s sleep apnea machine.

“It’s a big test on your patience,” she says. “The way you do everything is just a process. You have to let go of all expectations of how long a stop should take.”

5. Remember to relax and enjoy your time together

Raquel Cooper, who took her then 80-year old mother to Washington, D.C., in 2017 to visit the monuments and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, is grateful for the memories that trip created, despite some challenges she encountered while they were traveling.

“Although it was extremely challenging tactically and emotionally, I am glad we went,” Cooper says. “My mother was a huge supporter of President Obama, ‎so going to the nation’s capital during his administration was important to her and to me. In hindsight, I would have opted for a shorter trip, maybe two and a half days vs. four. However, I have no regrets about our last real vacation together.”

Miller, too, is grateful, for the time shared and memories created with her mother.

“A blessing on long trips is sharing lots of stories,” she says. “Mom told me her memories of going to camp in Michigan. We listened to podcasts together, and I tried to listen to music that she liked in the car.”

Payne is also glad she made the trip out West with her mother.

“I do have really good memories of that time,” she says.

Perhaps the better question is, “Why shouldn’t I tip flight attendants?”

The debate about tipping culture rages on, but there’s one place gratuity doesn’t belong: airplanes. You might be tempted to tip your flight attendant, since they do serve you food and drinks, but we advise against it. Why? Because a flight attendant’s job, first and foremost, is to keep you safe, not serve you snacks.

“Tipping is not part of a flight attendant’s compensation for serving as aviation’s first responders,” Sara Nelson, Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA) international president, said in a statement.

She points out that accepting tips could create an impression that service is contingent upon receiving extra payment — but that would undermine a flight attendant’s job as a safety officer. By not accepting tips, flight attendants can maintain impartiality and ensure their focus remains on the safety and comfort of all passengers.

But can a flight attendant accept a tip? It depends on the airline — most generally discourage flight attendants from accepting tips, but they don’t necessarily ban them from doing so. You can, however, give your flight attendants small gifts as a token of your appreciation, like candies (individually wrapped in their original packaging for safety) or even a Starbucks gift card in a small denomination.

If a flight attendant goes above and beyond, you can also leave a comment with their airline, commending them — mention their name, your flight number and date of travel, and a lovely compliment.

And easiest of all, you can simply be polite. A United Airlines spokesperson tells Travel + Leisure, “We love it when our customers appreciate the hard work our flight attendants do every day, and a ‘thank you’ is always appreciated.”