They say if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. And if you’ve seen photos of Mauritius – its sugar sand, cobalt shoreline and famed underwater waterfall – you’ll agree it couldn’t look much better.
Actually living there? Another matter entirely.
I’m not a complete idiot. When my German husband, a pilot, was first offered a job there flying helicopters, it was a resolute ‘no’ from me. As a travel writer, I’ve been to plenty of tropical islands and, lovely as they are, I’ve never had the urge to live permanently in honeymooner-land.
But the more I looked into Mauritius, the more I was swayed. With one of Africa’s strongest economies and most stable political systems, this small island – about the size of Surrey and a mere two-hour drive from top to bottom – sits beautifully with Madagascar to the west and a vast expanse of Indian Ocean to the east.
There are plenty of incentives to move there. Since Mauritius introduced its Digital Nomad Visa during the Covid era, there has been an influx of Europeans and Australians, with others drawn by an attractive retirement visa, while the flat income tax is a lowly 15 per cent.
All great, plus English is the most widely spoken language and the cost of living meant we could rent a modern, four-bedroom house by the ocean with a pool and a garden large enough for our dog, two cats and the four chickens we acquired for the price of a small flat in London… with a landscape gardener and cleaner thrown in.
Annabel Fenwick Elliott moved to Mauritius with her German pilot husband and then-18-month old son
As a travel writer, I’ve been to plenty of tropical islands and, lovely as they are, I’ve never had the urge to live permanently in honeymooner-land, writes Annabel Fenwick Elliott
Meanwhile, given we had an 18-month-old, it was key that there was a good local nursery. This cost £150 a month for five days a week, from 8am to noon. In London, a part-time nursery charges up to £872 a month. And nannies were about a quarter of the UK amount, while private primary and secondary schools with English curriculums cost £2,500 to £5,000 a year.
For a while there was, aptly, a honeymoon period, enjoying the year-round sunshine, hiking, surfing, scuba diving and zip-lining, plus exotic cuisine including Indian curries and Creole seafood.
Yet what we quickly learnt was that beyond the boundaries of five-star hotels with perfectly raked beaches, there were some harsh realities to this seemingly idyllic Indian Ocean existence.
Let’s start with the beaches.
Locals treat their coastline like a dumping ground. Glorious-looking as our local beach was from afar, up close it was a rubbish tip.
I took our son there to swim almost daily and was forever picking out abandoned fishing hooks and broken glass from the sand, or wading past plastic containers. Every weekend, locals would descend, set up camp, play loud music, then leave their trash behind.
Local animal cruelty was catastrophic. Dogs in Mauritius are viewed either as status symbols – bred illegally then chained up outside as ‘guards’ – or as vermin, routinely poisoned and attacked.
Glorious-looking as our local beach was from afar, up close it was a rubbish tip
Although there plenty of incentives to move there, there were some harsh realities to this seemingly idyllic Indian Ocean existence
The locals who don’t chain their dogs to their verandahs let them roam and breed, so the stray population is out of control. We travelled everywhere with stocks of food and medicine for the emaciated, flea-ridden cats and dogs we drove past every day but there were so many, the situation seemed hopeless.
Rent may have been relatively affordable. But other expenses, we soon discovered, were extortionate.
All car imports are taxed at 100 per cent so even the cheapest second-hand car there costs double what it would in the UK. Almost all the food is imported, too, at huge markups. So trips to the supermarket were exorbitant.
There’s no Amazon or eBay, or any online shopping really, which drove me slowly insane. Need a specific type of battery, or a slightly obscure kitchen ingredient? You’ll have to spend the day driving from store to store on a tedious treasure-hunt, often coming back empty-handed.
As for childcare – with no family there, I needed at least a few hours’ help a day so I could work – we got through five nannies before giving up. Perhaps we were simply unlucky, but most couldn’t swim, which was unsafe given all the water around us.
They hated the dogs we routinely fostered. And all spent a good deal of time placating our toddler with Cocomelon cartoons on their phones, rather than playing with him.
If I don’t already sound like a spoiled brat, there’s more.
Rent may have been relatively affordable. But other expenses, we soon discovered, were extortionate
We would travel everywhere with stocks of food and medicine for the emaciated, flea-ridden cats and dogs, whose population on the island is out of control
It was the idyllic weather, somewhat ironically, that was the final nail in the coffin. With my pasty English-Irish genes, I’m simply not built for the tropics. There was no respite from the humidity, the mosquitos and the cockroaches that come with 30C heat day-in, day-out.
Meanwhile, air conditioning pushed the ‘unforeseen costs’ even higher.
I made three friends: a German, a South African and a fellow Briton. Each continues to love living there, and my family has plenty of fond memories from Mauritius.
I don’t regret spending two years in the Indian Ocean nation, but ultimately that was enough. It was never, as I initially suspected, going to be our ‘forever home’.
Perhaps if you are lucky enough to tan easily, have mosquito-repellent blood and are anti-capitalist enough to shun the convenience of Amazon, unmoved by the plight of starved and beaten dogs and rich enough to buy day passes to luxury resorts every time you want a litter-free beach experience, Mauritius does have its upsides.
But we are still in search of the right place to lay down our roots.
The UK, at present, is not an option either. I’m not foolish enough to believe that the perfect country exists, but I am willing to shop around and not settle for a less-than-average existence until we find it.
Our next plan? The USA, to the mountains of upstate New York.
A far cry from the exotic isle of Mauritius, but I’m willing to bet, much more our cup of tea.
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