Anyone ever went there?
How is it? Are there things to do? Is the food decent? How are the women? Is there a big expat community?
Overall how does it rank among tropical islands with a low-ish cost of life?
Mauritius
Anyone ever went there?
How is it? Are there things to do? Is the food decent? How are the women? Is there a big expat community?
Overall how does it rank among tropical islands with a low-ish cost of life?
> Anyone ever went there? How is it?
Been there twice, for work, but extended my second trip to do some vacation stuff. I quite liked it.
>Are there things to do?
Not a ton, but there are beaches and resort-type activities, some nightlife, and some eco-tourism stuff, especially birdwatching. I guess theoretically there’s some hiking and camping in the interior but I never did anything like that myself.
>Is the food decent?
I liked it—a lot of Indian and Chinese-inspired dishes, some good fresh seafood and tropical fruit.
>How are the women?
Miscellaneous. About half of them are descended from Indians, maybe a third are of Chinese descent, and the rest are of mixed European (mostly French) and African stock. Fair number of Malagasy folks (immigrants from Madagascar) in the cities as well. But I’m not single, so I don’t know about how locals feel about dating foreigners.
>Is there a big expat community?
There are a lot of Singaporean expats working in the financial sector, some scuzzy French people, and a smattering of everyone else. Not a huge population by any means, but you’d meet them.
>Overall how does it rank among tropical islands with a low-ish cost of life?
Better food IMO than the tropical island average, and quite good infrastructure—despite being in the middle of the Indian Ocean off of Africa, it’s an upper-middle-income country.
I think I would be bored as hell within a short time—it’s small and isolated. But it’s not a shithole at all.
To give more context, I'm self-employed and work remotely and am looking for nice places with a tropical climate and low-ish cost of life (so the Caribbean is off limits, I think, as well as most pacific islands).
I'm also single, so I don't want to go to a place that's conservatively mono-ethnic where locals never mix with foreigners and/or dislike them (which basically means I can forget about Asia as a whole).
I speak both english and french fluently which as I understand is a plus in Mauritius.
>bored as hell
What exactly is missing, in your opinion?
It's a small island, but isn't it close to continental Africa and Reunion?
>bored as hell
>What exactly is missing, in your opinion? It's a small island, but isn't it close to continental Africa and Reunion?
It’s a small island (actually a small archipelago, but one of the constituent islands has a population of like 300 people), and it’s not *that* close to anything—Madagascar is two hours by air, mainland East Africa is at least four hours and not particularly cheap to fly to (just checked tickets from Port Louis to Nairobi and they were coming up at over $1000). I guess Reunion is closer, but Reunion’s even smaller than Mauritius. Europe is 18+ hours away with limited connections, North America is farther.
I guess I personally am susceptible to “island fever.” I used to spend a lot of time on small Caribbean islands and got stir-crazy easily, and they’re not as isolated.
You’re right that English and French are both widely spoken, although the first language of most locals is Mauritian Creole, a French-based creole that you’ll likely understand moderately easily if you’re a native French speaker, but it’s not really French; it’s about as similar to standard French as Haitian is. Funny to see people who look like Indians or Chinese conversing in it. Educated young people often know all three with a slight preference for English.
I get your point. I've never been to an island so I don't know how I'll react to it. However, I do want a carefree and tranquil life, everything seems to be going to shit in bigger, more "relevant" countries and I want out so I can get some peace and focus on building a good life for myself.
Therefore, it all hinges on whether expats are able to integrate with locals easily or if there's an unspoken social caste system like in many countries that forces foreigners to stay with their own kind. Maybe an anon who's native from there will be able to chime in.
>I've never been to an island so I don't know how I'll react to it.
If you've never been to and island then I'd suggest you visit an island country for a short trip first to get a feel for it. Even if you pick a small Caribbean island to visit, you may not want to live there but it will at least give you some exposure to the type of nation and life.
Before deciding on one specific place, my plan was to visit for some time and see if the lifestyle was for me, I'm definitely not going to just move to a place I don't know without first seeing what it's actually like.
I have some money lying around so I thought I'd organize several trips to several countries and then choose where I want to go. But considering my criteria, I'm not sure where else I should consider going. I was thinking Thailand for a while, but my social and romantic life would be limited to expats there.
This. Island fever is a real thing. The locals that have never seen anything else don't get it but if you're from a big place you might. On small islands, the only road usually goes in a circle and you have seen everything there is by two weeks. The selection of products in stores (and number of stores) is limited, the islanders tend to be simple minded and you wonder why you ever moved to a rock in the middle of the ocean, a long, long way from anywhere else.
Living on an island is absolutely different from living in the tropics or visiting a francophone country in general. You will be viewed with suspicion. People who show up to live on small islands always have some ulterior motive. The locals all know each other and their grandparents knew each other. They know you're not one of them. People can warm up to you but it takes time. Even in the major city there, things will feel smaller than they are.
Very true. Felt that way on Tenerife and it’s an island that has a lot of people from the continent visiting
>I think, as well as most pacific islands
Vanuatu and Fiji can be ok for cost of living but then infrastructure isn't always so great. Picrel is Port Vila, the capital city of Vanuatu, about a 3hr flight from New Zealand or the east coast of Australia.
Personally, I was bored after a week. Had booked a month (a house rental for around $2.5k) and ended up leaving after 2.5 weeks, eating the cost of an $1100 flight back to Kenya and then Lamu (which was more fun).
Me: 40. Retired. 'Unlimited' $$, but still prefer good value. Nomad for the past 8 years. 106 countries so I actually have context.
The isolation is what gets to you. I would love it as an 1 week alternative stop-over from Africa to Asia (instead of the Gulf), but I don't think it's feasible.
No idea what timezone your "work" is on, but it's not the easiest one (unless you are Indian).
French is easy to speak there, but no one is interesting or worldly, so it's mostly conversations about inflation or Bollywood or Kpop.
You're right, I hadn't thought about it much but the timezone might be inconvenient since my clients are in Europe or the US. I'll have to think about that.
>no one is interesting or worldly
Even in the bigger cities? I want to meet people and make friends, I can't see myself living in social isolation on top of the geographic isolation - even though I'm assuming the latter won't be too much of a problem since I'm looking for tranquility.
Am I stupid to expect a good social life from an island in the first place?
Fiji was recommended to me yeah. How bad is the infrastructure? Considering what I'm looking for, would it be a better option than Mauritius?
I have been doing this for 8 years. There is literally no reason to 'move' anywhere. Don't overthink it. Pack light. Hop on a plane. Book a place for a week or two. Move to another city or region. Come back later. Keep going until you develop a better understanding of the world and what works for you.
Every Western peasant goes to Thailand to feel 'rich' for a few months.
They live in the same Ninman or Sukhumvit 2-room shitbox with hollow doors and a non air-conditioned 'gym'.
They frick the same soft-5s from Tinder, thinking they are a stud. They party at Havana or Beam until they run out of money and go back to working at their boring job at an insurance firm in Slough or Cork.
Try something new. This shit has never been easier.
I'm not sure what picture you're trying to paint, your description of Thailand expats is depressing but are you just shitting on them or on the concept of expatriation in general?
As said previously I'm not really looking for sex tourism, I want a place where I can live a real life.
Get on a plane. Stop "researching" on the internet and live your life. Fly somewhere. If you hate it, fly somewhere else.
How's the cost of life in Seychelles compared to Mauritius?
Seychelles is much, much smaller than Mauritius (Mauritius is small, but still has a national population of something close to 1.5M people, and at least a couple of “cities” with populations over 100,000; the entire Seychellois population only hit 100K two or three years ago), and even more isolated, so costs are predictably higher.
Small island nations are almost always bad choices for budget living, because everything is imported.
Very beautiful place but the locals being a mix of Africans and Indians really shows in intelligence, quality of service, etc, and makes being there grating
You've never been there
Nuh uh - I HAVE been there
Probably the best island nation honestly
Is Mauritius rich or poor? It gives me a rich people, tax haven vibe like the Bahamas but apparently cost of life on the island is low
>Is Mauritius rich or poor?
Like all economic statistics, it depends on how you slice it and what you analyze, but it’s generally classed as an upper-middle-income country. Richest in Africa by most measures. High HDI, middling inequality, relatively low poverty (these stats vary enormously depending on who is counting and how, but somewhere between 8-10% of the total population can be considered impoverished, which is lower than the US, and similar to the average for the EU).
>It gives me a rich people, tax haven vibe like the Bahamas but apparently cost of life on the island is low
Income inequality is better than in the Bahamas but the population of very wealthy money-laundering/tax-dodging types is lower. Fewer multimillionaires, larger % of pop is middle-class. And the cost of living on the island isn’t really that low—it’s more affordable than even smaller island states, but not as cheap as most mainland poor countries. It’s still a small island state, so there are limited quantities of many imported things that wind up expensive on the local market.
Do you have an idea of what an average monthly budget to live there decently comfortably (not for holidays) would look like?
I do not, sorry, but I’m sure someone on the internet does. I have spent a total of just over two weeks there.
Rent seems to be low, so I assume it's only imported products that are very expensive?
> Rent seems to be low, so I assume it's only imported products that are very expensive?
Sure. But that includes, among other things, most of the island’s food. I found basic street food pretty cheap (can get simple meals for a few $/€ equivalent), but was surprised by supermarket prices—a little more expensive than Western European prices for most things. Locally elaborated products (of which there are a few) and products imported from India (of which there are a lot) were marginally cheaper, but for most stuff it looked like I would be paying a bit more than at home for a smaller array of goods. And seafood, while presumably local, wasn’t as cheap as I was expecting—a kilo of fresh fish might be €10. Hardly prohibitive, but not a bargain.
That's good to know. Thanks for the info
How's the cooming in Mauritius?
I would imagine it's good if you like brown girls
it seems like a poor man's Singapore, aka Singapore in the 80s. If it wasn't such a b***h to get to I might visit someday.
Is that a good thing?
How is it comparable to Singapore? Singapore is a financial hub located next to the busiest shipping route in the world with all the benefits this brings (tolls, taxes, legislature), while Mauritius is literally a tiny island in the middle of the Indian Ocean.