LUX* Belle Mare Resort & Villas

English is spoken by the hotel team, alongside French, German, Russian and Arabic, so you can get practical questions answered without resorting to dive-sign language at reception. LUX* Belle Mare is built for travellers who want the sea close, plenty to do between swims, and enough choice at dinner to avoid eating the same thing every night.

The mood is polished but not stiff. Tropical colours, sand-white tones, coral and green run through the resort, while the beachfront setting keeps the Indian Ocean in the picture. Couples have ocean-facing suites and villas with more privacy; families have interconnecting rooms, family accommodation, a kids’ club and a teenagers’ club. You can make the day as active or as idle as you like, which is useful when your legs have already had their say.

You are in Belle Mare, on the east coast of Mauritius, with direct access to Belle Mare Beach. The resort sits on the sand rather than behind a road or a second line of buildings, and the beach comes with sun loungers and parasols. Palmar Beach is about 0.8 miles away by road, while Solana Beach and Long Beach are each roughly 2 miles away.

You have a few places to eat and drink beyond the resort if you want to break out. Duck Laundry is about 300 feet away, Veranda Palmar Beach about 350 metres, and The Plantation about 600 metres. Icery 1869 Bar is around 1.3 miles away, with K-Bar and Baracuda Bar farther along the coast. For a change of scenery, Le Touessrok Golf Course is 11 miles away, and the airport transfer involves a road journey of roughly 27 miles from Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Airport.

The accommodation is arranged around suites and villas rather than standard hotel rooms, so your choice is mainly about how much room, privacy and sea view you want. A Junior Suite keeps things straightforward for a couple or a small party, while the Beach View Junior Suite puts the beach into the daily view. Interconnecting rooms and family accommodation make the resort workable when more than two people are travelling together.

For a quieter, more private stay, the Ocean View Villa or the beach-front villas move you up the scale, with private heated pools in the villas. The Prestige Villa and The Grand LUX* Suite are the options for larger groups who want room to spread out without turning the sitting area into a kit-drying station. Choose the Wellness Junior Suite if the room itself is part of your recovery plan.

Air conditioning matters in Mauritius, particularly when you return warm, salty and ready to stop moving. Rooms also have balconies, a minibar, a refrigerator, WiFi, a bath or shower, bathrobes and slippers. Some accommodation has a bath, and extra-large double beds are available in several categories. Daily housekeeping, room service and luggage storage keep the practical end of the stay from becoming another task on your list.

Five restaurants give you more than one answer to the post-dive question: how hungry are you, and how much effort can dinner require? Mondo handles breakfast, lunch and dinner beside the pool, with international food and live cooking stations. Breakfast is continental or American, and the meal plans run from bed and breakfast through half-board and full-board to all-inclusive.

Amari by Vineet takes contemporary Indian cooking towards the flavours of India and Mauritius. Duck Laundry focuses on fine Chinese cuisine, while Beach Rouge puts Mediterranean food directly on the beach and carries on from daytime dining into evening dinners with DJ beats. Royce Street works from a vintage 1933 Hooper limousine in the gardens, serving South-East Asian comfort food such as barbecue pork buns, satay chicken, Vietnamese spring rolls and yakitori vegetables.

There are three named bars. The Mixologist is the pool bar, with cocktails and mocktails overlooking the lagoon and pool; Aperitivo Bar covers morning booster shots and evening Spritzes; Maison LUX* combines coffee and drinks in a lobby café setting. ICI makes gelato, ice cream, sorbet and granita in small batches, with flavours changing daily. It is the sort of detail that can rescue the hour when lunch feels too early but dinner is still a distant prospect.

The main pool gives you a place to cool off without returning to the sea, with dedicated adult zones nearby. Beach loungers and umbrellas are set on the white-sand beach, and the private villas have heated pools of their own. If your idea of an afternoon plan is a shaded seat and very little conversation, the setting does the work for you.

LUX* ME Spa offers massages, facials, a hammam, sauna, Jacuzzi and aqua therapy, with spa packages, body treatments and a relaxation area. Couples can book a couples massage, while foot, back, neck, head and full-body treatments cover the parts of you that tend to complain first after a run of dives. The fitness centre adds yoga, fitness classes, assisted stretching, cardio and aerial fitness, with the weekly programme shown near the centre and on the in-room television.

When you still have energy in reserve, you can play tennis, use the badminton equipment, try beach volleyball or take part in water sports including windsurfing, canoeing, kayaking, paddleboarding, sailing, water skiing, wakeboarding and glass-bottom boat trips. There are also cooking classes, local rum tastings, horse riding on the beach, live music, themed evenings and film nights. Families have PLAY for children, Studio 17 for teenagers aged 12 to 17, babysitting and children’s meals, while the adults can reclaim a little uninterrupted time.

Check-in runs from 14:00 to 16:00 and check-out from 07:00 to 11:00. You will need photo identification and a credit card at check-in, and the hotel asks you to share your expected arrival time in advance. A 24-hour front desk, private and express check-in or check-out, concierge service, currency exchange and luggage storage cover the useful arrival-and-departure jobs.

Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Airport is about 27 miles away by road. Car hire is available, and free public parking is provided on site without reservation; valet parking is also available. WiFi is free throughout the property, and the rooms have British-style electrical sockets at 220–240V. Universal adaptors can be requested, which is worth sorting before your phone, camera and torch batteries all reach the same low-charge crisis.

Children of any age are welcome. Cots for children up to two years can be requested, subject to the accommodation option, while extra beds are not available. Pets are not allowed, and the property accepts cards but not cash. If you are booking a large party, group conditions apply from eight rooms, so check the arrangements before treating the reservation as several unrelated bookings.

The resort’s Circle of Care approach links its environmental work with local community projects. It supports street animals needing homes and works with the Thalassemia Society Mauritius, while also seeking to reduce waste, including the use of plastic bottles.

You can take part in a sea-turtle conservation project during your stay. The Keen on Green initiative brings the sustainability message into the kitchen through a farm-to-table focus and an emphasis on fresh, local ingredients. It is a practical set of projects rather than a badge on the wall, with the sea and the local community both part of the brief.