Combine Your Wedding and Honeymoon in Mauritius

Turn One Week Into Two Trips Without Paying Double

The Same Flight, Two Completely Different Journeys

Here's the cleverest thing destination couples have figured out.

You pay for one flight to Mauritius. Eleven hours of travel. You host your wedding. Your guests are there for four or five days. They leave. And instead of boarding a flight home with them, you stay. You switch hotels, switch coasts, switch pace. And suddenly, the same island becomes a completely different place — because this time, there's no seating plan, no coordinator, no timeline. There are just the two of you, the ocean, and the first chapter of your life as a married couple.

It's the smartest two-for-one in the wedding world. One flight. Two experiences. And the transition between them — that moment when the last guests climb into their airport transfer and you find yourselves alone for the first time as husband and wife — is a moment of indescribable tenderness.

The Strategy: Two Coasts, Two Worlds

Mauritius is a compact island — sixty-five kilometres from north to south, forty-five from east to west — but its coastlines are radically different. That diversity is what makes the wedding-plus-honeymoon combo work so brilliantly.

Phase 1: The Wedding (North or West Coast)

The north and west of the island are the most popular zones for weddings, and for good reason. The lagoon is calm, the beaches are sheltered from the wind, resorts and villas are plentiful, and nightlife and restaurants are easily accessible for your guests.

Set your wedding base at Grand Baie, Trou aux Biches, Flic-en-Flac, or Le Morne. Your guests stay for four or five nights. The ceremony happens. The reception unfolds. The next-day brunch closes out the celebration. The goodbyes are emotional. Suitcases zip shut. Taxis pull away toward the airport.

Phase 2: The Honeymoon (East Coast, South, or Interior)

The day after your guests depart, you change the scenery. A one-hour transfer takes you to the other side of the island — and into another world.

The east coast — Belle Mare, Trou d'Eau Douce, Poste Lafayette — is wilder, breezier, more authentic. The resorts here tend to be more exclusive, more intimate. Île aux Cerfs is a boat ride away. The rhythm slows down.

The south — Bel Ombre, Le Morne (if your wedding was in the north) — offers spectacular nature, hikes, waterfalls, and that raw beauty we describe in our guide to the wild south.

The interior — Chamarel, the high plateaus, the forests — is a surprising option for couples who want to escape the beach for a few days. Lodges perched in the mountains, with views over valleys and tea plantations, offer an experience completely different from the coast.

The Ideal Calendar: A Sample Week

Here's a schedule that works for most couples:

Days 1–2: Arrive in Mauritius. Settle into your wedding hotel or villa. Acclimatise, handle any civil ceremony paperwork in Port Louis, reunite with the first guests to arrive.

Day 3: The rest of the guests arrive. Group activities — catamaran cruise, excursion, welcome dinner.

Day 4: The wedding. Ceremony, cocktails, reception, dancing, tears, joy.

Day 5: The next-day brunch. Afternoon free with your guests. Casual farewell dinner.

Day 6: Guests depart. A slow morning. Transfer to your honeymoon accommodation. Settle in. First dinner alone as a married couple.

Days 7–10: The honeymoon. Beach, couple outings, spa, romantic dinners, diving, hikes — the programme is entirely yours.

Day 11: Fly home, tanned, married, and wearing the kind of smile that doesn't fade for weeks.

The Financial Advantage

Let's talk numbers.

A Paris-to-Mauritius return ticket runs between €700 and €1,200 per person. That fare is the same whether you stay five days or fifteen. The marginal cost of extending your stay is zero on the transport side.

The honeymoon accommodation: By switching coasts, you can choose a completely different category of stay from your wedding. If your wedding was in a large resort with all your guests, your honeymoon can be in an intimate boutique hotel or a secluded private villa — often at very competitive rates, especially in low season.

For four to five extra nights in a beautiful property, budget between €800 and €2,500 for the couple depending on the standard. That's a fraction of what a honeymoon in a separate destination — Maldives, Seychelles, Bali — would cost, with its own long-haul flight at several thousand euros.

The bottom line: For the price of one trip, you get a wedding AND a honeymoon. The saving on the second flight alone nearly covers the extra accommodation nights.

What You'll Discover During Your Honeymoon (That the Wedding Didn't Leave Time For)

During the wedding, Mauritius is a backdrop. Gorgeous, but a backdrop — you're too busy, too in demand, too caught up in the event to really see the island.

During the honeymoon, Mauritius becomes an experience.

You'll have time to lose yourself in the backstreets of Mahébourg and find a family-run fish restaurant that's been open for three generations. To rent a scooter and follow the south coast, stopping wherever the landscape grabs you. To snorkel over coral gardens you didn't know existed. To wander through the Pamplemousses botanical garden and stand transfixed before a giant Victoria amazonica water lily. To taste a rum arrangé at a roadside shop and chat with the owner for an hour.

The honeymoon gives you the Mauritius the wedding cannot: the slowness, the depth, the authenticity.

Our Honeymoon Phase Recommendations

For Beach and Downtime Couples

Belle Mare and the east coast. Endless kilometres of white sand beach, turquoise waters, luxury resorts — the One&Only Le Saint-Géran, the Four Seasons, the Constance Belle Mare Plage — offering honeymoon packages with spa, private dinners, and upgrades.

For Adventure and Nature Couples

The wild south — Bel Ombre, Chamarel, the Black River gorges. Hikes, waterfalls, quad biking, dolphin watching, rum distillery visits. Charm lodges in the highlands for mornings waking up to mountain views.

For Culture and Discovery Couples

Port Louis and the island's interior. Explore the central market, Chinatown, the natural history museum. Visit the Hindu temples at Grand Bassin. Climb to Trou aux Cerfs, the extinct volcanic crater in the heart of Curepipe. Stay in a family guesthouse and live the everyday Mauritian life.

For Couples Who Want the Ultimate Adventure

Rodrigues. Take a ninety-minute flight from Mauritius and spend three to four days on the sister island. Deserted beaches, grilled octopus, authentic sega, and the feeling of being at the edge of the world. It's the most unexpected and most memorable honeymoon extension.

The Transition Moment: Why It Matters

There is a moment, between the end of the wedding and the start of the honeymoon, that deserves to be lived consciously.

It's the morning your guests leave. The villa empties. The hotel falls silent again. The confetti has been swept away. The flowers are starting to wilt. And for the first time in months — maybe years — of planning, lists, decisions, and stress, there is nothing left to do.

Nothing at all.

Savour that emptiness. It is precious. It is the space between the event and the life. Between the most planned day of your existence and the first morning where the only plan is to have no plan.

Have a coffee together on the terrace. Watch the ocean. Talk about the night before — the moments you experienced differently, the details one of you noticed and the other didn't, the speech that made you cry, the dance that surprised everyone. Relive the wedding together, at your own pace, with no photographer, no guest, no music.

And then stand up, pick up your suitcases, and head for the next coast. Toward the next version of Mauritius. Toward the first day of the rest of your lives.

Nat & Jude photograph weddings in Mauritius — and sometimes, when couples ask us, the first days of the honeymoon too. Get in touch to talk about your double journey.