Port Louis, Mauritius

Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius, is the island's commercial, cultural and political heart — a busy, hot, low-lying harbour city on the north-west coast, hemmed against a backdrop of jagged green mountains. While most visitors come to Mauritius for its turquoise lagoons and beaches, which lie around the rest of the island, Port Louis rewards a day of exploration for a vivid taste of the island's extraordinary cultural mix, where Hindu, Muslim, Creole, Chinese and Franco-Mauritian communities live side by side and their temples, mosques, churches and shops share the same streets. The city's modern showpiece is the Caudan Waterfront, a regenerated stretch of the old harbour with shops, restaurants, a casino, craft stalls and the Blue Penny Museum (home of the famous, immensely valuable Mauritian postage stamps). Inland, the covered Central Market (Bazaar) is a sensory plunge into Mauritian life — spices, tropical fruit, vegetables, crafts and street-food stalls. The compact old centre holds the colonial-era heart around Place d'Armes and Government House, the imposing Jummah Mosque, a lively Chinatown, Hindu temples, the Aapravasi Ghat — a UNESCO World Heritage Site marking the historic immigration depot where indentured labourers arrived — and the Champ de Mars, one of the oldest racecourses in the southern hemisphere. Above it all, the Citadel (Fort Adelaide) gives the best view over the city and harbour to the mountains. But Port Louis's greatest pleasure may be its food: the Mauritian street-food scene is among the best in the Indian Ocean, fusing Indian, Creole, Chinese and French influences in dholl puri (split-pea flatbread), gateaux piments (chilli cakes), rougaille, biryani and fresh tropical fruit. The city is the gateway to the island's wider attractions — the north-coast beaches and resorts of Grand Baie, the Black River Gorges, the seven-coloured earths of Chamarel and the sacred lake of Grand Bassin. Port Louis is hot and humid year-round; the cooler, drier winter months (May to November) are the most comfortable, while the summer (December to April) is hotter and the cyclone season.