Port Louis Heritage and Street Food Walking Tour

Past the old Caudan windmill, your guide takes you to the Intercontinental Slavery Museum and Aapravasi Ghat. The pace slows right down in these two places of memory, and you hear the history of enslaved people, of abolition, of indentured labour, and of the migrations that reshaped Mauritian society.

Some of the best of the city sits behind doorways you would never think to try, so we take you inside. One is thick with incense, hung with garlands, its shelves crowded with diyas and the objects of Hindu devotion. Another smells of vanilla, stacked with spices, lentils, herbs and everything a Mauritian kitchen runs on. Together they are the clearest window onto daily life in the capital.

Port Louis Central Market comes next, and we walk you through the fruit, the vegetables, the spices and the conversation, with the iron and glass architecture overhead. Then you taste two Mauritian essentials, a freshly made dholl puri and a glass of cold sugarcane juice.

At the mosque your guide points out the Indo-Islamic architecture and tells you the history of the Muslim community in Mauritius. Afterwards you sit down with us in a nearby tea shop, over local snacks and the social habits that surround tea here.

Under the arch we pick up the story of Chinese immigration and the trade that grew with it. An old Chinese pharmacy follows, then Sino-Mauritian boulettes and traditional cakes and sweets made with rice, sesame and peanut. Your last stop here is a pagoda kept by the community.

You climb up to Fort Adelaide, known locally as La Citadelle, and come out to a wide view over the harbour, the city centre and the mountains around them. From up there we connect the quarters, the monuments and the communities you have walked through.

We walk you back down through the historic centre, past the old Port Louis prison and into the quiet of the Company Garden. At the Photography Museum of Mauritius, historic images show how the city changed. Your morning finishes at Pem Wood's gallery in Caudan, where a local artist carves Mauritian nature and culture into wood, back where you started.