Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Although Mauritius may feel lost in the Indian Ocean, the island's telephone services are
generally reliable. In fact, Mauritius offers some of the cheapest mobile-phone services in
the world.
landlines, although there's an open market for mobile services.
The rate for a call to Australia, Europe or the USA is about Rs 25 per minute. These
rates fall by around 25% during off-peak hours (10pm to 6am from Monday to Friday and
noon on Saturday to 6am the following Monday).
When phoning Mauritius from abroad, you'll need to dial the international code for
Mauritius (
230), followed by the seven-digit local number. There are no area codes in
Mauritius.
Mobile Phones
Coverage on Mauritius and Rodrigues is generally excellent and mobile phones are a
cheap way to communicate with others. In fact, many Mauritians have more than one mo-
bile phone. If you have a GSM phone and it has been 'unlocked', you can keep costs
down by buying a local SIM card from either
Orange
( 203 7649;
www.orange.mu
; Edith Cavell St,
Mauritius Telecom Tower, Port Louis)
or
Emtel
( 212 5400;
www.emtel-ltd.com
;
President John Kennedy St, Air
Mauritius Bldg, Port Louis)
. A starter pack costs around Rs 100 including Rs 86 worth of calls.
To top-up your credit you can buy prepaid cards almost anywhere. When buying a SIM
card you'll usually need to bring along your passport and a sponsor's signature.
Local calls are charged at between Rs 1.20 and Rs 3.60 per minute depending on
whether you're calling someone on the same network or not. International calls cost a
couple of rupees per minute on top of the standard Mauritius Telecom rates.
Purchasing a SIM card package - even for one call home - is much less costly than
buying a local phonecard.
TIME
Mauritius is GMT plus four hours, both on the mainland and on Rodrigues. When it's
noon in Port Louis, it's 8am in London, 9am in Paris, 3am in New York and 6pm in
Sydney. Mauritius does not operate a system of daylight savings; being equatorial its sun-
set and sunrise times vary only slightly throughout the year.
TOURIST INFORMATION
Although independent travellers are definitely in the minority, there are two corporate en-
tities dedicated to those who don't fall into the package-getaway category. Both have
