Pamplemousses Botanical Garden

Laid out in the eighteenth century and formally known as the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Garden, Pamplemousses is among the oldest botanical gardens in the southern hemisphere and still its most charming. Its showpiece is a pond of giant Victoria amazonica water lilies, pads a metre and a half across with upturned rims like green baking tins, opening white at night and turning pink by the second day. Around them spread avenues of palms - including the talipot, which flowers once after decades and then dies - along with spice trees, ebonies, baobabs and a small deer park, all shaded and easy to wander for a couple of unhurried hours.

What you actually see

• The giant water lilies - the famous Victoria pads and their two-day flowers.
• The talipot palms - once-in-a-lifetime flowering giants.
• The palm avenues - royal palms and dozens of rarer species.
• The spice and ebony collections - the island's plantation history in living form.

When to go

The drier winter months from May to December are the most comfortable, with mild temperatures for walking. The water lilies are at their fullest in the warmer half of the year. Mornings are cooler and quieter; midday brings both heat and coach groups.

Honest expectations

Labels are patchy and the layout is not intuitive - hiring one of the official guides at the entrance transforms the visit from a pleasant walk into an actual botanical tour, and they are inexpensive. Unofficial guides sometimes approach visitors outside the gate; stick to those inside with badges. Paths are flat and easy, but there is limited shade in some open sections.

Nearby

Port Louis and its market are twenty minutes south; the sugar museum L'Aventure du Sucre sits next door.