Travel Question of the Day: Simon Calder on the best guide to Mauritius

Q I wonder if you could recommend a travel guide for Mauritius. We will be there for two weeks at the end of May.

Sharon Alexander, Warwickshire

A First, congratulations on your timing for this splendid destination: late May was when I researched my 48 Hours in Mauritius, and the climate in early “winter” on this tropical island was perfect: clear skies, warm days, cool evenings.

At any time of year, you can enjoy a fusion of Asia, Africa, France and Britain on an island that emerged from the Indian Ocean only 10 million years ago.

Luxury resorts are clustered around the west, north and east coasts of the island; the south coast is more rugged. Wherever you are staying, an excellent bus network connects this pocket-sized nation, and a fortnight is ideal for a combination of exploration and relaxation.

Start at the capital, Port Louis, in the north-west. Take in the view from Fort Adelaide Citadel, notably the huge Champs de Mars racecourse, created nearly two centuries ago. The closest Mauritius gets to “frenetic" is the city’s market, selling “cures” for gout or cellulite, a rainbow of textiles and mountains of fresh fruit. In the Natural History Museum, inside a beautiful colonial building on Chaussee Street, pride of place goes to a stuffed dodo - all that remains of the overgrown, flightless pigeon that thrived on the island until man (and his eternal companion, the rat) arrived in Mauritius. And there is nothing corporate about the adjacent Company Gardens, a profusion of shady tropical trees with a bandstand and statues of forgotten heroes.

Inland, the most rewarding window on the island’s rich history is provided at Eureka - a 1836 plantation house. La maison Creole (00 230 433 8477; www.maisoneureka.com), as it calls itself, recreates 19th-century life for the wealthy Franco-Mauritian upper classes. Eureka is set amid well-manicured gardens, and a trail leads to a gorge where whitewater tumbles over volcanic rock.

In terms of the best guide: with excellent books available from Bradt, Lonely Planet and Rough Guides, I suggest you choose the most up-to-date. Rough Guides has an e-book published a year ago, but if you prefer a print copy then Lonely Planet is the most recent – December 2013.