Car rental Mauritius without a security deposit and without a card pre-authorisation. Pick your vehicle, tell us where to bring it, and cancel free at any time if your plans change.
Every car rental Mauritius booking runs through the same four steps. No payment is taken online. We confirm your car by WhatsApp within a few hours, and you settle the balance when you collect the keys.
Bring two documents upon collecting the car. Your passport and a valid driving licence are both mandatory. If either is missing we cannot hand over the car.
We will confirm your car on WhatsApp within a few hours. Nothing has been charged.
Do not forget: your passport and a valid driving licence are both required at collection.
Prefer to talk it through? WhatsApp us on +230 5794 5443.
Car rental Mauritius works best with a small automatic. Our fleet is deliberately narrow: two well maintained compact cars that suit almost every visitor, kept in service rather than spread across a dozen models we cannot properly maintain. Both are automatic, both have working air conditioning, and both are serviced between rentals rather than once a season. You will not be handed a tired car with 200,000 kilometres on the clock and a cracked windscreen.
Car rental Mauritius rates are quoted per vehicle per day, not per person. Our minimum rental is three days, which suits the way most visitors use a car here anyway. There is no charge for extra drivers within the same booking, provided each one holds a valid licence and is named on the agreement before the car moves.
| Vehicle | Seats | Luggage | Gearbox | Per day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suzuki Swift Compact hatchback | 4 | 2 cases | Automatic | Rs 1,800 |
| Nissan Note Compact MPV | 5 | 3 cases | Automatic | Rs 2,000 |
The Suzuki Swift is the sensible default for couples and solo travellers. It is short enough to park in Port Louis, narrow enough for the sugar cane lanes around Souillac, and light on fuel, which matters when you are covering the island end to end. Two large suitcases fit in the boot with the parcel shelf removed, or two cabin bags and a beach bag with it in place.
The Nissan Note earns its extra Rs 200 a day when you have a third passenger in the back, a child seat, or more than two suitcases. The cabin is taller, so getting a toddler in and out is far less of a struggle, and the rear bench is genuinely usable for adults on a 45 minute drive rather than only for short hops. Families travelling with a pushchair should book the Note without hesitating.
If you are a party of six or more, a self drive car will not work and you should look at our private island tours with a driver instead, where a minivan or minibus carries the whole group with luggage and someone else handles the roundabouts.
We count days the way a hotel counts nights, using a noon cut off rather than a stopwatch. If you return the car before noon, that final day is not charged. If you return it after noon, the day counts in full. Nothing is rounded against you quietly, and the booking form shows the exact figure before you submit.
An example. You take delivery on the morning of the 20th and hand the car back before noon on the 27th. That is seven days. Hand it back on the afternoon of the 27th instead and it becomes eight, because you have had the use of the car for that whole day. Knowing this in advance is worth real money on a departure day: an early return before noon costs you nothing extra, while a lazy lunch and a two o clock handover adds a full day to the bill.
The delivery time itself does not change the count. Whether we hand you the keys at 08:00 or at 19:00, the day you collect is day one. That works in your favour on arrival, because a late evening landing still gives you a full day of use on the following morning without an extra charge.
We do not take bookings shorter than three days. Two delivery legs are involved in every hire, and on a one or two day rental those legs cost more than the car, which leaves you paying a lot for very little driving. Three days is the point where the numbers start making sense for you. If you genuinely need a car for a single day, message us on WhatsApp and we will look at it case by case, or arrange a driver instead.
We bring the car to you and we come back for it at the end. There is no depot to find, no shuttle bus, and no queue at an airport desk. Type your hotel or villa into the booking form and the charge appears immediately, worked out from the address itself. The rate is the same whether your villa sits on the main road or twenty minutes down a cane track.
| Where we meet you | Covers | Per leg |
|---|---|---|
| North | Grand Baie, Pereybere, Cap Malheureux, Trou aux Biches, Mont Choisy, Balaclava, Pamplemousses | Rs 1,000 |
| East | Belle Mare, Trou d'Eau Douce, Palmar, Poste Lafayette, Centre de Flacq | Rs 1,100 |
| Port Louis | Port Louis city centre and the Caudan Waterfront | Rs 1,100 |
| Moka | Moka, Saint Pierre, Bagatelle | Rs 1,200 |
| Airport | SSR International Airport, Plaisance, any hour of the day or night | Rs 1,300 |
| Central plateau | Quatre Bornes, Curepipe, Rose Hill, Beau Bassin, Vacoas, Ebene, Phoenix | Rs 1,300 |
| West | Flic en Flac, Tamarin, Riviere Noire, Albion, Wolmar, La Gaulette | Rs 1,500 |
| South | Le Morne, Bel Ombre, Souillac, Blue Bay, Mahebourg | Rs 1,500 |
Every district on the island has a published rate, so there is no address we cannot price and nothing waiting to be added at the desk. The charge applies per leg, so a delivery and a collection are two separate charges. Collect the car at the airport and hand it back in Grand Baie and you pay Rs 1,300 plus Rs 1,000. Start and finish at the same hotel in Flic en Flac and you pay Rs 1,500 twice. The booking form adds both legs to your total as soon as you pick the locations, so the number you see before you submit is the number you pay.
The cheapest legs are in the north at Rs 1,000, which is where most visitors stay anyway. The most expensive are the west and south coasts at Rs 1,500, where the roads are slower and a driver takes longer to get back. Port Louis, Moka and the plateau towns sit in between, so a guesthouse in Quatre Bornes or an apartment in Ebene is priced no differently from a beach hotel.
On a single day rental the two delivery legs can cost more than the car. Over a week they barely register. A Swift for one day in the north is Rs 1,800 plus Rs 2,000 of delivery. The same Swift for seven days is Rs 12,600 plus the same Rs 2,000, which works out at Rs 2,086 a day all in. If you are deciding between three days and six, the longer hire is far better value per day than the rate card suggests.
If you are already near us and would rather pick the car up in person, tell us on WhatsApp before you book and we will work something out. The flat rates above exist because a driver has to deliver the car and then find their own way back, which is the real cost we are covering.
Almost every car rental Mauritius operator asks for a security deposit. Sometimes it is cash handed over at the counter. More often it is a hold placed on your credit card, typically somewhere between Rs 20,000 and Rs 50,000, which stays blocked for the whole rental and then takes another one to three weeks to clear back to you after you fly home.
That hold causes real problems on holiday. It eats into the credit limit you were planning to spend on restaurants and excursions. It fails outright on debit cards and on most prepaid travel cards, which is how a lot of visitors now pay abroad. And when it does not release on schedule, you are chasing a company 9,000 kilometres away by email while your bank tells you the merchant has to lift it.
We do not take a deposit at all. No cash, no card hold, no pre-authorisation. You pay the daily rate for the days you have the car, and that is the entire financial commitment. This is the single biggest reason people choose us over the counters at the airport, and it costs you nothing extra: our daily rates already sit at or below the local market.
Two reasons. First, we already run a licensed transfer and tour operation on the island, so a rental car is not our only income from you and we are not pricing in worst case losses. Second, we meet every client in person at handover, check the licence and passport, and photograph the car with you present. Knowing exactly who has the vehicle removes most of the risk that deposits exist to cover.
Nothing is taken when you submit the booking form. We confirm availability by WhatsApp, usually within a few hours, and hold the car for you. You pay the full rental amount when you collect the keys, in Mauritian rupees, euros, pounds or by card. There is no booking fee, no admin fee and no charge for a second driver. Delivery and collection are charged separately at the flat rates above.
Zero deposit does not mean zero responsibility, and we would rather be blunt about that now than argue about it in a car park later. Every rental includes insurance, and that insurance carries an excess of Rs 25,000, roughly €500. That figure is the absolute maximum you can be asked to pay if the car is damaged or stolen while it is in your care.
In practice this works simply. If nothing happens, you pay nothing beyond the daily rate. If there is minor damage, a kerbed alloy, a scraped bumper, a cracked mirror, you pay the actual repair cost, which is usually a fraction of the cap. Only a serious incident, a write off or a theft, would reach the full Rs 25,000. Your liability never goes above it, whatever the repair bill turns out to be.
| Situation | What you pay |
|---|---|
| Car returned as collected | Nothing beyond the daily rate |
| Scuffed bumper or kerbed wheel | Actual repair cost, capped at Rs 25,000 |
| Cracked windscreen | Actual replacement cost, capped at Rs 25,000 |
| Major accident or theft | Rs 25,000 maximum |
| Mechanical fault or normal wear | Nothing. That is on us |
Two things void the cover completely, and they are the same two everywhere in the world: driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and letting someone drive who is not named on the rental agreement. Mauritius enforces drink driving hard, with roadside testing and a low legal limit, so treat the rule as absolute rather than as a formality.
We also photograph the car together at handover and again at return, both of us present, timestamped. That protects you as much as it protects us. Nobody gets charged for a scratch that was already there, because there is a photograph showing it was.
Many European travel insurance policies and premium credit cards include car hire excess cover as standard, which reimburses you for exactly this kind of charge. It is worth five minutes checking your policy before you travel. If you are covered, the Rs 25,000 becomes a formality you will never feel.
The rate you see is the rate you pay. We do not build a low headline price and then recover it through compulsory extras at the desk, which is the standard trick at airport rental counters worldwide.
Same to same. You get the car with a set fuel level and return it at the same level. No refuelling fee, no inflated per litre rate, no half tank you paid for and did not use.
A couple of hours over is fine and we will not invent a charge for it. Beyond that we simply bill the extra day at the same daily rate you already agreed.
Available on request at no extra cost, subject to availability. Tell us the child's age and weight when you book so we bring the right one, fitted and checked.
The form near the top of this page takes about two minutes. It runs in four stages so that you are never staring at thirty fields at once, and you can go back and change anything before you send it.
Choose the Swift or the Note. You see the daily rate, the seat count and the luggage capacity before you commit to anything.
Tell us where to deliver, where to collect, and the times. The running total updates live with the rental days and both delivery legs.
Name, email, WhatsApp and passport number. The passport number is a legal requirement on Mauritian rental agreements.
Review everything on one screen, tick the driver declaration, and send. No card details, no payment at this stage.
After you submit, you get an immediate on screen reference and an email copy. A person then checks the car is free for those dates and replies on WhatsApp to confirm, usually within a few hours and always the same day. If the car you picked is already out, we will say so honestly and offer the other one or different dates rather than quietly substituting something else.
At handover we meet you at the address you gave, check your passport and your driving licence, walk around the car together taking photographs, hand over the keys, and take payment. Ten minutes, start to finish. At the end of the hire we come back to the same address, or a different one if you told us in advance, and repeat the walk around.
Car hire Mauritius airport pickup usually means queuing at a desk in arrivals after a ten hour flight, then walking to a lot in 30 degree heat to find your car. We do it the other way round. You tell us your flight number, we track the arrival, and a member of our team meets you in the arrivals hall with the keys and the paperwork. You walk out to the car and drive off.
Delivery to Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport at Plaisance is a flat Rs 1,300, and the same figure applies whether you land at 08:00 or at midnight. There is no out of hours premium for early arrivals or late night flights, which is worth checking against any quote you compare us with, because that surcharge is common and rarely appears in the headline price.
A lot of visitors do not want a car for their whole stay, and that is often the smarter plan. Hire a car for the middle three or four days when you are exploring, and use a fixed price private airport transfer for the arrival and departure runs, when you are tired, jet lagged and driving on the left for the first time in the dark. We can arrange both, and it usually works out cheaper than renting for the full fortnight.
We deliver most often to Grand Baie and Pereybere in the north, Flic en Flac and Tamarin on the west coast, Belle Mare and Trou d’Eau Douce in the east, and Le Morne, Bel Ombre and Blue Bay in the south. We also cover Port Louis, Moka and the whole central plateau, which matters if you are staying in a guesthouse or an apartment rather than a beach resort. Each area has one flat rate, so a villa at the far end of a coastal road costs exactly what a hotel on the main strip costs.
Mauritius drives on the left, a legacy of British rule, with the steering wheel on the right. If you are coming from the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, India or Australia this will feel entirely normal. If you are coming from France, Germany, Switzerland or anywhere else in continental Europe, give yourself the first twenty minutes on quiet roads before you take on a roundabout.
Roundabouts are everywhere and they replace traffic lights on most major junctions. Traffic already on the roundabout has priority and you give way to the right as you enter. This is the single manoeuvre that catches out visitors from right hand drive countries, so approach the first few slowly and let people behind you overtake if they are impatient.
Speed limits are posted and enforced with both fixed cameras and handheld radar. As a general guide you will see 40 km/h through villages and residential areas, 60 to 80 km/h on main roads, and up to 110 km/h on signed sections of motorway. The posted sign always overrides any general rule and limits drop sharply on the approach to roundabouts and village entries, which is precisely where cameras tend to sit.
The drink driving limit is low and the policy is close to zero tolerance. Roadside testing is routine, penalties are serious, and driving over the limit voids your insurance entirely, which turns the Rs 25,000 cap into unlimited liability. If you are going out for rum and a seafood dinner, book a taxi for the evening and leave the car at the hotel.
Using a handheld phone while the engine is running is illegal, including at a standstill in traffic. Bring a windscreen mount if you plan to navigate by phone, or ask us and we will fit one. Seatbelts are compulsory in the front and the back, and children need appropriate restraints.
Mauritian law lets visitors drive on a valid national licence for up to four weeks from arrival, and that is all we ask for. Every driver needs a valid driving licence that is still in date, and we check it at collection. If your licence is not written in English or French, bring an International Driving Permit or a certified translation alongside it, because we and any police officer need to be able to read it.
Your passport is equally mandatory at collection. A photograph or a photocopy is not accepted, and neither is a passport left in a hotel safe. Bring both documents to the handover and keep them in the car while you are driving.
The motorway from the airport through Port Louis to the north is modern, well signed and easy. Main coastal roads are generally good tarmac. Secondary roads through the sugar cane are narrow, sometimes have no markings, and can have a pothole or two, but nothing that troubles a normal car at a sensible speed. Very few roads have pavements, so expect pedestrians, cyclists, stray dogs and the occasional cow at the edge of your lane.
Local drivers are quick but courteous. Buses pull out with confidence and are best given room. Peak traffic runs roughly 07:30 to 09:30 and 15:00 to 18:00, concentrated around Port Louis, Ebene, Curepipe and Quatre Bornes. Planning your drives outside those windows will save you more time than any shortcut. The official Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority is a useful reference for opening hours and seasonal events when you are planning routes.
There are no road tolls anywhere in Mauritius, so the motorway costs nothing to use. Fuel is the only running cost you will add to the daily rate, and on an island this size it is modest. A compact automatic will typically cost somewhere around Rs 700 to Rs 1,000 to fill from half, and that will comfortably cover several days of touring rather than a single trip.
Petrol stations are common along main roads and in every town, but many close in the evening and only a handful run 24 hours. Get into the habit of filling up in the afternoon rather than assuming you will find something open at 21:00 on a coastal road. Most stations are attended, so you stay in the car and tell the attendant what you want. Cash and cards are both accepted.
Parking is free almost everywhere, including at beaches, viewpoints, markets and most restaurants. Central Port Louis is the main exception and uses a paid parking coupon system. Buy coupons at petrol stations or shops before you drive in, scratch off the date and time, and leave the coupon visible on the dashboard. It is cheap, but a warden will ticket you without one.
At beaches and hiking car parks, do not leave anything visible in the car. Opportunistic break ins are rare but not unheard of at the busier spots, and an empty visible cabin is the simplest deterrent there is.
The real argument for car rental Mauritius is not price, it is timing. You reach Chamarel before the coaches, you stay at Gris Gris until the light goes, and you stop at the roadside stall that looked interesting rather than watching it pass the window. These six routes all start from the main tourist areas and none of them needs a full day.
Climb through Case Noyale to the Seven Coloured Earths, the waterfall and the rum distillery. Go early, before the tour buses arrive at eleven, and the viewpoints are yours.
The sacred crater lake, then the gorges viewpoint. Cool, green, and completely different from the coast. Bring a light layer, it is noticeably colder up there.
Souillac, Gris Gris and the cliffs at La Roche Qui Pleure, where the sea hits hard and there is no lagoon. The least developed stretch of coastline on the island.
The red roofed chapel, then the botanical garden with its giant water lilies. Easy driving on flat, wide roads, ideal for a first day behind the wheel.
The east coast beaches, then the old capital and the ruins where the Dutch first landed. Quiet roads, long empty stretches of white sand.
Sunset at Tamarin Bay, then the drive around the Morne peninsula with the mountain on one side and the lagoon on the other. Best light of the day.
If you would rather not drive these yourself, every one of them is available as a private guided tour with one of our drivers, who will also get you into the places that are hard to find and tell you what you are looking at.
A rental car is not automatically the right answer for every trip. It depends on how long you are staying, how much you plan to move around, and how you feel about driving on the left in an unfamiliar place.
| You are | Best option | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Staying at one resort, going out twice | Airport transfer plus taxis | A car parked at the hotel for ten days, plus two delivery legs, costs more than the trips you actually take |
| Touring the island for a week or more | Rental car | Total freedom, no schedule, and cheaper than daily excursions once you pass three or four outings |
| A group of five or more | Private tour with driver | A compact car will not carry the group and its luggage. A minivan with a driver will |
| Nervous about left hand traffic | Private tour with driver | Holidays should not be stressful. Let someone else take the roundabouts |
| Arriving late at night, exploring later | Transfer now, car from day three | The most popular combination we arrange, and usually the cheapest overall |
We run car rental Mauritius alongside transfers and guided tours, so there is no incentive for us to push you towards the car if it is not the right fit. Tell us your dates and where you are staying and we will give you the honest answer, even when that answer is that you do not need to rent anything.
The requirements are straightforward and we check them at handover rather than after the fact, so there are no surprises once you have already planned your week around having a car.
Beyond those four points we ask for nothing. No credit card in the lead driver’s name, no proof of return flight, no utility bill from home, and no deposit. Produce the passport and the licence, and you drive away.
Please treat the two documents as non negotiable rather than as paperwork we might waive on the day. Our driver has no authority to release a car without seeing both, whatever the circumstances, and driving without a valid licence invalidates your insurance as well as breaching the rental agreement.
Correct. No cash deposit, no card hold and no pre-authorisation. You pay the daily rate on collection and nothing else. Your only exposure is the Rs 25,000 damage excess, and that only applies if the car is damaged while you have it.
Car rental Mauritius prices vary widely by operator. With us, Rs 1,800 per day for the Suzuki Swift and Rs 2,000 per day for the Nissan Note, per vehicle rather than per person. That includes insurance, unlimited mileage and additional drivers. On top of the daily rate you pay a flat delivery charge and a flat collection charge by region, from Rs 1,000 each. Fuel is the only other cost.
Yes. Airport delivery is a flat Rs 1,300 at any hour. Give us your flight number when you book. We track the arrival, so a delayed flight is not a problem, and we meet you in the arrivals hall with the keys.
Not usually. What we require is a valid driving licence, and Mauritian law lets visitors drive on their national licence for up to four weeks from arrival. If your licence is not written in English or French, bring an International Driving Permit or a certified translation alongside it, so it can be read at collection and at any police check.
Yes, with normal care. Roads are well maintained and signposted, and local drivers are quick but courteous. The two things to respect are roundabouts, where you give way to the right, and the drink driving law, which is enforced strictly.
Call the number on your rental agreement. Roadside assistance is included, and mechanical faults are our responsibility, not yours. You are never charged for a breakdown that is not the result of misuse. Where a repair takes time, we bring a replacement car to you.
Cancel free at any time, with no deadline and no cancellation fee. Because nothing is charged upfront there is no refund to chase either. Date changes are free as well, subject to the car being available on the new dates.
Yes, at no extra cost. Every driver must be present at handover with their own passport and their own driving licence so they can be named on the agreement. An unnamed driver behind the wheel voids the insurance completely, so please do not skip this.
We will not be able to release the car, and we would rather tell you that now than at your hotel door. A valid licence is required for the insurance to be valid, so there is no version of this we can wave through. Cancellation is free at any time, so you lose nothing but the trip you were planning. If you are already here without one, message us and we will arrange a private transfer or a tour with a driver instead.
By a noon cut off, like a hotel. Collect on the 20th and return before noon on the 27th and you pay for seven days. Return after noon on the 27th and it is eight. The delivery time does not affect the count, only the return time does. Your total updates live in the booking form as you set the dates.
Same to same. The car arrives at a set level and should come back at that level. There is no refuelling charge and no marked up per litre rate. If you return it fuller than you took it, that is generous of you but we cannot refund the difference.
Yes, three days. Every hire involves a delivery leg and a collection leg, and on a shorter booking those charges outweigh the car itself. Most visitors find three to five days is the sweet spot anyway: long enough to cover the island properly, short enough that the car is not sitting idle while you are on the beach.
Car rental Mauritius with zero deposit, free cancellation at any time, and a real person on WhatsApp within a few hours. Nothing is charged until you have the keys in your hand.