Mauritius Dolphins Reviews 

Extremely disappointing experience – I would not recommend

We came to Mauritius to celebrate my husband’s 50th birthday and wanted to make the trip extra special by booking a private speedboat tour to swim with dolphins. Unfortunately, what should have been one of the highlights of our holiday turned into an incredibly stressful and disappointing experience.

We booked with Mauritius Dolphins months in advance and paid a £150 deposit.

A few days before our scheduled trip, I requested a VAT invoice. Despite chasing several times, it took days to receive one and I felt there was a real reluctance to provide it.

Our original trip was booked for Wednesday, with collection from our hotel reception at 6:00am. We were there waiting, but no driver arrived.

At 6:10am I messaged to ask where the driver was. At around 6:20am I was told, “he is on his way.” Between 6:30am and 7:00am, both myself and our hotel tried calling several times, but received no response.

Eventually, having been waiting since before 6am, we gave up and returned to our room. At 7:05am I received another message asking if they were “not there yet”. I said I wanted a refund.

Only then were we told that the driver had checked with the supplier and apparently the trip had been cancelled because of poor weather. Why were we told at 6:20am that the driver was on his way if the trip had been cancelled? And why had nobody contacted us beforehand to tell us?

There was no proper apology for leaving us standing in our hotel reception for over an hour.

We were offered the option of rearranging for Friday with a £15 discount. As this was a special trip for my husband’s 50th, we decided to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Unfortunately, things didn’t improve much.

On Friday we were collected at 8:15am and arrived at our destination at around 9:30am. We then stood waiting for approximately another hour before our boat finally arrived.

Dominic, who we had booked with, came over and I explained what had happened on Wednesday. He apologised and told me he would make sure we had a “memorable trip”.

It certainly was memorable – but unfortunately for all the wrong reasons.

When the boat arrived, I was shocked by its condition. It looked like it was on its last legs. The seats were ripped and parts of the dashboard/steering area appeared to be held together with tape. This was supposed to be a private speedboat experience for a special birthday.

I will say that the actual dolphin experience itself was amazing, and I don’t want to take anything away from that.

We then went to a beach for lunch. The food was cold and tasteless, and the organisation felt very poor.

What happened next was the worst part for me.

Our skipper suddenly began removing our belongings from our boat, while other people started putting their belongings onto it. When I asked what was happening, I was told he needed to take some other people back and would return for us in approximately 30 minutes.

He left us on the island.

Thirty minutes passed. Then an hour.

Boats started leaving the island, the stalls packed up and left, and eventually there was only one other boat remaining. By this point around an hour and a half had passed and I was genuinely panicking and becoming extremely upset.

I had no idea when our skipper was coming back or whether we had effectively been forgotten.

I eventually asked the remaining skipper if he could contact someone to find out what was happening. He called the office and we were told our skipper would be another 20 minutes.

For a company providing organised excursions to tourists, I find this completely unacceptable. You simply do not tell paying customers you will be back in 30 minutes, leave them on an island with their belongings removed from the boat, and then disappear for well over an hour without any communication or update.

This was meant to be a special experience to celebrate my husband’s 50th birthday. Instead, the lack of communication, delays, condition of the boat and complete lack of organisation caused unnecessary stress throughout the trip.

The dolphins were wonderful. Sadly, the company and organisation surrounding the experience were not.

Having booked based on a recommendation, I was incredibly disappointed. I would not use Mauritius Dolphins again and, based on our experience, I could not recommend them.

My biggest regret is not booking the excursion directly through our hotel. For such an important occasion, the additional peace of mind would have been worth it.

We had an absolutely fantastic day with Mauritius Dolphins and cannot recommend them highly enough.

From booking to the end of the tour, everything was smooth, professional, and enjoyable. Our guides, Benji and Killian, were excellent and helped make the day truly memorable.

A tip for future guests: if you’re visiting during winter, bring something warm for after your swim, as the speedboat ride can get a little chilly. We also recommend supporting the local vendors selling keepsakes and handmade souvenirs – they are beautiful and well worth a look.

We would personally not recommend this tour for children under 12. It’s important to remember that these are wild dolphins, not animals in captivity. They won’t stop to be petted, and when the guides tell you to jump in, you need to be ready to do so quickly. The ocean can also be rough or murky at times, which is simply part of being in nature and completely outside anyone’s control.

The bottom line is that we found the tour to be excellent value for money. We embraced the adventure, made the most of every moment, and ended up having one of the best days of our holiday.

If we’re lucky enough to visit Mauritius again, we’ll definitely be back and will happily recommend Mauritius Dolphins, Benji, and Killian to everyone we know.

★★★★★

The experience on the boat wasn’t great. While driving the boat the captain made harsh turns and a circle at high speed which we asked him not to do as it scared our son into tears. Also the Dolphin experience in wasn’t suitable for kids as 15 adults we’re pushing to get off the boat to get to the dolphins first at each stop. Overall the swimming with dolphins was chaotic and not what we expected. The snorkling was a joke as they dropped us over sandbottom with scattered loose corals and we were told to stay around the boat. The majority of the day was spent on the Island waiting for lunch to get prepared , and then cleared off before returning to store. On the way back our youngest asked for a lifevest and was told ”no” by the staff, so they didn’t seem very interested in the customer experience or a dialogue.

First the Dolphin swimming looks more a dolphin chase'they are quick animals furthermore seeing 20 boats around 3 dolphins Is no good , later a snorkeling stop of no interest cause It was full.of kelps and water ugly, tò reach the beach of ile au benitier we had t o face s long walk on the water because of low tide we were untold. before , climbing back from the snorkeling I hurt and cute my right knee because the small stair folded on itself so I fell on It , considering alsp the early wake up at 5.30 a.m. because of the car distance. I won"t repeat this experiencr, the lunch anyway was eccellente

They say watching dolphins guaranteed and we saw ONE dolphin... chased by 20 boats...
A total waste of money !!!!

We booked the dolphin swim for today and were really excited, but sadly it was miserable. :(
The weather was terrible to start, so I specifically asked if the boat would be covered before we started our 30min journey from our accommodation, and they said "yes of course". However, this was not the case, neither do they provide any dry bags or a dry place to keep your clothes or towel. Everything will be soaking wet!
The dolphin swim is more a dolphin chase. There are plenty of boats all chasing the dolphins and trying to get everyone into the water. The boat will stop a few times for everyone to get into the water but you will only see the dolphins for a quick moment if anything until they disappear again. We would have liked to spend some more time there, but once everyone saw a dolphin it was time to leave, rather than wait for a few better opportunities.
On the way back (which is a good 30 minutes) we were absolutely freezing on the boat. We got blasted in the face by the wind and rain and tried to get some shelter under our soaking wet towels. It was really not fun at all.
We specifically just booked the dolphin swim for 2 hours given the weather forecast and when we thought we're finally back they stopped for a snorkel trip! This wasn't part of the tour we confirmed and it was just miserable to sit freezing on the boat yet for another 30 minutes in the rain without any shelter or dry clothes.
This tour may be fun if your boat leaves before all these other boats and it's a warm sunny day, but we had a painful experience and couldn't wait for it to end

We did the Ile Aux Cerfs trip in September 2019 and it was the best day ever. A driver picked us up from the hotel to drive us to the boat. He was very nice. We then got on the boat to see a waterfall, do some snorkelling and had a very lovely barbecue - on the boat, how cool is that - all while driving to beautiful Ile aux Cerfs. There we spent some time bathing and lying in the sun. On the boat there was music and drinks and the crew was very lovely.
(There were other activities like parasailing available which we did not try.)
Would totally recommend booking this trip with this agency!
Booking was very easy and the people are very helpful.