Travel: Mauritius - News - Scotsman.com By ALICE WYLLIE Published on Monday 2 April 2012 00:00 SUN, sea, sand, giant tortoises, Mauritius has it all ... if you can bear to leave your private villa There are many factors which can make or break an ideal holiday. For some it's being no further than a spray of powder from the slopes, for others a bottomless pitcher of sangria. And then there's the kind of person - often the one who spends the rest of the year being garotted by a necktie - who just wants to spend a decent chunk of their holiday in their pants. My stay at the Four Seasons Mauritius Resort at Anahita - a private island sanctuary in Beau Champ on the East Coast - was, in the best possible way, pants. For the first two days, as I decompressed from city life and all the binding, restrictive garments that come with it, I wore little else. Not in a scare-my-fellow-holidaymakers way, you understand, but because the sense of privacy and seclusion at this five-star resort is such that putting on some clothes seems pointless and tearing oneself away from one's villa is a serious challenge. Luxury resorts are having to do ever more to stand out from the crowd, particularly on an island like Mauritius where luxury comes as standard. Both Charles Darwin and Mark Twain declared the island heaven on earth, its natural charms - white sands, azure waters, lush forests - speaking for themselves. Most resorts are designed to allow guests to make the most of the very things they flew for 13 hours to enjoy, but it takes much more than gin-clear waters to satisfy the average five-star globetrotter today. And when it comes to little extras like chilled towels and cocktails on arrival, guests have seen it all before. So how to stand out? This is something that the Four Seasons brand - a world leader in unabashed luxury - has little trouble doing. What makes the Four Seasons Mauritius different from the other luxury hotels on the island is an all-villa concept. From honeymooning couples to young families, everyone gets their own private slice of this very glitzy paradise, complete with a garden, a plunge pool and the comfort of knowing that you're not sharing a wall with any noisy neighbours. Views are of the beach, mangroves or, in my case, the ocean. That's where the pants come in. No one can see me, without the aid of a very long lens, and while these villas have celebrity hideaway written all over them, I doubt the paps would be interested in me. And so I laze contentedly in my unmentionables, interrupting my lounging schedule just for reapplications of sun cream. I get up only to sample the selection of sweet pastries which arrive mid-afternoon, every day. I feel momentarily guilty that I'm not getting stuck into anything other than a good book, but the feeling passes quickly as I dangle my toe into my slate-lined plunge pool from the comfort of a squashy sun lounger built for two. While a hop from my villa there are private beaches, pools and a spa to satisfy the most horizontal of sybarites, I defy anyone who visits this resort to not feel a small twinge whenever they set foot outside their little bubble of luxury. Forget packing a beach bag or checking you've got the right SPF with you. Forget using the pool shower or nipping back and forth from your room. And forget getting dressed. I could watch turquoise dragonflies skimming across my own pool and red-bellied birds flitting around my garden all from the comfort of my bed. Why would I leave? Leave I did, eventually, and I'm jolly glad I got around to it, not least for the grub. Mauritian food is legendary and it's no coincidence that Shelina Permalloo - whose parents are Mauritian - won MasterChef 2012 recently with her series of dishes inspired by the island's cuisine. Mauritian dining centres, unsurprisingly, on the sea. With Creole, French and Indian influences, the freshest fruits de mer are combined with rice and spices to mouth-watering effect. Marlin and ombrine are must-sample local fish, while fruits like papaya and banana feature heavily. Upon arrival at breakfast on my first morning (fully dressed, I might add) a friendly, matronly Mauritian waitress all but tells me I'm having the Madagascar crab benedict, a signature dish consisting of crab meat, spices, hollandaise sauce and soft poached eggs. The first mouthful convinces me that I'll be eating it for the rest of my stay. And I do. I've never had much time for the idea that indulgent food should be burned off, and anyway, that hollandaise was so decadent that it would take some serious burning off, but burn it off I do. Most watersports are complimentary and include instruction, so after my hearty breakfast I find myself quivering atop a board, learning to windsurf. My attempt is pitiful, but my instructor maintains an encouraging poker face throughout before I give up and retire to my villa. While I insist on spending much of my stay horizontal, I eventually haul myself into a vertical position long enough to flit between villa, beach lounger (rearranged between users with an elaborate system of folded and rolled towels) and spa, where treatments given in the over-water stilted rooms feature aloe vera, lemongrass and coconut, all plucked fresh from the spa garden. Then there are the tortoises. The resort is home to four giant aladabra tortoises, hulking beasts whose combined ages probably add up to longer than Mauritius - first colonised by the Dutch in 1638 - has been inhabited. I make daily visits to these prehistoric monsters, bringing them bananas pinched from the bountiful breakfast buffet. It's possible to get up close as they go about their business of munching leaves and going nowhere fast, and they're fascinating to watch. Like very small, very slow cars they bump around the place, climbing over each other and generally being adorable. Hanging out with them is a magical experience for me, so it must blow the minds of pre-teen visitors. Having said that, they have plenty to keep them amused. Children aren't left to entertain themselves with sticky toys and jigsaws with missing pieces in some depressing "Kidz Club." Rather, they're treated to everything from trying out the resort's just-for-kids bakery to taking part in musical theatre workshops held by West End stars. I'm a little jealous. As tempting as cupcakes and chorus lines sound, however, I've got a date with a sun lounger. I have been vertical for an obscene amount of time and I need to de-robe, hit the plunge pool and pass out, in that order. Knowing that I'm just days away from a crash-landing back in reality, and all the lukewarm temperatures and pesky trappings of work that accompany it, I'm keen to max out my pottering-around-in-my pants time. Wandering back to my room, I raise my eyes towards the island's craggy inland mountains, caked in greenery, cloaked in cloud and just waiting to be explored. That twinge of guilt returns for just a moment. Will I? Should I? Maybe next time. Rates at the Four Seasons Resort Mauritius start at £408 per room per night on a bed and breakfast basis, based on two people sharing, including all taxes. Tel: 00800 6488 6488 or visit www.fourseasons.com/mauritius for more information. Emirates flies daily from Glasgow to Dubai and beyond to a network of more than 120 destinations including Mauritius, and will introduce a second Glasgow service on 1 June. An Economy Class return fare from Glasgow to Mauritius starts from £752. For information and reservations, visit www.emirates.com/uk