Americans moving to Mauritius

Regarding food, there will be plenty of things that he'll be fine with eating.  All of the things you mentioned are available in Mauritius.  You won't have the seemingly endless numbers of options you have in a US grocery to choose from, but you'll find at least one or two of whatever it is you are looking for assuming it's a some what typical food item.

There are a number of locally grown fruits and vegetables available in Mauritius, but the quality of the produce (both locally grown and imported) will not be as good a quality as what you are accustomed to in the US.

Availability at times in grocery stores can be quite random as well.  Sometimes broccoli, for example, is available and sometimes it's not as well as with other items and depends on the store as well so it doesn't have anything to do with the season.  After heavy rains, the quality of the produce tends to suffer greatly as well across the island.

The local food markets are usually your best bet to not only finding better availability of produce and often times better quality, but you can also get better prices (once you know what the "right" price you should be paying is).  Not everyone will look to take advantage and charge higher prices to an expat, but you will need to be careful about the prices that are quoted to you.  Do not be afraid to haggle.

As far as electrical items, you will need some sort of converter depending on the items and where they were purchased.  Mauritius is on 220-240 volts which will fry some US electrical items if there is not a built in converter.  Additionally, the type of plugs for the outlets used in Mauritius vary as well.  It is common to see either UK, EU or even South African plugs / outlets in homes and on items being sold in the stores.

If your husband's company is paying to relocate your household goods (appliances, electrical items etc.) then they may also pay for converters as well.  To buy whatever household goods you will need in Mauritius will often cost a lot more in Mauritius. 

Similar to what I said about food in grocery stores, Mauritius will mostly have what you need, but the selection is typically small and the quality some times may not be that great and the prices will be a lot higher in Mauritius compared to most items in the US.

Clothes are one thing that are a lot lower in price than in the US as many designers have their clothes manufactured in Mauritius such as Calvin Klein, Nautica, Top Shop, Next etc. and can be found at very very good prices as long as you stay away from most of the factory shops that tend to price everything in Euros and aim to sell to clueless tourists.

Good luck with the decision and potential move.....

Regarding electrical devices, note also that some seem to handle the conversion better than others. My wife's heavy-duty Kitchenaid mixer has been running strong for 4 years on a simple travel converter. Likewise, our Black & Decker rice cooker. However, seemingly less demanding devices - including an air purifier - have been cooked almost immediately.

In the end, it's the difference in cycles (50Hz vs. 60Hz in the U.S.) that gets many devices. Some can handle the lower rate, while others will prove more sensitive and either under-perform (while slowly dying) or work for a while and then "pop" without warning.

FWIW, we even hauled in a heavy-duty "step down transformer" in order to run our Dyson vacuum and Hoover Floormate. It fried itself after just a few uses, while the Dyson keeled over in less than a year of only occasional use.

Bottom Line: For many basic appliances, you're better off just buying local. Stick to the major brands (Samsung has proven reliable - fridge, washer, microwave) and be sure to request the warranty documentation/receipt at the time of purchase. Cash & Carry generally has the lowest prices around.

As for Internet access, the best available rate is 4Mbps - but you'll pay through the nose for it. 2Mbps - with the local version of "digital" TV (NOT HDTV - but watchable) - is more reasonable. Either way, you're looking at significant latencies when going off-island, so online gaming is not a realistic option.

Youtube works OK at lower resolutions (360-480p), though expect some stuttering. Haven't tried Netflix, and note that Hulu is blocked outside the U.S. (though there are ways around this). In the end, I just pull what I need off the Torrent sites (if you're an ex-pat, eztv.it is your best friend).

Good luck!

RCK

Can someone please bring my laptop from America...il get it delivered to your house....long shot
Worth a try...

High speed internet. You have two internet providers to choose from. Emtel and Orange. Emtel offers wireless internet service. The service is capped at 5G download per month. Orange offers ASDL over phone line. I signed up for 512Kbs unlimited downloads for about $33 a month. The actual highest speed you will achieve is 50k to 70k. XBOX Live service will not work.

For electrical gadgets I suggest bringing in electrical converters. I had about three converters to support electrical appliances.

Hi

I see that most of your questions on food and electronics have been answered. Most are correct, we used to come here on vacations from San Francisco when my kids were young and at the time there was absolutely nothing for their American tastes but now you can find pretty much everything or the equivalent...so I'm sure your son will be quite happy! And NOW you can watch Netflix! But do not cancel your account from the US, just log in from the same account when you are here otherwise you'll have a restricted amount of shows.

Good luck on the move and don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. I've been back here for a few months now...

Take care,

Devi

This is a 6 yrs old thread