• Visit date: October 28 2024
• The visited post office:  Postal Museum Post Office in Port Louis and Baie du Cap Post Office
• Cost of sending mail: standard size postcard 32 Rs (0,64 EUR) worldwide.
• Postcard availability: Large selection in various shops and museums.
• Postcard delivery time: I’ll notify when one of these postcards has reached its final destination.

The Republic of Mauritius is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar and just 200 km south of the French island of Reunion. Mauritius has been an independent nation since 1968. It is consistently ranked as the most peaceful country in Africa.

A brief history of Mauritius Post

Mauritius holds a significant place in the history of global postal services for several reasons. During the French colonial period, the Postal Department was established in 1772 by Pierre Nicolas Lambert, the King’s printer. Mail was initially sent to France and India, and from there to other destinations, until 1810. In December of that year, British forces took control of the island. In 1840, the United Kingdom issued the first adhesive postage stamp, the “Penny Black”. Shortly after, in 1847, two stamps were issued in Mauritius, known as the “Post Office stamps” – an orange one-penny stamp and a deep blue two-penny stamp. These were the first stamps issued by Great Britain outside of the UK, and they made Mauritius the fifth country in the world to have its own postage stamps.

Following independence in 1968, Mauritius has continued to issue a variety of stamps, all of which remain valid today.

Sources: mauritiuspost, Wikipedia-Mauritius postal history, Postal Museum Mauritius

Our visit to Mauritius.

Even before arriving in Mauritius, we knew what to expect when it came to postage rates and conditions. The Mauritius Post website is clear and regularly updated. Their Postal Museum website is also very informative. We flew from Reunion, where there are several daily flights to the island, taking 45 minutes. The museum is actually very popular, even among tourists who don’t typically care for stamps and postal services.

The Mauritius Postal Museum, located in the heart of Port Louis on the waterfront, dates back to 1870. Of course it was one of the post offices we decided to visit. They had a vast selection of stamps and the service was incredibly friendly. It was clear they were used to seeing avid postcard senders like ourselves. While we bought some postmarks there, we had already brought a good selection of stamps from the purchased from the European philatelic secondary market. However, our hope to get a special cancellation on the spot was dashed. They use a regular stamp for cancelling stamps. We did manage to get the museum’s stamp in our notebook, but we couldn’t use it on postcards.

The other post office we visited was on the opposite side of the island, near our hotel. This small post office was bustling with people constantly coming in to pick up or send packages. The staff said that they actually don’t see many postcards being sent from there, but this post office also has a fascinating history. They say a ship once sank nearby, and the wood from the wreck was used to build the post office.

Farewell, Mauritius! Thank you for a truly informative and memorable time!

Stay tuned for a blog post about the new post office, coming next Wednesday!

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