Why Mauritius is ideal for adventurous honeymooners

It’s strange having a complete stranger orchestrate a surprise night of romance for you, but then our five-star hotel, Heritage Le Telfair, is giving us the honeymoon treatment.

The petals continue around the bed and into the bathroom, where a roll-topped, claw-footed bathtub is filled with a cloud of soap bubbles, sprinkled with more blossoms. It’s all incredibly romantic. But the water is stone cold.

Why? It’s not the hotel’s fault at all. We’re a wildlife-loving couple and – after finishing our candlelit dinner on the beach – rather than return to our room to gaze into each other’s eyes, we instead spend the next hour-and-a-half watching cuttlefish swim through the shallows.

En route to our room we tiptoe through paths strewn with giant snails, which we photograph and goggle at as they mate. In fact – along with the adorable flying foxes that swoop between trees – they manage to entirely distract us from the carefully curated night of romance expertly organised by our hotel.