Casela Nature Park is an excellent, must do day trip from Flic en Flac. This nature park is one of a kind on the island of Mauritius, and is well worth a visit!
Casela provides a full day of fun. From walking around and seeing animals up close, to safari bus tours, to more unique animal interactions such as camel rides, walking with lions, breakfast with giraffes and more! Additionally, there is the other side of the park focusing on fun in the form of rides, zip lining, mini golf, safari quad biking, to name a few. There are also restaurants on site, as well as smaller food/drink outlets. Shopping is also available thanks to the gifts shops!
(Note: some of the animal interactions and activities require an extra fee. Also, no food can be taken into the park – I learned that the hard way!).
For accommodation in Mauritius, head over to Booking.com or Agoda for the best range of options and deals.
For activities and tours in Mauritius, check out GetYourGuide or Viator.
Renting a car really is the most convenient way to get around Mauritius. Head over to Discover Cars for rental car options.
Best time to visit?
The park is open from 9am – 5pm. I do recommend to arrive as early as possible to ensure you don’t run out of time and can do everything you wish for. That’s to say you may spend half a day here or you may end up wanting to spend the whole day – it’s best to have that option! Even if you are done with the animal encounters and activities, you can grab a bite to eat or easily just chill around the park – there are benches and so around where you can relax and take in the nature!
Also if you visit early you can enjoy some time before it gets even hotter!
Buying Tickets
Tickets can be booked in advance online or you can buy them on arrival. I would recommend to buy them in advance to save some time (I didn’t and luckily it wasn’t busy when I arrived, but if it is then you may be waiting some time!).
How to get to Casela Nature Park?
Casela Nature Park is the perfect day trip from Flic en Flac because it is so near – only 5km away.
If you decide to hire a car in Mauritius, reaching Casela Nature Park can be done very quickly and easily. Or even if you’re not staying in Flic en Flac, Mauritius isn’t that big so you’ll never be too far away if you have access to a car! (I do recommend hiring a car in Mauritius, you can check for rental cars here).
BUT if you don’t hire a car, you just might be able to take a free shuttle bus. On the Casela website, they state ‘A free shuttle to Casela is at the disposal of tourists staying in hotels & resorts of Flic en Flac! Feel free to consult your concierge for reservations and additional details.’
If this doesn’t work out however, or you are staying not in a hotel/resort (as was my case – I stayed with a friend), visiting Casela Nature Park can still be ‘easily’ done from Flic en Flac by public bus. (In general the buses aren’t great and it’s a bit difficult to get to certain places, making Casela a great day trip option from Flic en Flac).
To reach Casela Nature Park by bus from Flic en Flac, hop on any bus heading out of town. All of these buses will go to Cascavelle Shopping Mall. Most buses are heading to Port Louis, the opposite direction from Casela. However, you may be lucky and end up on a bus which will pass by Cascavelle then continue past Casela, just ask when you buy your ticket. Likely, you will end up getting off at Cascavelle, where you can either wait on a bus heading in the (literal) right direction by Casela, or you can walk for 20 minutes to the nature park.
- I chose to walk because honestly I found the buses pretty confusing and didn’t want to waste time waiting. The walk is along quite a busy road, but if you just stick right to the side it’s totally fine! I walked along the right hand side before eventually crossing over to the left when there was some pavement there before reaching Casela.
My Casela Nature Park Experience
After taking the bus to Cascavelle and walking for 20 minutes I reached the entrance to Casela Nature Park! As I visited in December, the rhino’s out front were looking festive!
Area 1 (Welcome Centre)
It was super quiet when I arrived, just a few others entering at the same time. In fact, in general around the park it wasn’t too busy at all, I was a little surprised! (Don’t expect this to always be the case, it is definitely a popular place!!).
I arrived later than intended, around 11am – life happened you know…. As I was visiting solo however I feel this was fine, I personally didn’t need the entire day. I still recommend you to go as early as possible however, especially if with family or friends (sometimes you don’t need quite so much time when solo).
I bought my ticket on arrival, which was fine as it was so quiet and was told my first step of where to go, given my time for the safari tour (12.30pm) and told where it leaves from. The receptionist pointed out a map of the park to me, highlighting the different numbers corresponding to different areas. Do take a picture of this map as they don’t give you one! (There are some maps dotted around the park though like the one below).
First up I had to take a bus from the Visitor Centre to area number 8. A bus was waiting so I got on, and only two others joined me (it would have been busier earlier!). It took me to the first stop which was Predator Kingdom.
Areas 8 (Predator Kingdom) & 9 (Camels & bus stop)
On arrival at Predator Kingdom, I was told I had to be back to take the bus in 15 minutes to the next area, so that I could get the safari tour I was assigned to. I therefore had a little time to walk around and see the lions, cheetahs, etc.
On exiting this area, there is a gift shop to walk through. I decided I’d wait and buy at the store at the end, but ended up coming back here later as the Welcome Centre store had different items and not what I wanted! Do keep that in mind!
From the gift shop, area 8 joins onto area 9, which is the camel area. I was therefore greeted by camels (you can do a camel ride here if you wish!). Finally, I found many more people, who were all waiting on the bus to the next stop, too.
Area 10 (Safari Activites & bus stop)
The bus then took me to the safari activities area which is also next to the giraffe area (area 9), but unfortunately the giraffes were having a day off!! I didn’t do much here, I was really just going to take the bus to the safari. There were however some peacocks, one with all of its feathers out which was super beautiful!!
From here, a short walk took me to the waiting point for the safari tour bus!
African Safari Tour (Area 13)
The African safari tour is definitely a highlight of a Casela visit!! The safari truck takes a tour around part of the park where you can see the animals roam around freely, and have some closer encounters as certain animals come near the truck.
The best part for me was seeing the zebras, many of which approached us. The driver makes sure to slow down/stop so you can enjoy the animals and take photos.
The safari ended back at Predator Kingdom, from where I realised the park was not ‘as’ confusing as it originally felt with the 3 bus/trucks I had been on so far to get around! I had another walk to see the lions again, before walking back to number 7 on the map….
Area 7 (Tulawaka & Tortoises)
The Tulawaka – Casela’s ‘thrilling’ ride on a toboggan, can be found at area 7. It was actually shut when I went past so I was a little confused by that to be honest… but maybe because it wasn’t so busy the day I was there? I’m not sure! So I didn’t get to experience it.
Anyway, just past there I found the next animal highlight – tortoises!
While we saw tortoises from the safari truck, here you can walk through and interact with them. There are a lot of them too so even when it’s busy you can still find one or some to get up close with! You can touch them and take some good photos here!
Areas 6 (Pangia), 5 (Wam Wam Restaurant) & 4 (Petting Farm)
A short walk from the tortoises took me to areas 4/5/6 which are all linked together. Here you can find the Pangia (kids park) & Petting Farm, as well as a lovely restaurant. The main animals around here include chickens, rabbits, goats, donkeys, horses, deer, peacocks, ducks.
While this area is more suited to kids, it’s still great for everyone! This is also where the mini golf is and even as an adult you could enjoy some of the rides too, such as the dodgems or monkey swing!
Wam Wam restaurant can be found here, and is an excellent lunch spot! Despite being on a solo visit I wasn’t missing out on a little restaurant chill, so I spent some time here and essentially had some lunch with the chickens who were milling around by my table.
You can easily spend plenty of time around here. It is very relaxed with open space where you can chill on one of the benches around the little lakes, or simply among the greenery and revel in the surrounding nature. If I had more time I probably would have spent a while doing this!
Areas 3 (Blue Bird Restaurant) & 2 (Bird Paradise)
Next up on my visit was to see the monkeys and birds. Here is also the Blue Bird Restaurant, another brilliant lunch option in an excellent setting, sitting a little higher up with some nice views.
Before reaching the birds, you have to see the monkeys!! Monkey Kingdom is the monkey enclosure, but you just may be lucky to see some monkeys out in the wild, too. A staff member pointed a couple out to me!!
The bird area is large, including some walk through aviaries. This is really the last animal area of the park, before reaching the main building. I took my time just enjoying this area, it was so quiet and peaceful around here on my visit!
Back to Area 1 (Welcome Centre)
Back at the main building, I went to the gift store before my day was over and got some little souvenirs! I also enjoyed the festive decor. Then, it was time to walk to Cascavelle and take the bus back to Flic en Flac.
While I didn’t do any of the rides or extra activities, I still had such a good day out! Doing any of these really would be the cherry on top, but for my solo trip here I was happy with how I spent my day. It was an excellent change from the beach days of Flic en Flac. The nature park is so near yet it feels like you really have ventured much further out from the coast.
On driving past the park, you wouldn’t even know what’s all there among the greenery, it’s quite amazing!
Definitely worth a visit during a stay in Mauritius, and especially when so nearby in Flic en Flac!