Photo: Peter Kuchar (pkuchar) (CC BY-SA 3.0)
A self-guided audio walking tour of Port Louis, all on foot, starting at Le Caudan Waterfront by the harbour, a short walk from where cruise passengers come ashore; it ends with a climb to the Citadel and the Champ de Mars, so keep the time back to the ship in mind and stop at any point you need to. From the waterfront, opened in 1996, it passes the Blue Penny Museum with the original Blue Penny and Red Penny stamps, Labourdonnais's windmill and the Postal Museum in the General Post Office of 1870. Along the quay come the Intercontinental Slavery Museum, in the military hospital that enslaved people helped build between 1736 and 1740, and Aapravasi Ghat, where about half a million indentured labourers arrived between 1849 and 1923 and climbed fourteen stone steps from the harbour. Inland are the Central Market of 1844, the Jummah Mosque and the Chinatown gate on Royal Street. Back at Place d'Armes the walk reaches Government House, then goes through the Company's Garden past the Natural History Museum and the Port Louis Theatre to St Louis Cathedral, and climbs to the Citadel of 1834 to 1840, above the Champ de Mars racecourse of 1812, where independence was proclaimed on 12 March 1968.
17 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 55 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 3 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Le Caudan Waterfront, Blue Penny Museum, The Windmill, Mauritius Postal Museum, Intercontinental Slavery Museum, Aapravasi Ghat.
Central Market, Jummah Mosque, Chinatown Gate.
Place d'Armes, Government House, Company's Garden, Natural History Museum, Port Louis Theatre, St Louis Cathedral, The Citadel (Fort Adelaide), Champ de Mars Racecourse.
The museum in the old Dock Company head office, with the Paul and Virginie statue and the original Blue Penny and Red Penny stamps shown under timed lighting.
The Labourdonnais military hospital of 1736 to 1740, built partly by enslaved people from Mozambique and Madagascar, which since 2020 tells the history of slavery and indentured labour.
The Immigration Depot through which about half a million indentured labourers passed from 1849 to 1923, with the fourteen stone steps every new immigrant climbed.
Begun in 1853 as the Mosque of the Arabs and enlarged to fill a city block, with an old Indian almond tree in its inner courtyard.
The Catholic cathedral, repeatedly rebuilt after cyclones and cracks and last between 1930 and 1933, with six bishops resting beneath the choir.
The basalt fort built by the Royal Engineers between 1834 and 1840 on Petite Montagne, overlooking the city, the harbour and the racecourse.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 17 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 17 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Port Louis — Aapravasi Ghat and the Old Capital, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
17 narration points, including Le Caudan Waterfront, Blue Penny Museum, The Windmill, Mauritius Postal Museum and Intercontinental Slavery Museum. That is about 25 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~1–2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 17 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.