What to wear on a Mauritius honeymoon is mostly linen and swimwear: light garments for the lagoon by day, and one composed outfit each for dinner by the sea at night. The island is easy-going, but its resorts dress for the evening, and a couple who pack a small, considered wardrobe of natural fabric will be right everywhere, from a catamaran off the east coast to a terrace above the west-coast sunset.

When you travel decides which coast you choose. Mauritius lies in the southern hemisphere, so its summer runs from November to April: hot, humid, the sea at its warmest, with the cyclone season officially spanning the same months and most of the risk falling between January and March. From May to October the island’s winter is drier and milder, with days in the mid twenties and cooler nights. In those months the south-east trade winds blow steadily onto the east and south coasts, while the north and west stay calmer and warmer, which is why winter honeymooners often choose Grand Baie or the west around Flic en Flac and Le Morne, and keep the east coast for the summer.

On a honeymoon the garments carry more than the heat. They appear in every photograph, are worn for ten or fourteen days in salt air, and should feel as right on the last evening as on the first. The test is simple. The fibre should be linen and nothing else, its origin provable: much of the PP collection is certified Belgian linen, its certificate following the flax from the field to the cloth. The making should be by hand, and PP garments are made in the Dubai atelier and in Belgium; the details should be natural, seashell buttons on most shirts and walnut on the Monte-Carlo Male and the Oyster Amelia. The cut should be loose enough to let the trade wind through. There is more on travelling light in our honeymoon packing guide.

Mauritius is almost entirely ringed by coral reef, and inside it the lagoon is shallow, warm and sheltered, the setting of most honeymoon days. A morning by catamaran to Île aux Cerfs off the east coast, snorkelling in the Blue Bay Marine Park in the south-east, or simply a sunbed on the hotel beach: in the water he wears PP swim shorts in Roosewood Pink or Sapphire Blue, made in Belgian linen and made to be swum in. Back on deck or on the sand, the Laos Short Sleeve Linen Shirt in Vanille, in certified Belgian linen, goes on open over dry swim shorts. For her, the Linen Ladies Set in Coral Orange over a swimsuit, or the HER Laos Linen Shirt in Pink worn loose as a cover.

The south-west is the island’s most dramatic corner. Le Morne Brabant, the basalt mountain rising from the lagoon, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed in 2008 as a place of memory for the escaped enslaved people who sheltered on its cliffs. Inland, the Black River Gorges National Park protects much of the island’s remaining native forest, and at Chamarel the Seven Coloured Earth shows its bands of red, violet and ochre sand. These are days of walking on uneven ground in strong sun. He wears the Laos Long Sleeve Linen Shirt in Beige Cream with PP Casual Linen Trousers in Oatmeal; she wears the PP linen blouse in Lemon with long loose trousers of her own, and flat shoes for both.

Mauritius is a meeting of cultures, and a honeymoon is a good time to see some of it. In Port Louis, the capital, the Aapravasi Ghat, the immigration depot where indentured labourers from India first landed in the nineteenth century, is the island’s other UNESCO World Heritage Site, a short walk from the Central Market and the Caudan Waterfront. In the south, Grand Bassin, the crater lake also known as Ganga Talao, is a sacred Hindu site with temples on its shore. At the temples, covered shoulders and knees are expected, so this is not the day for anything cut to the thigh: for her, the PP linen blouse in Orchid, in certified Belgian linen, with a long skirt or long loose trousers of her own; for him, long trousers and a shirt with sleeves. In the north, the botanical garden at Pamplemousses, with its ponds of giant water lilies, makes an easy, shaded morning.

The evenings are the heart of a honeymoon here. Resort restaurants ask for smart, relaxed dress, long trousers and a collared shirt being the safe reading for men, and dinner is often taken on a terrace or on the sand as the light goes. For him, the Monte-Carlo Male in Vanille, with walnut buttons, and PP Trousers 100% Linen in White from the men’s linen collection; on a second night, the Laos Long Sleeve Linen Shirt in Dark Blue. For her, the Amelia linen dress shirt in Hibiscus, in certified Belgian linen and a dress in itself, a colour that holds its own against an Indian Ocean sunset; for the most formal dinner of the stay, the Amelia in Oyster, with walnut buttons, from the women’s linen collection. If an evening includes séga, the island’s traditional music and dance, recognised by UNESCO in 2014, a loose line is the comfortable choice for joining in.

Mauritius is often paired with a few nights in the Seychelles or the Maldives, and the same linen travels on unchanged; the island’s own guide, what to wear in Mauritius, covers it beyond the honeymoon. Here the brief is simpler: two people, a lagoon the colour of glass, and garments that never need a second thought.

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