There was a moment, while building this app, when I had all ten coves in front of me, ready to publish. Coordinates checked, access described, photos sorted. The obvious move was to release them in one go. I didn’t — and it is probably the most argued-about decision in the whole project. Today those beaches sit behind padlocks in the app’s categories, and you have to climb levels to open them.
Budget tip: in Mauritius, part of your activities can cost you less. See how to save money with discounts on your activities.
I live in Mauritius and I built Moris Insider, the island’s guide and map. This article covers one single feature: the secret beaches and their trophies — how they open, why I chose this mechanic, and what it does not do.
The question I asked myself before publishing
A quiet beach in Mauritius rarely stays quiet for long. One address doing the rounds is enough, and by Sunday morning the peaceful cove has fifteen cars at the end of the dirt track. Nobody’s tragedy, but it is the end of what made the place worth going to — and it has happened here, to spots I had been visiting for years.
So the question was never "should these places be shared?", but "how fast?". A list published all at once is a list copied all at once: into screenshots, into groups, into articles that copy one another. A list that opens slowly, one cove at a time, does not travel the same way — and it does not gather the same people.
So I turned the ten coves into trophies. They exist, they sit in the database like the other one hundred and sixty-five places on the island, but they open one by one as you genuinely use the app. If what you want is where they are and how to reach them, that is a different subject, covered separately in our guide to the secret beaches of Mauritius.
What you actually see on screen
Open the coves category and the screen hides nothing: "The whole island · 10 spots to discover", with a filter by coast — North, West, South, East. So you know exactly how many exist, and on which side of the island.
Each locked card, on the other hand, carries a padlock, a Trophy badge, and a name that isn’t one: "Trophy · Insider · North". Below the title the category line stays readable — "North · exclusive cove and beach" — and a bar counts the points still missing. In other words: you can see that it exists, you know how far you still have to go, and you don’t yet know where it is.
Until the level is reached, the label says plainly where you stand: "🏆 Trophy · Initiate · North", and the line underneath says exactly what to do — "Reach Initiate level to reveal this secret beach." Nothing about the rules is hidden; only the place is.
Five levels, and points earned by travelling
The feature itself, plainly: the app keeps an experience counter and five traveller levels. You see them all at once by tapping your level badge, along with what each one unlocks.
- Explorer — 0 points. The beginning, and already Insider tips on the spot pages.
- Adventurer — 25 points. Three secret beaches open.
- Initiate — 70 points. Two more coves.
- Insider — 150 points. Two more coves again.
- The fifth — 300 points, and the app says nothing about it: three question marks, a padlock, "mystery reward".
Points cannot be bought, they are earned by using the app during the trip: five for a spot added to your week’s planner, two for a day put together with the assistant, five or ten for a partner activity genuinely done on site, one for a favourite, and twenty for sharing your travel journal.
The advantage is that none of this asks for extra effort: these are the things you already do while planning your days. The benefit is more unexpected — and it is the one I hadn’t planned for when I coded the feature. Because the points come from real use, the coves open at the moment you know what to do with them: you already have your timings, you read the day’s conditions, you understand how the coasts work. Handed to you on the first evening, a secret beach is just one more dot on the island map. Handed to you on day four, it is an outing you know how to get right.
Three coves opened for good, from the Adventurer level
There is one place where an app gets judged: the moment it keeps its promise. So I wanted it to give something real, and quickly.
On reaching Adventurer — twenty-five points, that is five outings planned, or a shared journal plus a few favourites — three coves open for good. Not a preview, not a blurred photo: their names, their regions, their access, their conditions, like any other place on the island. You could go the next morning.
The places you set aside along the way stay filed in your favourites: each one you keep is worth a point, and the list doubles as scouting for the outings that follow.
The step I will not reveal
At the end of the five levels the screen shows nothing: three question marks, a padlock, "mystery reward", at three hundred points. Nobody knows what is behind it until they get there.
I am asked regularly to reveal it, and I don’t — not here, not in the app. It is the one part of the product I keep deliberately shut, for a simple reason: an announced surprise is no longer a surprise, and all that is left is one more line in a feature list. I would rather accept that this last step serves no purpose beyond pleasing the people who reach it.
A word on cheating, while we are here: each kind of gain counts once per target — the same spot added twice to the planner only pays once — and a safeguard suspends gains for twenty-four hours if actions come too fast. The counter rewards a trip, not tapping. The Insider tips on the spot pages follow the same logic: they arrive in batches, one batch per level, alongside reading the day’s conditions.
What this mechanic does not do
This is the part I care most about writing, because it is also the part that earns me the most complaints — and some of them are fair.
Paying does not unlock everything, and it annoys people. Anyone expecting to open all ten coves on the first evening will be disappointed: they will have to climb the levels like everyone else. I understand the argument, I have heard it, and I have chosen to hold the line — but I would rather write it here than let it be discovered after payment.
These are not private beaches. None of these coves belongs to you, none is guarded, and nothing stops someone else being there on the same day. They are discreet places — often an unpromising turn-off, an improbable parking spot, a ten-minute walk — not reserved ones. In Mauritius the coastline is public access, and rightly so.
Full guide: Renting a Car in Mauritius: Tips & Pitfalls to Avoid
And ten is ten. This is not a catalogue: it is a selection, made on foot, over years. Some need a car, one or two have to be earned physically, and none suits everyone in all weather. If you are planning a first trip, our 7-day Mauritius itinerary gives a broader frame — the coves come afterwards, and that is the right order.
Unlock the first three
Three secret beaches open at Adventurer level. The rest, level by level.
Discover the app →
