Rodrigues is about 18 km long and you can drive its length in well under an hour. That makes it tempting to assume getting around will sort itself out. It will not: there are buses, but they were built for Rodriguans going to work, not for visitors going to beaches, and the last one leaves earlier than you think.
How do you get around Rodrigues?
Hire something. A scooter if there are two of you with light bags; a car if you are a family, have luggage, or want air conditioning and a roof when a shower comes through. Buses exist and are worth knowing about, but no bus goes to the beach you came here for.
The distances are short and the roads are good. What makes them slow is that they climb, drop and turn constantly — the island is hilly in a way the map does not show.
| Mode | Cost | Best for | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bus | About Rs 29 airport fare | Everyday routes Rodriguans use — about twenty lines from Port Mathurin | Airport service stops at 16:30, and no bus reaches the beaches |
| Taxi | No official fare table — agree the price before you get in | Flight arrivals and door-to-door trips | Every driver sets their own fare |
| Scooter | The cheapest rental — current rates on our scooter page | Two people with light bags; the narrow coastal lanes | Rain showers, and nowhere for a suitcase |
| Car | Daily rates on our car page | Families, luggage, air conditioning, wet afternoons | Costs more than a scooter |
The bus, honestly
There is a real network: about twenty licensed routes, almost all radiating from the traffic centre at Port Mathurin, regulated by the National Land Transport Authority. It is a proper public service and Rodriguans use it every day.
Two of those routes serve the airport. The stop is a three-minute walk from the terminal, opposite the Plaine Corail police station, running from 06:00 to 16:30, at a fare of about Rs 29 — figures published by the airport operator itself, which is the only place we could find them stated.
That 16:30 is the fact worth carrying. If your flight lands late afternoon, the airport bus is not an option and you will be taking a taxi whether you planned to or not.
Taxis, and the thing nobody tells you
Taxis meet every scheduled flight from the airport car park. They carry yellow roof signage and a sticker on the front doors, and they may be a car, an SUV or a pick-up. A door-to-door shuttle also meets each flight.
No official fare table is published anywhere in Rodrigues. So agree the price before you get in. That is not haggling and nobody will take it badly — it is simply how it works here, and asking is what a local does.
We deliberately do not print a price list on this site. Any number we invented would end up quoted at a driver who never agreed to it, and the person who loses that argument is a Rodriguan taxi driver rather than a website.
Should you rent a scooter or a car?
A scooter is cheaper, parks anywhere, and gets you down the narrow coastal lanes where the good swimming is. Two people with day bags need nothing more.
A car earns its money the moment you add a third person, a suitcase, a child, or a wet afternoon. Rodrigues gets rain in short bursts, and the difference between a shower on a scooter and a shower in a car is the difference between a story and a ruined day.
Plenty of visitors do both: a car for the week, a scooter for one day of poking about.
Driving here
Traffic drives on the LEFT, as in Mauritius. If you are arriving from France or Réunion that is the opposite of your habit, and the first few junctions deserve your full attention.
A licence issued by a competent foreign authority is legally accepted for driving in Mauritius, so you do not need a Mauritian one. The statutory minimum age to drive a car is 18 — note that rental companies commonly set a higher minimum of their own, which is company policy rather than law, so ask whoever you are hiring from.
Speeding is an offence under section 124 of the Road Traffic Act, penalised in bands. We are not printing specific km/h limits here: we could confirm the regulation that sets them, but not the numbers themselves, from any government source — and a made-up speed limit is a worse thing to publish than none.
Getting here in the first place
Air Mauritius flies daily from SSR International to Plaine Corail (RRG) — about an hour and a half. The airline says 1h35 and the tourism office says 1h30; either way you are there before you have finished a coffee. Air Austral also runs a seasonal service from Réunion, so Rodrigues is not only reachable via Mauritius.
There is a passenger ferry, the MV Mauritius Trochetia, run by the Mauritius Shipping Corporation. It is roughly MONTHLY rather than weekly — the operator's own timetable shows four passenger voyages across September to December 2026 — and the crossing is about 36 hours out from Port Louis and nearer 24 coming back. She carries 108 passengers. Check the schedule before you build a plan around it.
The airport is officially Plaine Corail, renamed in 2017, but the operator's own website still calls it Sir Gaëtan Duval. Both names are in live use and you will hear both.
Ready to explore Rodrigues?
Rent a scooter or car directly from local owners — or let Ti Roulé, our free island guide, build a plan around your dates.