A 4 day guide to exploring Réunion 🇷🇪

About

Réunion - a beautiful French island in the Indian Ocean provides with modern infrastructure, stunning beaches & incredible volcanic features. While you could easily spend a few weeks exploring everything this island has to offer, it is also easily doable in a few days - and worth considering as a first or last stop as part of an east Africa Trip.

Getting there

As a French Department, Réunion has direct connectivity to Paris via Air France, with some great point redemption options for both economy & business class.

Don’t have Air France miles? You can transfer points 1:1 from Citi, Amex, Capital One or Chase and instantly boost your balance. Air France points transfer instantly so you can transfer them right before you book.

What to do?

Get a car. The roads are great and the island has so much to see. Driving is an easy way to explore and maximize your time.

Day 0

Grab your bags from the airport and drive south. There are lots of hidden gems to see along the drive including beaches, mountains and more. If you have time, make it all the way to the Route des Laves and then meander your way back, stopping at beaches until you reach St. Pierre where there are many places to stay. If you have a second day, you can spend more time exploring the area & relax a bit on some of the great beaches.

Day 1

Drive up the volcano. The drive up is incredible, with tons of viewpoints to stop at for pictures. At the end of the road, you’ll arrive at Piton de la Fournaise - one of the world’s most active Volcanoes. If its erupting, it’s worth a trip at night. If its not, you can hike down to the volcano from the lookout area above. Return to St. Pierre - or, if you’re crunched for time, continue onto Cilos & arrive just before dark.

Day 2

Cilos has tons of hiking trails around the area, including an intensive 12hr trek up to Piton des Neiges which is the tallest point in the Indian Ocean. There are some options to stop along the way up if you book in advanced and don’t want to hike up all night for the sunrise. There are also lots of other shorter hikes you can do, and spending a single night is enough to get a taste of the area.

Day 3

Head north to Saint Gilles which has some of the best beaches on the island, as well as some great resorts. Chill out for for a day, and relax, well worth it especially if you’ve followed our 4 day fast track itinerary.

Day 4

Relax on the beach, have a lazy breakfast and packup. Time to head to the airport & head to your next destination.

More time?

You could easily spend a week or more in Reunion. If you have more time, add another day to each of the steps above, or more per your preferences.

Where to next?

Reunion has easy direct flights to other regional destinations including Madagascar, Seashelles, Mauritius and South Africa. You can also fly to a few destinations in France, India and Thailand direct or connect to nearly anywhere in the world. FlightConnections.com has a great interactive map to see where you can fly.

Download our map on Google Maps

You can see all of the spots we mentioned on our shared map view in Google Maps.

Who do you know who has been to Reunion?

Personal recommendations from the people you trust are are always more meaningful than anonymous blogs and reviews.

The problem is, it’s hard to remember where everyone has been, so you don’t always know who to ask for tips.

That’s where we come in! Download our app to figure out where everyone in your immediate & extended network has been.