Réunion
TerritoryAdministered by: France
“An active volcano, three collapsed calderas and the European Union in the Indian Ocean.”
Réunion is a French overseas department — an EU region with the euro, French healthcare and motorways — sitting 700 kilometres east of Madagascar. It is also one of the most dramatic islands on earth. Piton de la Fournaise is among the world's most active volcanoes and erupts most years, usually harmlessly into an uninhabited caldera that people drive out to watch. Piton des Neiges, the extinct older volcano, collapsed into three vast cirques — Mafate, Salazie and Cilaos — that are UNESCO-listed.
Mafate has no road at all: the villages inside it are reached only on foot or by helicopter, and supplies come in the same way. The island is criss-crossed by around a thousand kilometres of marked trail, the Grand Raid ultramarathon crosses it end to end, and the interior gets several metres of rain a year on the windward side while the west coast has lagoon beaches and coral. It is expensive in the way French departments are, and the food — Creole, Indian, Chinese, French — is a large part of the point.
Highlights
Piton de la Fournaise
One of the world's most active volcanoes, erupting most years inside the Enclos Fouqué caldera. The walk across the caldera floor to the crater takes about five hours return, and eruptions draw crowds to the road viewpoints overnight.
Cirque de Mafate
A collapsed caldera with no road access at all — several hundred people live in îlets reached only on foot or by helicopter. Multi-day trekking between gîtes is the classic Réunion experience.
Cilaos and Salazie
The two road-accessible cirques — Cilaos reached by 400 bends through the Peter Both tunnel, Salazie greener and wetter with the Voile de la Mariée waterfall and Hell-Bourg's Creole houses.
The west coast lagoon
Saint-Gilles, L'Hermitage and Saint-Leu — reef-protected swimming, the marine reserve, and paragliding from Colimaçons down to the sea.
Entry requirements for Réunion
Checking your passport…
We don't hold entry details for this passport group yet.
Before you fly
The detail
- Passport validity
- Most destinations want validity beyond your stay, and some want six months. Check yours against the return date.
- Onward travel
- Airlines may ask for a return or onward ticket at check-in.
- Health
- French healthcare standards; EHIC/GHIC works for EU nationals. No malaria. Dengue and chikungunya outbreaks occur — use repellent. Tap water is drinkable in most areas.
- Money
- Euro. Cards work everywhere, ATMs are everywhere, and French banking rules apply. Prices are noticeably higher than mainland France because of shipping.
When to go
BestMay–Nov. AvoidJan–Mar.
Dry season opens — excellent trekking.
The band above each month is our editorial verdict - it weighs crowds, prices and access as well as weather. The line is average daily temperature, the bars are monthly rainfall. Select a month for the figures. Climate figures: ERA5 reanalysis via Open-Meteo, 2005–2024 normals.
What it costs
A day in Réunion
Comfortable · sample day
≈ $146
Line items are real prices we track. The daily budget is an editorial estimate for this level, not their sum.
Where this sits among 244 countries we have costed
Rates rise sharply in the French school holidays — July–August and around Christmas — when mainland visitors and the domestic market coincide.
Updated Aug 2026 · Editorial synthesis — French overseas department pricing and accommodation sampling (2025–2026) · confidence high
Excludes international flights - they depend on where you fly from.
Regions to know
5The north
Saint-Denis, the Creole mansions along the Rue de Paris and the wild coastal road east.
The west coast
Saint-Gilles, L'Hermitage lagoon, Saint-Leu's paragliding and the Kelonia turtle centre.
The cirques
Mafate on foot only, Cilaos with its lentils and thermal springs, and Salazie's waterfalls and Hell-Bourg.
The volcano
Piton de la Fournaise, the Plaine des Sables lunar landscape and the road up from Bourg-Murat.
The wild south
Saint-Philippe's lava flows reaching the sea, the vanilla and spice coast and Grand Anse's beach.
Practical guide
Getting there
Roland Garros at Saint-Denis is served by Air France, Corsair, French Bee and Air Austral from Paris, plus regional links to Mauritius, Madagascar, Mayotte and South Africa. Pierrefonds in the south takes regional traffic.
Getting around
A hire car is close to essential — the road network is good and includes a coastal motorway. The Car Jaune network of intercity buses covers the island cheaply but slowly. Helicopter transfers serve Mafate.
Money & costs
Euro. Cards work everywhere, ATMs are everywhere, and French banking rules apply. Prices are noticeably higher than mainland France because of shipping.
Safety
Very safe by any measure. The hazards are natural: shark risk outside the lagoon, flash flooding in the ravines, and volcanic activity that closes the Enclos at short notice. Mountain weather changes fast.
Health
French healthcare standards; EHIC/GHIC works for EU nationals. No malaria. Dengue and chikungunya outbreaks occur — use repellent. Tap water is drinkable in most areas.
SIM & internet
Orange, SFR, Free and Zeop; EU roaming applies for EU customers, which makes this one of the easiest places in the Indian Ocean for connectivity. 4G and 5G across the island, with gaps in the cirques.
Driving
French road rules throughout, including priority and alcohol limits. The mountain roads to Cilaos and Salazie are narrow with hundreds of bends and buses coming the other way. Rockfall closures are common after rain.
Rules change - verify with an official source before you rent.
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RéunionFrequently asked questions
Do I need a visa?
Réunion is a French overseas department and part of the EU, but not part of the Schengen area — it has its own entry rules. EU/EEA and Swiss nationals enter with an ID card. Many other nationalities that are Schengen-visa-exempt are also exempt here, but a Schengen visa is not automatically valid: it must be endorsed for French overseas departments, or you need a specific DOM visa. Check before assuming your Schengen visa works.
What about sharks?
A serious shark crisis from 2011 led to swimming and surfing being banned outside the lagoon and a small number of protected sites. The lagoon itself and supervised areas are safe and used constantly. Do not swim or surf outside the marked zones — the prohibition is legal, enforced and there for good reason.
When is cyclone season?
January to March, with the highest risk in February. Cyclones bring extreme rainfall — Réunion holds several world records for rain in 24 and 72 hours — and close trails and roads. The trekking season is May to November, and September to November is the sweet spot.