Réunion

Saint-Denis — the capital of Réunion (a French overseas department in the Indian Ocean, 700km east of Madagascar) with the Barachois (the seafront promenade lined with kiosks) and the Grand Marché (the most fragrant market in the Indian Ocean — vanilla pods, ginger, turmeric, chilli, fresh lychees, mangoes and bouchons — fried pork dim sum — being the Creole street food).

💡 Réunion is a French overseas department — legally identical to any département on the French mainland. Residents are French citizens, vote in French elections, use the euro, and are served by French public services. The island receives more French state subsidy per capita than any overseas territory in the world; the cost of living is accordingly high.

2h drive south. Cilaos — a village of 5,500 in the Cirque de Cilaos (one of three great cirques — ancient collapsed calderas — that form Réunion’s dramatic highland interior, accessible by a single-lane mountain road of 400+ hairpin bends descending 1,200m from the plateau) with the thermal spa (the only thermal baths in the Indian Ocean — natural hot springs discovered in 1815) and the Cilaos wine (a light, fruity wine from vines planted in the caldera at 1,200m).

💡 The Route de Cilaos (400+ hairpin bends, rising from the coast at 0m to Cilaos at 1,200m in 35km) is one of the most dramatic mountain roads in the world and one of the most expensive engineering projects in French overseas history — carved into the basalt cliffs of the cirque wall, it required 40 years to complete and has been reconstructed after cyclone damage multiple times.

The Grand Raid hiking network (the best long-distance hiking in the Indian Ocean — 1,000km of marked trails, including the GR R1 circuit of the island’s three cirques and the famous Diagonale des Fous — the ultra-trail that crosses the island north-to-south in under 24h for the fastest runners, or 5–7 days for hikers) and the Mafate Cirque (the only inhabited area in Réunion accessible only on foot, with 19 îlets connected by hiking trails and serviced by helicopter).

💡 The Diagonale des Fous (the Diagonal of the Crazy Ones) ultra-trail race (166km, 9,643m elevation gain — from Saint-Denis on the north coast to Saint-Pierre on the south, crossing all three cirques and the Piton des Neiges — is run annually in October and considered the most difficult and beautiful ultra-trail in the world. The 2023 edition attracted over 10,000 registered runners from 70 countries.

2h30 from Saint-Denis. Piton de la Fournaise — one of the world’s most active volcanoes, erupting on average twice per year, with a paved road to the Pas de Bellecour parking at 2,311m (from which a 3h return hike crosses the lunar Enclos Fouqué caldera to the central cone at 2,632m, walking across fresh lava fields that may be months old).

💡 Piton de la Fournaise has erupted over 150 times since the first recorded eruption in 1640 — one of the most frequently active basaltic shield volcanoes on earth, comparable to Kilauea in Hawaii. The eruptions are typically effusive (lava flows rather than explosive) and safe to observe; the Observatoire Volcanologique monitors the volcano continuously and issues access restrictions when activity is elevated.

West coast. Saint-Leu — Réunion’s surf capital (a left-hand reef break that has hosted the Billabong Pro Réunion, a World Surf League event, considered one of the finest left-hand waves in the world) and diving in the Boucan Canot marine reserve (the finest coral reef on the west coast, with hawksbill turtles, eagle rays and napoleon wrasse).

💡 The bull shark presence in Réunion waters (particularly on the west coast, where 12+ fatal attacks occurred between 2011 and 2020 — the highest density of fatal shark attacks in the world for that period) resulted in a strict swimming ban on most west coast beaches from 2013. The ban has been progressively lifted with shark monitoring nets; Saint-Leu’s lagoon is now safe. Swimming outside protected lagoons is still prohibited.

45 min from Saint-Leu. Saint-Pierre — the liveliest city in the south, with the best Creole restaurants on the island and the Saturday market (the most authentic local market in Réunion: banana flower salads, jackfruit, chouchous, rougail saucisses and the street food of the Tamil community — Réunion’s 100,000-strong Tamil population from Indian Ocean migration has the finest curry cuisine in the French Indian Ocean islands).

💡 Rougail saucisses — Réunion’s defining dish (smoked pork sausages simmered in a tomato, ginger, garlic and Combava lime sauce — a Creole-African cooking technique) served with riz cantonais (fried rice) and rougail de tomates (raw tomato-ginger relish) — is the everyday staple of the Réunionnais table. At a local snack (fast food shack), a full plate costs €6–12.

The Réunion Maido belvedere (2,205m, a viewpoint above the west coast accessible by road, with the Mafate Cirque — the roadless caldera — visible 1,800m below, the most spectacular panorama in the Indian Ocean, at sunrise particularly when the cirque is filled with cloud) and the vanilla plantations of Bras-Panon (vanilla planifolia grown on the east coast in the humid forest — the finest vanilla in the French territory, hand-pollinated by growers using a thin bamboo stick). Fly from Réunion Roland Garros (RUN).

💡 Réunion vanilla (Bourbon vanilla — the variety that takes its name from the island’s colonial name, Bourbon — is the original vanilla variety from which all the world’s vanilla is descended. Mexican vanilla (the original) was largely supplanted by Réunion/Madagascar Bourbon vanilla in the 19th century after a slave on the island discovered the hand-pollination technique in 1841 that allowed cultivation without the Mexican bee.