The budget, line by line

Réunion has a reputation for being expensive. It is on two lines — the flight and the groceries — and not at all on the others. Most sites are free, so is parking, and Creole food in a roadside place costs less than a station sandwich.

Here is a realistic budget for two people, one week, travelling independently. The figures are 2026 and move with the season.

The flight

This is the main line and the most variable: from four hundred and fifty euros return from Paris in low season to more than nine hundred during school holidays or at Christmas. Eleven hours direct, no stopover.

Booking four to six months ahead makes the real difference, more than any comparison-site trick. Avoiding July–August and December–January makes the second.

Accommodation

From sixty euros a night for a simple guest room or studio to a hundred and twenty and up for a lagoon-front hotel. The gap between coasts is clear: the east is markedly cheaper than the west for an equivalent standard, because it has far less tourist accommodation.

The point that matters is not the headline price but the kitchen. Self-catering transforms the food budget: the market and the supermarket cost a fraction of restaurants, and the island's fresh produce is excellent.

The car and fuel

Two hundred to two hundred and fifty euros a week for a compact, and forty to seventy euros of fuel at around €1.80 a litre. This is not negotiable: without a car there is no trip.

Choosing a central base does cut the bill, though. From the east most outings sit within thirty minutes; from the west the volcano costs five hours of driving in the day.

Eating

• Roadside place or snack van: €8 to €12 for a Creole dish, often generous.
• Ordinary restaurant: €20 to €30 a meal.
• Supermarket: reckon 30 to 50% more than mainland France on imported goods, but local fruit, vegetables and fish stay affordable.
• Open-air markets: the best value on the island, and the most enjoyable.

A stay where you have breakfast and dinner in and lunch out costs around three hundred euros of food for two over the week. All meals out, reckon double.

Activities

This is the pleasant surprise. Hikes, waterfalls, belvederes, pools, beaches and car parks are free. The volcano, Grand Étang, the Route des Laves: none of it is charged.

The paid items are optional and occasional: helicopter flight (€250 to €350 per person), canyoning or diving (€60 to €100), museums and gardens (€5 to €10), mountain refuges (€40 to €60 half board).

The total

For two people, one week, in low season, with simple self-catering accommodation and a compact car: of the order of one thousand two hundred to one thousand four hundred euros per person, flights included. In high season, add three to five hundred euros per person, almost entirely on the flight and the accommodation.

Frequently asked questions

Written in Saint-Benoît, where we rent the bungalow, and updated on September 13, 2026. Access and swimming rules change: we always point to the authority in charge rather than speaking for it.