Ten days on Réunion

Ten days is the length at which you can cover the island without skimming it. Below that, you have to choose a half. Above, you add comfort and hiking rather than new sites.

The principle is one sentence: two bases, five nights each, and never two long drives back to back. The order below starts in the east — that is where you arrive least tired, and where the days require early starts.

Days 1 to 5 — based in the east

<strong>Day 1.</strong> Morning arrival, car, shopping, and nothing else. A pool at the end of the day if the urge beats the tiredness.

<strong>Day 2.</strong> Grand Étang early — two hours around the lake, four if you push on to the Biberon waterfall. Back for lunch, free afternoon.

<strong>Day 3.</strong> Salazie: the Trou de Fer from Bélouve in the morning, then Hell-Bourg in the afternoon. If it is closed in at altitude, reverse it.

<strong>Day 4.</strong> The volcano. Leave at four, five hours of walking, back for lunch. Check the evening before that the enclosure is open. In the afternoon, do nothing.

<strong>Day 5.</strong> The south coast: Anse des Cascades in the morning, the Route des Laves after, and you finish the day moving into the second base.

Days 6 to 10 — based in the west or south

<strong>Day 6.</strong> Recovery: the L’Hermitage lagoon or Grande-Anse beach, and the Saint-Paul market on Friday or Saturday morning.

<strong>Day 7.</strong> Cilaos by the road of four hundred bends. Two hours up from the west, and a cirque entirely unlike Salazie — drier, more mineral. Stay the night if you want to tackle the Piton des Neiges.

<strong>Day 8.</strong> The Maïdo at first light, for the view over Mafate — you leave around five, and the road sometimes closes when fire risk is high. Afternoon at Saint-Leu or Saint-Gilles.

<strong>Day 9.</strong> Spare day. If the weather cost you an outing, this is where you make it up. Otherwise: Saint-Pierre, the wild south, or a second day of hiking.

<strong>Day 10.</strong> Market, last purchases, airport. Return flights leave late in the day or in the evening.

Variants

• <strong>With children</strong>: keep the west base for the second half and drop the Trou de Fer in favour of a waterfall reached by car.
• <strong>Without hiking</strong>: replace the volcano with the Pas de Bellecombe belvedere and the Plaine des Sables, both reached by car.
• <strong>For walkers</strong>: two nights in Mafate between days 7 and 9, booking the refuge several months ahead.
• <strong>In the wet season</strong>: reverse it — west first, east after; the weather there is steadier early in a stay.

What we deliberately left out

The full coastal loop, which is two hundred and ten kilometres and shows you nothing. Days with three distant sites. And daily changes of accommodation: on this island two bases are enough, and more is paid for in tiredness.

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.