Where to swim in the east

This is the first question people ask when they consider the east, and it deserves a straight answer rather than a brochure. No, there is no lagoon on the east coast. The lagoon is in the west, between Saint-Gilles and L'Étang-Salé, and that is where the sand beaches and the supervised swimming areas are.

What the east has instead is fresh water. The rivers come down from the Hauts forming pools, and that is where you swim — in clear, cold water at the foot of a waterfall rather than in a warm lagoon. It is not a consolation prize, it is a different proposition.

The shark question, settled in three lines

Shark risk on Réunion concerns swimming and water sports in the sea, outside areas protected by nets or under supervision. It does not concern the rivers, pools and waterfalls inland, which are fresh water and separated from the ocean.

Put plainly: if you swim in the east, you swim in a river, and the question does not arise. It is, paradoxically, one of the windward coast's arguments for anyone travelling with children who has read the articles on the subject.

The pools around the bungalow

Three sites cover the essentials, within twenty minutes, and they are nothing like each other.

• Bassin Bleu, Sainte-Anne — 8 min. The simplest: you park in front of it, no walking, fresh water at the mouth of the Rivière des Roches. Shelters and shade. This is the end-of-day swim.
• Bassin La Paix, Bras-Panon — 15 min. The most striking: a wide fall dropping into a dark basin, at the end of a cane road. A few minutes' walk from the car park.
• Bassin Bœuf, Sainte-Suzanne — 30 min. More discreet, a short approach walk, and generally fewer people than the first two.

To which we would add, for the beauty of the place more than for the swimming, Grand Étang — where you do not swim — and Cascade Niagara, where swimming is restricted by municipal order.

The real danger, and it has no teeth

What kills in Réunion's river pools is flooding. A river can rise by several tens of centimetres within minutes because of a storm that fell in the Hauts, fifteen kilometres away, while the sun is shining at the water's edge.

The rule is simple and admits no exception: if it has rained in the Hauts, or if it is raining while you are there, you do not get in and you do not stay in the riverbed. Water that clouds or rises, even slightly, means get out.

• No pool in the east is supervised: no lifeguard, no first-aid post, no marked area.
• Phone coverage is poor in some ravines.
• The rocks at the edge of a pool are slippery even when dry — the algae do not show.
• Never jump into a pool whose bottom you do not know: floods move the boulders from one season to the next.

And if you really want the lagoon

It is an hour and a half away by road, and it makes a perfectly good day out. We even suggest doing it once in a week's stay: you cross the island by the Plaines, spend the afternoon at L'Hermitage, and come back in the evening.

But doing the reverse — staying in the west and coming to see the east for the day — costs far more in driving. The volcano, Salazie, Takamaka and the pools are all on this side. That is the real trade-off between the two coasts, and it is better made knowingly than discovered on arrival.

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.