6 Reunion Hotels Between the Cirques and the Lagoon

Piton de la Fournaise erupts several times in an average year. It is among the most active volcanoes on earth and, unusually, among the most watchable — the eruptions are effusive rather than explosive, the lava flows within a horseshoe-shaped caldera that opens toward the empty southeast coast, and the observatory publishes alerts that let people drive up and stand on the rim while it happens.

Nobody lives inside the caldera and the flows mostly reach the sea across a road that has been rebuilt many times and is expected to be covered again.

Three holes in an older volcano

The northern two-thirds of Réunion is the eroded remains of a much older and larger volcano, the Piton des Neiges, which collapsed into three vast amphitheatres called cirques — Cilaos, Salazie and Mafate.

Mafate has no road. None. There is no vehicle access of any kind into the cirque, and the roughly eight hundred people who live in its scattered hamlets walk in and out, or use the helicopter that delivers supplies and post. Everything — building materials, refrigerators, the contents of the small shops — arrives slung under a helicopter or on someone's back.

It is reachable on foot over passes from Cilaos or Salazie, and walking into Mafate is the single best thing to do on the island.

A French island in the Indian Ocean

Réunion is a French département. The currency is the euro, the road signs and the bureaucracy are French, the hospitals are French, and the food is a creole of French, Malagasy, Indian, Chinese and East African.

It is also not a beach destination in the way Mauritius, its neighbour 200 kilometres east, is. The lagoon on the west coast around Saint-Gilles is small and the rest of the coast is rock and surf. People come here to walk — the island is about forty percent UNESCO-listed as a natural site, and the trail network is extensive and steep.

One honest note: shark attacks off the west coast led to a swimming and surfing ban outside the protected lagoon in 2013, and restrictions have remained in some form. Swim inside the reef and take local advice seriously.

The six below are grouped by coast.

The west coast

The lagoon and the resorts.

LUX* Saint Gilles occupies a beachfront position at Saint-Gilles on the lagoon with a spa, several pools and direct access to the only real swimming water on the island.

Akoya Hotel & Spa sits at Saint-Paul with a pool, a spa and a design-led interior above the coast.

Le Blue Margouillat occupies a small hillside property at Saint-Leu with a handful of rooms, a pool and a kitchen with a long reputation.

Iloha Seaview Hotel sits on the west coast with a pool, gardens and the best value on the island.

The south and the east

Toward the volcano.

Palm Hotel & Spa occupies a position at Petite Île in the south with a spa, a pool over the sea and the volcano road within reach.

Diana Dea Lodge sits at Sainte-Anne on the wild east coast in a lodge among forest and deer, with the cirques and the volcano on either side.

What we have left off

The gîtes de montagne in the cirques are excluded, and in Mafate they are the only accommodation — simple dormitories and rooms in hamlets reached on foot, booked through a central system. If you want to sleep in the cirque, that is what you book.

What to do

Walk into Mafate. Two or three days from Cilaos or Salazie, staying in the gîtes, is the trip most people who come here remember.

Check the volcano status before driving up. The route across the Plaine des Sables — a red cinder desert that looks like Mars — is worth the drive whether or not it is erupting.

Take a helicopter over the cirques if the budget allows. It is the only way to see the scale of the collapse.

Eat creole. Cari, rougail saucisse, samoussas and the vanilla, which grows on the east coast and is pollinated by hand using a technique invented on this island by a twelve-year-old enslaved boy, Edmond Albius, in 1841.

Swim only inside the lagoon and follow local guidance about the water.

Practical notes

Roland Garros airport at Saint-Denis has flights from Paris and regional connections; Mauritius is forty minutes away by air.

May to November is the dry, cooler season and best for walking. December to April is hot, wet and inside the cyclone season. The volcano is unpredictable in any month.

A car is essential, and the mountain roads into the cirques are steep, narrow and slow.

Can you really not drive into Mafate?

There is no road of any kind. About eight hundred residents walk in and out and supplies arrive by helicopter.

Is Réunion a beach destination?

Not principally. The swimmable lagoon is small and restrictions apply outside it. It is a walking island.

Can you see the volcano erupting?

Often. Eruptions are effusive and confined to an uninhabited caldera, and the observatory publishes alerts.

How many nights?

Seven. Three walking and four on the coast.

If you only book one