One Week in Reunion: An Offbeat Itinerary
Seven days is the version that actually finishes what six days starts: Saint-Denis, the lagoon, Cilaos, the volcano, Salazie, then two days on Piton des Neiges instead of one, hiking up on day six and pushing to the 3,070m summit before dawn on day seven. That extra morning is the entire point of the mountain, a sunrise over all three cirques with the still-active Fournaise visible on a clear day. Only have six days? The 6 day itinerary gets you to the refuge and stops, honestly, one morning short of the reason to climb it.
| Day | Focus | Drive/hike time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saint-Denis arrival, the Barachois waterfront | 10-15 min from Roland Garros airport |
| 2 | Saint-Gilles/L’Ermitage lagoon, plus a Maido detour | 35-40 min each way |
| 3 | Cilaos: the spa town, the wine, the lentils | 1h15-2h from the west coast |
| 4 | Piton de la Fournaise, the caldera or the museum | 1.5-2.5h via Bourg-Murat |
| 5 | Salazie and Hell-Bourg, waterfalls and Creole houses | Roughly 1-1.5h from the volcano area |
| 6 | Hike from Cilaos to the Gîte de la Caverne Dufour | Roughly 6-7h uphill on foot |
| 7 | Dawn summit push, then descend to Cilaos | 1-2h up, then the full descent |
Book these before you go
- Check Cilaos guesthouse rates for the nights bracketing the hike
- Book a guided Piton des Neiges hike if this is your first ascent
- Book a Mafate and Fournaise helicopter flight , the alternative if the summit push is not for you
- Compare rental cars on Discover Cars , needed for every day this hike does not cover
Day 1: Saint-Denis, and an airport named for the wrong sport
Land at Roland Garros Airport (RUN), 10km from Saint-Denis, named for the aviator Roland Garros, born on Reunion in 1888, first to fly solo across the Mediterranean in 1913, killed in WWI in 1918; the Paris tennis stadium borrowed his name a decade later, in 1928. Walk Le Barachois, then Rue de Paris for the 19th-century Creole mansions. Currency is the euro: French, EU, eurozone, yet outside Schengen and the EU VAT area.
Day 2: The lagoon, and a village you can see but not drive to
Drive 35-40 minutes to Saint-Gilles-les-Bains and L’Ermitage, the one stretch of coast with genuinely unrestricted swimming, protected by a fringing coral reef. Most of the open west-coast ocean has been closed to swimmers and surfers since July 2013, following a serious shark-attack cluster the Centre Sécurité Requin still actively manages; the lagoon is the exception. Early risers should detour to Maido first, about an hour up, for a look into the roadless Cirque de Mafate before cloud arrives.
Day 3: Cilaos, 400 bends and a wine nobody expects
One paved road in, over 400 numbered hairpin bends, roughly 1h15-2h from the coast, drops into a thermal spa town growing its own pale lentils and Reunion’s only wine, grown at 1,200 meters. Order rhum arrangé, rum aged with local fruit, as the trip’s real souvenir.
Day 4: A caldera that was liquid rock months ago
Drive via Bourg-Murat toward Pas de Bellecombe, 1.5-2.5 hours depending on start point, and check the alert level first at reunion-parcnational.fr or the prefecture’s bulletin : Piton de la Fournaise erupted three times between 13 February and 12 April 2026 alone, only returning to baseline “vigilance” on 7 May 2026. Open, the Enclos Fouqué crossing runs about 4 hours to the rim, roughly 10 hours round trip. Closed, the Cité du Volcan museum covers the same ground for €9 adult, €6 child.
Day 5: Hell-Bourg, and a waterfall you have already driven past twice
The road to Salazie ends at Hell-Bourg, one of France’s “Plus Beaux Villages,” known for carved wooden lambrequin houses. Just outside town, the Voile de la Mariée waterfall drops several cascades down a cliff face, better on foot than from the road. Rest well tonight: the real climb starts tomorrow.
Day 6: A cash-only hut at 2,478 meters
The trail from Cilaos climbs toward the Gîte de la Caverne Dufour, a basic refuge at 2,478m, most of the way through the roughly 8h41 average one-way hike to the summit, gaining about 1,736m along the way. Book ahead: 2026 rates run about €20 a night for a bed, €27 for dinner, €7 for breakfast, cash only, meals reserved 48 hours out, four dorms and 48 beds total. Sleep early. Tomorrow starts in the dark.
Day 7: The highest sunrise in the Indian Ocean
Wake before dawn and push the final stretch to the 3,070m summit of Piton des Neiges, the highest point in the Indian Ocean and an entirely separate, extinct volcanic massif from the still-active Fournaise you stood in three days ago. On a clear morning the view takes in all three cirques at once, Fournaise’s summit visible in the distance. Descend back to Cilaos, then drive down to the coast for departure. Not a hiker, or short on the extra day? A helicopter flight over Mafate and the Fournaise, roughly €300-380 for a 45-55 minute circuit, plus a roughly €35 heliport tax, gets a similar panorama without the pre-dawn wake-up.
Do you need to summit, or is the hike up enough?
If the sunrise over three cirques is the actual goal, you need the summit; the 6 day itinerary that stops at the refuge misses the entire point of the climb. If altitude, a basic mountain hut, and an early wake-up genuinely do not appeal, skip the hike outright and book the helicopter instead; it is a legitimately different but comparably dramatic way to see the same peaks.
Is the Piton des Neiges refuge bookable online?
No. The Gîte de la Caverne Dufour runs on a central phone reservation line, not a standard OTA listing, and payment on arrival is cash only, with dinner booked a full 48 hours ahead. Treat it as old-fashioned mountain-hut logistics, not a hotel with instant confirmation.
Bring cash for the refuge and warm layers for the summit push regardless of season; at 3,070m before sunrise, “tropical island” stops being useful weather advice.