Reunion Off the Beaten Path: 6 Day Itinerary
Six days is enough to add the Piton des Neiges hike to the loop, but only enough to reach the refuge doorstep, not the summit. This plan spends day six climbing from Cilaos up to the Gîte de la Caverne Dufour at 2,478m for an overnight in a basic, cash-only mountain hut, and stops there. The pre-dawn summit push and the sunrise over three cirques belong to the 7 day itinerary instead, one extra day for the actual payoff. Tighter on time? The 5 day plan skips the mountain entirely.
| 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 |
Book these before you go
- Check Cilaos guesthouse rates for the nights before and after the hike
- Book a guided Piton des Neiges hike , useful for a first ascent of an unmarked-feeling trail
- Book a Mafate or Fournaise helicopter flight , the lower-effort version of a similar panorama
- Compare rental cars on Discover Cars , needed for every day before the hike itself
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. Walk Le Barachois, then Rue de Paris for the 19th-century Creole mansions. Currency is the euro: French, EU, eurozone, but 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, after a serious shark-attack cluster the Centre Sécurité Requin still 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 the cloud rolls in.
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, and get an early night: day six’s hike starts from here too.
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: 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. 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 up: tomorrow’s hike gains roughly 1,736m in elevation before it stops for the night.
Day 6: A cash-only hut at 2,478 meters
The trail from Cilaos climbs toward the Gîte de la Caverne Dufour, a basic mountain refuge at 2,478m, part of the roughly 8h41 average one-way hike to the summit that this six-day version deliberately does not complete. Book the refuge 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. Arrive by mid-afternoon, eat early, and sleep while you still can, since this version’s trip ends here rather than at a 3am wake-up call.
Is the Piton des Neiges refuge bookable online?
No, and this catches people out. The Gîte de la Caverne Dufour is not a standard hotel listing on any booking platform; reservations run through a central phone line, payment is cash only on arrival, and dinner has to be booked a full 48 hours ahead. Treat it as a basic mountain hut you book the old-fashioned way, not a boutique stay with instant confirmation.
Is Piton de la Fournaise open for hiking right now?
It depends on the current alert level, which resets with each new bout of unrest, so no answer given today is safe to rely on by the time you land. Check reunion-parcnational.fr or reunion.gouv.fr the day before you drive up; the road stays open even when the caldera trail itself does not.
Six days gets you to the refuge doorstep with a full dinner and a real bed. If a sunrise over three cirques is the actual reason you are hiking up there at all, move to the 7 day itinerary and add the one morning that makes the climb worth it.