Reunion 5 Day Itinerary (No Tourist Traps)

Five days adds a genuine transfer day through the wild south and the Grand Brule lava fields on the way back into Cilaos, the price of accepting that nothing on this island connects two interior points without a detour back to the coast first. This is also the point where the Piton des Neiges summit starts to matter; it needs its own overnight, which is what the 6 day and 7 day plans add. Shorter on time? The 4 day itinerary stops after Salazie.

Book these before you go:

Day 1: Saint-Denis and the West Coast Lagoon

Land at Roland Garros (RUN) in Sainte-Marie, ten minutes from Saint-Denis, and collect your rental car at the terminal rather than waiting for a city branch. Europcar, Hertz, Sixt and the local Jumbo Car all run counters at arrivals, and a small automatic runs roughly EUR 20-25 a day in low season, more than double that in October. Reunion is French and EU territory that drives on the right, and it is not part of Mauritius, a separate country about 175km away that people constantly confuse it with. Give Saint-Denis an hour: Le Barachois waterfront still points its old cannons at the sea, and the Creole mansions along Rue de Paris are free to admire from outside. Then drive 35 to 40 minutes to Saint-Gilles-les-Bains for the afternoon. The protected lagoon at L’Ermitage is the one stretch of this coast where swimming is actually sanctioned; open-water swimming and surfing have been banned along most of the west coast since 2013 after a serious run of shark attacks, and the ban still holds in 2026, so treat every other beach here as a view, not a pool. Overnight in Saint-Gilles.

Day 2: Cirque de Cilaos

Cilaos is the cirque worth picking if you only get to choose one. The drive up from the coast takes 1h15 to 2 hours on a single paved road that racks up more than 400 numbered hairpin bends before it reaches town, so take them slowly and do not schedule anything else that morning. Early risers can detour up to the Maido viewpoint, about an hour up from Saint-Paul and best before 8am before the cloud rolls in, for the classic look down into Cirque de Mafate. Mafate has no road whatsoever, and the viewpoint or a helicopter flight are the only ways to see it without a multi-day hike. Cilaos itself is a genuine 19th-century thermal spa town and Reunion’s only wine-producing area (Pinot Noir, Malbec, Chenin), plus the source of the small pale lentils sold under its own name island-wide. Eat them with rice and a cari rather than a menu built for tour buses, soak at the Thermes if the afternoon allows, and check conditions with Meteo France La Reunion before you drive back down, since the hairpin road closes occasionally after heavy rain.

Day 3: Piton de la Fournaise

Piton de la Fournaise is one of the most active volcanoes on Earth, and it erupted three times between 13 February and 12 April 2026 before the alert level dropped back to baseline vigilance in May. Check fournaise.info or the prefecture before you drive up: caldera access opens and closes with the alert level, and no itinerary, including this one, can promise a crater walk months ahead of your trip. The drive from Cilaos to the Pas de Bellecombe car park, via Bourg-Murat and Plaine-des-Cafres, runs a genuine 2 to 2.5 hours on one dead-end road. National park entry is free; the marked trail across the Enclos Fouque lava plain runs about 4 hours to the crater rim one-way, so budget the whole day for it. The Cite du Volcan museum near Bourg-Murat (EUR 9 adult, EUR 6 child) is the fallback if the trail is closed. Overnight near Plaine-des-Cafres or Saint-Pierre.

Day 4: Cirque de Salazie and Hell-Bourg

Salazie is the lushest and wettest of the three cirques, and its single road ends at Hell-Bourg, officially ranked among France’s most beautiful villages for its Creole houses and carved wooden lambrequins. Getting here from the volcano side is a multi-hour transfer; nothing on this island connects two interior points without dropping back to the coastal ring road first, so budget most of the day for driving and treat the village itself as the payoff, not a detour to rush through. Just outside town, the Voile de la Mariee waterfall drops in several parallel strands down a cliff face and is visible right from the road, no hike required. Overnight in Hell-Bourg for the cooler mountain air.

Day 5: The Wild South and Back to Cilaos

There is no direct road between Salazie and Cilaos. Every transfer on this island drops back to the coastal ring road before climbing the next valley, and today is that day. Drive south down the east coast through Saint-Benoit and Sainte-Rose into the Grand Brule, where old lava flows from Piton de la Fournaise have reached the sea in black fields you can walk across; this stretch is wetter, greener and far less touristed than the west coast, and worth the detour on its own merits, not just as a corridor. Continue around through Saint-Pierre and back up into Cilaos by evening. Budget most of the day for driving and treat the Grand Brule stop as the point of the day, not an afterthought squeezed between two better-known cirques.

Can you see Cirque de Mafate without a multi-day hike?

Only two ways, and a rental car is not one of them. The free Maido viewpoint (about an hour up from Saint-Paul) gives the classic look down into the cirque before the morning cloud rolls in. The paid alternative is a helicopter flight, roughly EUR 300 to 380 per person for a 45 to 55 minute circuit over Mafate, the volcano and the Trou de Fer waterfall. Everything else into Mafate itself is on foot, over two to four days.

Is Reunion Island an expensive trip?

It runs mid-range for a French destination: budget around EUR 85 a day for a lean trip, roughly EUR 160 mid-range, and EUR 300-plus for a comfortable one, on top of rental car and any helicopter or guided excursions. Long-haul flights to Roland Garros are the real cost driver, not food or lodging; a casual restaurant plat du jour runs about EUR 13, and market snacks like bonbons piment cost well under a euro each.

Day Focus Drive/hike time
1 Saint-Denis + Saint-Gilles lagoon ~35-40 min drive
2 Cirque de Cilaos (spa, wine, lentils) ~1h15-2h drive, 400+ hairpins
3 Piton de la Fournaise (status permitting) ~2-2.5h drive, ~4h hike to the rim
4 Cirque de Salazie + Hell-Bourg multi-hour transfer, no shortcut
5 Grand Brule + transfer to Cilaos most of the day driving

Fill the tank before you leave Hell-Bourg; there is no fuel stop on the wild south road until you are well past Saint-Philippe. The official Reunion Island tourism site lists current opening hours for the Grand Brule sites along this stretch.