Reunion Island is a tropical island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Its standards of comfort, health and hygiene match those in mainland France. There is only a 2 or 3 hour time difference with Europe. It offers a range of many accommodation options that are increasingly geared to the needs of a French and international clientele.

Renowned for its production of sugar, rum and vanilla La Réunion features a diverse landscape and is regarded as an adventure traveller’s paradise where hiking, surfing, diving, game fishing and paragliding opportunities abound. French and Réunion Creole are the main languages although some English is spoken. The region has set tourism activity as a priority for 2010.



Vanilla Beans. Have you heard about French vanilla ? Well you know now where it is coming from…

Reunion Island offers visitors an exotic paradise, a wide variety of landscapes and mountains, outstanding volcanic corries (or cirques), a preserved lagoon with the recently opened Marine Natural Reserve, beautiful beaches as well as lots of space to engage in all types of leisure activities and outdoor sports. The creation of Reunion’s National Park seeks to achieve balanced sustainable development. Reunion Island has had an atypical history as regards settlement, agricultural development, economic growth and its position at the intersection between different trading routes.


Multicultural market

This history has resulted in a high degree of ethnic, cultural and religious diversity. The “Highlands” or interior of the island give the territory its distinctive identity. These volcanic, mountainous landscapes and coastline offer numerous walking or hiking trails, breathtaking sites and primeval forests with multi-coloured trees, majestic waterfalls, isolated villages and “islets”.

The “Highlands” are dominated by the Piton des Neiges (3,071 m above sea level), the former volcano which led to the formation of the island which rose from the lava flow, and are surrounded by peaks over 2,000 meters high. When the volcano subsided, it caused the formation of cirques (corries) : Cilaos, Salazie and Mafate. Further to the east, the Piton de la Fournaise, a still act active volcano, is a second mountain range separated from the first by high plains : the Plaine des Cafres and the Plaine des Palmistes.

In August 2010 the Pitons, cirques and remparts of La Reunion Island, which cover more than 40% of the island, were featured on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

La Réunion is now directly accessible to Australians with the recent introduction of direct Air Austral flights to the island from Sydney and on to Paris.

More information on : http://www.reunion.fr

Thanks to Villages Creoles® for all these information.