We went all the way to Reunion Island and didn’t even get to see the volcano – how crazy is that!?
We stayed in La Plaine des Cafres, the closest town to Piton de la Fournaise. It is only 27km… but can take you anything from 50 minutes to actually get to and from the volcano.
The road, as all roads on Reunion Island, is the stuff that nightmare are made of. They are narrow. They wind around sharp curves. They are scary as hell – but with spectacular views.
It was raining that day, but we thought the rain may stop and we might get view. We were too optimistic… it got worse. The black volcanic landscape eerily unfolded in the mist and rain. The vast empty landscape was beautiful, unusual and magical.
It was still an experience to just get to the top…
“The journey not the arrival matters.” –T.S. Eliot
If you are staying over in La Plaine des Cafres you might as well visit the Volcano Museum. The rock (or lava) samples were really interesting and Lexa loved getting her little hands on all the moving and interactive parts of the exhibition.
If you haven’t read the other posts about our Reunion Island family holiday, here are the article links:
We went to Reunion Island in 2018 with my elderly parents and 2 year old daughter on a self-drive/self-catering holiday for 9 days.
Here are my Reunion Island travel tips:
Rent the smallest possible car that will fit your luggage (gasp). We rented a Renault Trafic 9 seater mini bus… and it was a scary drive! The roads are quite narrow and most of the town and scenic routes have a ditch on the right (passenger side) and a barely there yellow line shoulder. Plus you get to drive a left hand drive… Take the super waiver damage cover because plant life most certainly will hang over the road when the road is at its narrowest with a car coming from the front.
Eat where the locals eat. The food will be traditional Creole and the portions bigger for a lot less. Check out for the takeaways painted in the Dodo beer colours.
Learn some French or install a translation app on your phone. A lot of the locals, including business owners and staff, do not speak English.
Sundays and Mondays not all attractions are open- this also extends to restaurants. However, if all else fails, go to the beach. If you happen to stumble over some black sand and rocks on the beach it’s probably volcanic rock.
If you want to swim and sit on a great beach… look for the beach route. The best beaches stretch from Plage des Brisants to Plage de Boucan Canot – around Saint-Gilles.
Install Google Offline Maps for Reunion Island. These maps have all the roads and most attractions. Plus you don’t need to delete them when you get home because they expire. Get the steps here.
When doing an independent tour of a country you always kind-of want to know how much it costs to buy a bread or coke so you can budget. Well, here are some of the items we bought and their prices.
How much does alcohol cost on Reunion Island?
The cost of imported beer
Description
Price
Shop
Amsterdam Black Rhum 50CL
€2.29
Leader Price
Special Prestige 50CL
€1.29
Leader Price
Biere Gold 50CL
€2.20
Leader Price
Dodo in a can
€1.15
Local shop in Saint Philippe
Dodo Bourbon is the local beer and is the cheapest
How much does a baguette cost on Reunion Island?
Tip: sliced bread is more expensive than a baguette! Eat what the locals eat and your groceries will cost less.
Description
Price
Shop
Baguette
€0.65
Leader Price, Hermitage
Baguette
€0.80
Leader Price, Saint Philippe
Sliced bread
€1.49
Carrefour Sainte Suzanne
And if you want some margarine to go with your bread… we paid €1.90 for a 200g Plantafin. If for some reason you feel like you need tomato sauce, we paid €1.80 for a normal squeegee bottle.
How much does fruit and vegetables cost on Reunion Island?
Description
Price
Shop
Tomatoes x 4 which was less than a kg
€1.81
Leader Price
Banana bunch 1kg
€2.90
Fraicheur de l’est, Saint Andre
Onion per kg
€1.80
Fraicheur de l’est, Saint Andre
Potatoes per kg
€1.90
Fraicheur de l’est, Saint Andre
Pears per kg
€2.40
Fraicheur de l’est, Saint Andre
Dried dates 250g
€2.65
Carrefour Sainte Suzanne
Bag of carrots
€2.08
Carrefour Sainte Suzanne
2 x green peppers
€2.49
Carrefour Sainte Suzanne
Small bag of potatoes
€2.61
Carrefour Sainte Suzanne
…and if you need salt to cook, we paid €2.75 for a 110g grinder at Carrefour.
How much does cheese and biscuits cost on Reunion Island?
Description
Price
Shop
Babybel 120g 6 pieces
€2.75
Leader Price
Babybel 120g 6 pieces
€2.49
Carrefour Sainte Suzanne
TUC 100g
€1.63
Leader Price
How much do snacks cost on Reunion Island?
Description
Price
Shop
Chips BBQ 135g
€0.99
Carrefour Sainte Suzanne
Oreo cookies 176g
€1.80
Carrefour Sainte Suzanne
Mini Snickers 227g
€1.99
Carrefour Sainte Suzanne
How much does Coke-Cola cost on Reunion Island?
Description
Price
Shop
1.5l
€1.85
Leader Price
1,5l x 4
€7.29
Carrefour Sainte Suzanne
How much does a can opener cost on Reunion Island?
The cheapest, nastiest can opener will set you back €5.49 from a Leader Price! It is very expensive as that same can opener costs R38 in South Africa.
How much does Pilchards cost (in case you feel like you want some)?
€2.93 for a 425g can. If you get that plus a baguette you are set for a big lunch to share between 4 people.
How much does
fuel cost on Reunion Island?
We rented a Renault Trafic 9 seater diesel with a 60l tank and did over 400km. In the end we spent €105 to fill up. A Total garage in Sainte Clotilde charged us €1.21 per liter of diesel.
Some garages have people to help fill your vehicle, others don’t. In case they don’t you have to go inside the shop (usually) and pay upfront for fuel by cash and afterwards you will get the remainder/change.
Rental of the van costs us R5 000 for the 12 days and they reserved a deposit of €1100, but we got this back afterwards.
How much does McDonalds cost on Reunion Island?
Description
Price
Bic Mac Meal with hamburger, Coke and chips
€9.90
Kiddies meal with burger, chips, Coke and toy
€3.70
There were signs everywhere celebrating 50 years of the Big Mac, but finding a McDonalds… well, that was not so easy. They hide out in the bigger towns.
We had other takeaways from places lots of locals seemed to be eating at. Those meals were cheap as chips!
This is a sandwich that I ate for lunch + dinner. It has been Americano’d – chips added. Think it was €2.65.Local fare that cost less than 2 euros and I ate twice from it
Our Reunion Island holiday wasn’t without its snags or moments of meltdown (mostly me) or times we felt the roads were just too unsafe. Unfortunately, once you are on a route you can’t just turn around… plus at the end of every terrifying drive there was something new to discover.
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” – Neale Donald Walsch
From the suspension bridge we decided to take a secondary road that would shave quite a bit of distance off the route, but since it had a lot of “squiggles” it might add some time. What we didn’t realise was that it would be a beautiful road, but that the view would also be terrifying as f***.
There were times I wanted to get out of the car and just lay down in the road. The turn on turn on turn was just horrific… and then Lexa got sick and threw up all over herself (while strapped into her chair).
Turns to make your stomach turn
This is my husband… I’m so glad he has nerves of steel. Yes he is sitting on the “wrong side of the car” it is not your eyes playing tricks.
It took like what felt like forever to get to La Plaine des Cafres, the town closest to the volcano. When we got there our AirBnb host didn’t respond to messages and couldn’t speak English so phoning was a big waste of time. Eventually she and her husband arrived… but he strongly smelled like alcohol and by that time my fuse was lit.
The AirBnb we rented was a dump
The horror of what was inside the highly rated traditional gite… I have many not so beautiful words to describe this place. The wi-fi password was incorrect and she claimed the internet was down (unfortunately she had 2 tech savvy guests who knew she was lying); the floors were dirty as f***; the kitchen sink was blocked and the tap was leaking at an alarming rate. We had to switch off the water so as not to flood the place ; and oh there were 3 forks for 5 people…
The only good thing about the AirBnb… it was almost right next to the Volcano Museum (coming in another post) and you could walk to a small shop just down the road.
The next morning we got the hell out of that dump and left at 6am to drive to the volcano. Nobody even bothered to shower.
On our way to the volcano, in the rain
We wanted to go up this volcano come rain or sunshine. Google Maps said it would take 46 minutes for 16 kilometers.
You will just have to follow my series of articles about Reunion Island to see the photos from our very scary drive to the volcano.
If you haven’t read the first 4 posts about our Reunion Island family holiday, here are the article links:
I am a sucker for beautiful architecture or engineering marvels. I’ll admit that I can spend hours studying something beautiful and appreciate what went into it, from the drawings to construction. So, when I read about the bridge I thought it would be cool to see on our way to the volcano.
Unfortunately the bridge is not open to stroll across – which would have been amazing. However when you look at the walkway, it is made of wood and I have seen enough movies to not want to tread on wood and dangle from a hole, legs flailing!
Old suspension Bridge in Pont Des Anglais, St. Anne/St. Rose
It is a 5 minute stop plus it is free. There is a vendor that sells some jams, pineapples and drinks.
I love graffiti, but when you do it on historic buildings etc… it’s not art but vandalism.
If you haven’t read the first 3 posts about our family holiday on Reunion Island, here are the article links:
“I don’t mind being described as vanilla in certain ways.” – Cal Ripken, Jr.
I agree with Cal Ripken on not minding to be described as vanilla – now that I know that vanilla isn’t just ordinary. Believe it or not vanilla comes from an orchid!
5 things you didn’t know about Vanilla (or Vanille)
Vanilla is originally from Mexico
and was brought to Reunion Island in the 1800’s. Here at first they unsuccessfully tried to get production going. What they didn’t realise was that the orchid needed Melipona bees to pollinate them (as in Mexico). Then one day they realised that you have to pollinate each flower by hand… and voila!
Each flower lasts 1 day and if it isn’t pollinated within 12 hours of blooming… no vanilla pods.
The pods grow for 9 months… Once the green pods start turning yellow that’s when they are ready to harvest. They are first boiled and then dried in the sun for weeks (months).
It can take 3 to 5 years for a vanilla plant to bloom and after harvest there is still months to go before you’ll find the vanilla on the shelves
ProVanille – Bras Panon
We went to ProVanille, a cooperative near Bras Panon on Reunion Island for an English tour. They buy their vanilla from farmers and do the curing, drying and sorting on the premises. However, they still have a few Vanilla plants for demonstration purposes.
We first enjoyed a cup of vanilla coffee before the tour. The tour cost 24 Euros for 4 adults.
They keep the plant low to the ground so they can reach the flowers and pods. These green pods are starting to go yellow so they would be harvested soon.
They dry the pods on wooden shelves in the sun, but as soon as the sun waves goodbye the vanilla is brought inside. See how rounded and puffy the pods are? This means they still contain a lot of moisture and still have some drying to do.
These vanilla pods are much dryer, but according to our tour guide they still had some drying to do!
This photo and video clip shows how they “class” the vanilla by length. You will pay a premium for longer pods.
Escale Bleue Vanille – Saint Phillippe
We also stopped by Escale Bleue Vanille to look at an award winning vanilla grower’s operation. It is pretty much the same everywhere, so if you visit one farm the next one is the same. We got in for free because their English tour guide was away… we aimlessly wandered about looking at everything, but it was still interesting.
On the left is the shop and on the right (yes, that is a garage) a workshop to harvest the vanilla, boil it etc.
See how they keep the plant low to the ground? This is so they can get to the flowers and pods easily.
If there is a tree, their is a vanilla plant creeping up. They cut the “tentacles” holding onto the tree to reign in the height.
If you want to know what you can do with vanilla – other than baking – keep on coming back to my blog.
If you haven’t read the first 2 posts about our family holiday on Reunion Island, here are the article links:
Our first day on Reunion Island had a slow start. We had to get everyone through one bathroom, feed them with the provisions our hosts provided and get out and up to Hell-Bourg.
If you don’t know, Reunion Island has mountains in the middle of the island and the cirques where they have built little towns – plus little towns dotted along the coast. However, to get to these little towns on the cirques is a story on its own…
We first set off to buy provisions for our day trip, but Google Maps just couldn’t get us to a shop and we were left buying from real dodge-looking little shops. What we didn’t know was that there was a Carrefour not too far away – and that it was actually a grocery shop. We got routed to these 2 churches instead…
Anyway, we started our trip up to Hell-Bourg… and it was one hell of a road! Turn on turn on 180 degree turn all while my husband had to change gears with his right hand while sitting on the wrong side of the car and a very narrow road with a 1m ditch and a barely there shoulder… My heart was beating a million miles a minute and I was cursing like a pirate. My husband was glued to the middle line while I had to keep my eye on the closeness of the ditch.
When we finally arrived at Hell-Bourg we were more than a little relieved. My legs were jelly and I was never that glad to walk with my 2 little feet on this planet.
Hell-Bourg
Hell-Bourg is a quaint little town with an even older version 20 minutes away by foot. We couldn’t do the walk as we had Lexa and the pram as well as my very old parents.
However, we walked the main street, looked at all the sights that were open on a Monday (because most places are closed on a Monday and some shops and attractions observe a siesta. The main attraction on the cirque is to hike around, music museum (closed on Mondays), graveyard and eateries.
With a view like this when you will never see it…
After a quick lunch we made our way back down the mountain and had the most beautiful views. The jagged edges stabbing the sky was just beautiful.
Vanilla Farm, St Suzanne
We then tried a vanilla farm, La Vanillerie near St Suzanne, but they did not have an English tour and could not tell me when they will have someone to do an English tour. I must add that I had emailed them 3 weeks prior and NEVER received a reply.
So, we then decided to go to La Cooperative Pro Vanille (Provanille) near Bras Panon when we drive down that way. It was lucky that I jotted down and printed out quite a bit of information on places to visit as we only found the tourism office at the end of the first day.
Temple du Colosse, St Andre
Instead of vanilla we then hunted for the colourful Temple du Colosse and a place to buy food. All the gates at the temple was locked so we couldn’t explore it but it was still impressive. It is definitely worth a visit.
To travel is to breathe. It is the single most important thing you could do in your life that would change you for the better.
Nothing could quite prepare us for the roads of Reunion Island. We’ve been to island destinations – and I promise, we (I) don’t sit in a resort waiting for my next cocktail to arrive. We explore. We are on the road looking around, (attempting) to connect to locals, eating, drinking and taking photos.
Lexa did not scream or sleep on the flight, she was having the time of her life!
Meeting the roads of Reunion Island
If you’ve ever been to Zimbabwe you will know those tarred roads where if traffic comes from the front you have to scoot on over and drive one wheel in the dust… Reunion Island is the same, but far, far scarier. I will share more about the scariest road we’ve ever driven on my next post.
First night on Reunion Island
We rented a Renault Trafic, a very wide minibus with 3 seats per row. When we signed for it the rental agent showed us the damage card and it was scratched f.up on the passenger side… and then we took to the road with Google Offline Maps, in the rain, 9pm at night to find our self-catering accommodation “15 minutes away” (only because we got lost).
The cottage in St Andre was hidden on a narrow street (read 1.5 cars should fit). Numbers on most of the houses were non-existent and well it was dark and raining and we were tired as we landed 8pm after 3.5 hours in the air – but you know that you pretty much lose a day at the airport when travelling. Eventually when we drove the whole street we turned around the boat of a mini bus in the dark, in a narrow street – me standing outside with a torch at the back and my dad relaying signals to husband at the wheel. Then we found it, the sign only visible from one side. Husband mounted a manhole that was almost 20cm high and tried to drive over it (because that’s what real men do) to turn into the driveway.
The owners must’ve heard us (me yelling in a panicked voice at husband not to floor it over the manhole) because they came out of their home across the road looking very concerned. They immediately welcomed us and got us in the gate and settled at Casa Floria that I booked via Booking.com.
The little cottage was perfect, 2 bedrooms, a huge bathroom with shower, fully equipped kitchen and livingroom plus internet – and a patio with a huge table for meals. The best part, the owners had thought of a family of 5 arriving very late in a new country and bought bread, milk, coffee, jam, butter, cheese and cold meat! It was just that touch that made us feel welcome in a French department in the Indian Ocean.
If you would like to find out more about our family holiday on Reunion Island, I will be sharing a few blog posts over the next few weeks. Tips to survive the roads, places to see, what to do and a lot of photos!
We survived… a family holiday with my parents and Lexa – and 2 x 4 hour flights! Loved it, but also really glad that the trip is over. I missed home, my cats, lekker chips, pap & sauce, hearing South Africans talk and driving on the left of the road in a right hand drive vehicle.
It was tough, but I would do it all again.
In the next few weeks I will tell you all about the museums, vanilla farms, waterfalls, towns and beaches we visited as well as what I thought about creole food. There will be tips on what to take and where to go as well as what to expect when you do a road trip.
I took along some products to test… because when you do a road trip your skin gets punished. One product in particular lived up to its promise – but you will have to wait and see…
I can’t even tell you yet what I loved most about the trip, I am just so tired right now… I just know that I took over 3000 photos and still need to sort through mine, my mom’s and still need to submit a travel insurance claim for my dad’s lost video camera.
It’s weird, it’s one of those destinations where not even the tourism site has a lot of info. Travel agencies still look at you… weirdly and all you can do is trawl a lot of accounts of previous visitors to this little island in the Indian Ocean.
So this is what I know, we are going and soon. We have a car and accommodation. I’m not sure if there is a festival on or not, because dates on it is sparse. I kind of have an idea what we will do and see – but I don’t have a 100% plan.
We are definitely seeing volcanoes
Saint-Denis
St Denis, the capital city, offers a number of cultural sites that I am keen to explore.
Musee Leon Dierx which boast an impressive collection that include works by Picasso, Gauguin and Cézanne.
Cascade du Chaudron – apparently the pool at this waterfall is bluer than blue.
Grand Marche – a market or 2 is definitely on the list.
Rumour has it that it is being lauded as the “most beautiful French village”. The Creole architecture is apparently amazing here and I’m a sucker for architecture. We are also going to eat our way through the local cuisine in this little town.
