Reunion Island tours ?

Hi, this is my first post on CC, i hope I'm in the right place. My hubby and I are sailing on Queen Mary 2 from Cape Town to Sydney in Jan/Feb. We will be visiting Reunion Island. Never heard of this place before and not getting much help off the internet. We prefer not to take the ships tours as we find Cunard tours not that great, and poor value for money. Is it possible to pick up a tour on the quayside as in many there places? If not we are happy to hire a car and drive ourselves but even finding info on that difficult. Can anyone steer us in the right direction ?

thanks

make sure you have Euros for cup of coffee etc - no need for a tour very walkable and hot.

Hi, this is my first post on CC, i hope I'm in the right place. My hubby and I are sailing on Queen Mary 2 from Cape Town to Sydney in Jan/Feb. We will be visiting Reunion Island. Never heard of this place before and not getting much help off the internet. We prefer not to take the ships tours as we find Cunard tours not that great, and poor value for money. Is it possible to pick up a tour on the quayside as in many there places? If not we are happy to hire a car and drive ourselves but even finding info on that difficult. Can anyone steer us in the right direction ?

thanks

I might be able to help you a little with your request as we visited La Reunion during our Indian Ocean cruise on Costa NeoRomantica in 2013. I don’t think the information will be too out of date.

Below is my diary entry for the day, plus some photos (I hope), and below that is part of response to a similar query to yours that I found on CC.

La Reunion

La Reunion is a relatively unknown destination for many of us. It is a smallish volcanic island to the south west of Mauritius and is officially part of France so it has a very French feel to it. The road system is modern and the area of the island that we visited seemed very prosperous compared to the mixed fortunes of the people on Mauritius. It was a shame that the weather was not so good….overcast and misty.

IMG_8748 by on Flickr

IMG_8720 by on Flickr

IMG_8714 by on Flickr

DSCN3336 by on Flickr

We did the ship’s tour to the one of the 3 volcanic calderas: Cirque de Mafate. It was a 4½ hour trip that took us from the port along the coast and then up into the mountains through some picturesque villages and forested areas before reaching the caldera rim. The views were truly spectacular.......what a gem of an island.

• The ship docked at the industrial port called La Port. This is, at a guess, 20km from the island’s capital St Denis.

• There was a compulsory shuttle bus from the ship to the port entrance and then a free shuttle to the nearest town. I don’t know what there was to see at the town as we didn’t go but it was a very long walk from the dock exit through deserted scrub land.

• French is the official language and English is not widely spoken.

• The currency is Euros.

• The tour buses were modern, clean and comfortable.

• There were taxis available outside the port gate. The majority were minibus/people carrier types. Drivers had sheets with them of set fares of all the trips they do. You will not need to go in to St Denis to pick one up.

I am a Canadian, I speak English, French and creole. I do offer travel consulting services, specially and only for Reunion Island, and I can help you if you want to have private guided tours to see the island.

I give you my website, www.reunion-island-travel.com

There are so much beautiful things to see and do!

Regards

Francis

Thank you Soccerref for such a helpful reply. You certainly answered my question, and your photos are superb. We will probably pick up a mini bus or taxi from the port as we are not great fans of ships excursions, glad you enjoyed yours. Thanks again.

Tangerine Queen :) x

Hi Tangerinequeen,

You are very welcome. I'm glad to have been of some help and I hope your enjoy your time in La Reunion as much as we did.

Happy cruising

SR

We visited Reunion in 2014 and took a ship's tour to Piton de Fournaise.

It was one of the best tours we have ever done and the scenery was stunning.

Just be aware that taxis were incredibly expensive when we were there and it would cost you an arm and a leg to get to the fabulous scenery. Of course, things may have changed in the interim but there were many bitterly disappointed cruisers on our trip who had hoped to organise a tour at the port but were unable to.

We had seen a documentary on Reunion so it had been on our bucket list but I too had no luck in organising a private tour from home so eventually booked the ship's tour. It's well worth it in the end to travel inland to either Piton de Fournaise or one of the Cirques.

It may be worth doing some further research to find out if there are reasonably priced taxi tours available from the port. If not, I would recommend taking the ship's tour as this island is a gem and it would be a shame to miss the great scenery.