Tucked east of Madagascar and still officially part of France, Réunion packs an active volcano, three vertiginous cirques and a ring of black-sand coast into a single small island.
Piton de la Fournaise, one of the world's most active volcanoes, is also one of the more approachable — a marked trail crosses the Plaine des Sables, a lunar expanse of red and black volcanic rock, before climbing to the crater rim in around two to three hours each way. Check activity levels before you go; the volcano erupts fairly often, and access is closed without much notice when it does, which is honestly part of the appeal.
The island's three cirques — vast eroded calderas ringed by cliffs — are the real reason hikers make the trip, and Mafate is the most remarkable of the three: a village-dotted basin with no road access at all, reachable only on foot or by helicopter. Stay a night in a gîte in La Nouvelle or Marla, where dinner is typically a communal table of rougail sausage and rice, and the silence after the generators switch off is close to total.
Balance the interior with a few coastal days around St-Gilles or St-Leu, where black volcanic sand gives way to a genuine coral lagoon protected from the open ocean swell — one of the only safe swimming stretches on an island whose Atlantic-facing coast is otherwise rough and shark-flagged. Réunion runs on French time and euros despite being closer to Madagascar than to Europe, so pack accordingly and expect a long-haul flight connection through Paris for most non-regional visitors.
