Best hikes in Réunion Island, sorted by time and effort

Sort by duration and effort, not by scenery

Most lists of Réunion Island walks are really lists of viewpoints: a waterfall here, a crater rim there, loosely grouped by region. That tells you nothing about whether you can actually do the hike with the time and legs you have. This page sorts the island’s best-known routes the other way round — by how many hours or days they take and how demanding they are — because that is the decision that actually matters when you are standing in Cilaos or at the Maïdo trailhead deciding what is realistic today.

Four routes anchor this page: a half-day walk to the Trou de Fer viewpoint from Bélouve above Salazie, the overnight ascent of the Piton des Neiges from Cilaos with a night at the Caverne Dufour gîte, a one-to-three-day crossing of the Mafate cirque between ilets such as La Nouvelle and Marla, and the long-distance GR R1, R2 and R3 network for hikers with a full week. Every one of them depends on trail conditions that change with the weather, so treat the times below as a starting point, not a guarantee.

Quick comparison

Hike	Typical duration	Effort	Overnight gear needed	Starting point
Trou de Fer viewpoint	4 to 5 hours return	Moderate	No	Bélouve, above Salazie
Piton des Neiges summit	1 night, 2 days	Demanding	Yes (or gîte bedding)	Cilaos
Mafate day walk (partial)	6 to 8 hours return	Demanding	No, but tight on daylight	Maïdo or Sentier Scout
Mafate crossing (ilet to ilet)	1 to 3 days	Demanding	Yes	Maïdo, Col des Bœufs, or Dos d’Âne
GR R1 (tour of Piton des Neiges)	5 to 7 days	Very demanding	Yes	Cilaos or Hell-Bourg
GR R2 (island crossing)	10 to 12 days	Very demanding	Yes	Saint-Denis to Saint-Philippe
GR R3 (Mafate loop)	6 to 8 days	Very demanding	Yes	Various Mafate entry points

These durations assume trails are open, weather is dry, and you are a reasonably fit hiker carrying your own pack. Add time in the austral winter’s short daylight hours (sunset well before 18:00 from May to August) and subtract nothing for the cloud that regularly rolls in over the Hauts by mid-morning.

Half-day: Trou de Fer from Bélouve

The walk from the Bélouve forest, above Hell-Bourg in Salazie, to the viewpoint over the Trou de Fer canyon is the best introduction to Réunion Island’s interior for anyone without a full day or overnight gear to spare. It runs through a cloud forest of tamarind trees hung with moss, and the reward is a sudden opening onto a canyon where several waterfalls drop into a green amphitheatre — read more in how to see the Trou de Fer waterfall.

Budget 4 to 5 hours return at an easy pace, including time at the viewpoint, and start as early as the gîte or your accommodation allows: cloud typically fills the canyon from mid-morning, and a Trou de Fer photo taken at 7am and one taken at 11am on the same day can look like different places. The path is mostly flat to gently undulating, which makes it accessible to families with older children — see family-friendly hikes in Réunion Island for other half-day options. It does not require booking a bed, but it does require checking trail status with the ONF beforehand, since sections through the forest close after heavy rain.

Overnight: Piton des Neiges from Cilaos

At 3,070 m, the Piton des Neiges is the highest point in the Indian Ocean and an extinct volcano, distinct from the Piton de la Fournaise, the island’s active volcano in the southeast — the two are easy to confuse by name but sit at opposite ends of the island and have nothing else in common. The standard route starts from Cilaos, reached itself by the road with roughly 400 bends described in driving the road to Cilaos, and climbs through forest and scrub to the Caverne Dufour gîte at around 2,480 m, a hike of 6 to 7 hours with a loaded overnight pack. Most hikers overnight there and leave in the dark, around 3am to 4am, for the final 2-hour push to the summit in time for sunrise, when the view can stretch over Cilaos, the Fournaise and, on a clear day, the coast in several directions.

The Caverne Dufour gîte has limited beds and books out weeks ahead in the June-to-September hiking season, so this is not a hike to plan spontaneously — see how hard is the Piton des Neiges climb and the full Piton des Neiges summit hike guide before committing dates. Temperatures at the summit before dawn regularly sit near or below 0°C even in the austral winter’s dry season, so warm layers, a hat and gloves matter as much as fitness. The descent back to Cilaos on the second day takes another 4 to 5 hours, making this a two-day, one-night commitment rather than a long day trip.

Multi-day: crossing Mafate on foot

Mafate has no road, no cars and no possibility of driving in — it is reached only on foot, from trailheads at the Maïdo, the Col des Bœufs above Salazie, the Sentier Scout, or Dos d’Âne, or by helicopter for those not hiking. Inside the cirque, a scattered network of ilets — La Nouvelle, Marla, Roche Plate, Grand Place, Aurère and others — each has one or more gîtes, and crossing between them is how multi-day Mafate trips are built: see hiking in Mafate: planning guide and how to get into Mafate without a road for route options.

A one-day version exists for fit hikers with an early start — down from the Maïdo to La Nouvelle and back is a demanding but doable 6-to-8-hour return walk that lets you say you have set foot in Mafate without booking a bed. The more common approach is one to three nights, moving between ilets: a popular pattern is Maïdo to La Nouvelle on day one, La Nouvelle to Marla or Roche Plate on day two, and out via a different trailhead on day three, covered step by step in the Mafate three-day trek itinerary. Whichever pattern you choose, book the gîtes before you leave the coast — see sleeping in a Mafate gîte — because there is no alternative accommodation and no way to improvise a comfortable night once the light starts to fade over an unfamiliar cirque.

The long routes: GR R1, R2 and R3

For hikers with a week or more, three long-distance trails link the island’s cirques and coasts into continuous routes. The GR R1 loops around the base of the Piton des Neiges through Cilaos, Mafate and Salazie, typically 5 to 7 days depending on the itinerary chosen. The GR R2 is the island’s spine, crossing from the north near Saint-Denis down through Mafate, past the Plaine des Cafres and toward Saint-Philippe in the south — 10 to 12 days for most hikers, and the same route used, in a very different and far faster form, by trail runners in the Grand Raid, La Réunion’s “Diagonale des Fous”, each October.

The GR R3 is a loop dedicated to Mafate itself, 6 to 8 days, and the natural choice for hikers who want to see most of the cirque’s ilets without also covering the volcano or the north coast. A full-week plan combining pieces of these routes is laid out in the Réunion Island hiking week itinerary, and a shorter four-day taste of all three cirques is in three cirques in four days.

These are serious undertakings: gîte-to-gîte navigation, cumulative altitude gain in the thousands of metres, and stretches with no phone signal or resupply beyond the next ilet. They are not the place to improvise a route from a map app. Booking gîtes along the whole chain in advance, checking ONF trail status for every stage before departure, and carrying enough layers for both tropical heat at the coast and near-freezing cold at altitude are non-negotiable, not optional extras.

Before you go: trail status and bookings

Two checks apply to every hike on this page, from the shortest to the longest, and skipping either one is the most common way a good plan turns into a bad day. First, check current trail status with the ONF (Office National des Forêts) before setting out — heavy rain across the Hauts, common in the austral summer from November to April and described in the Réunion Island cyclone season guide, regularly triggers rockfall and landslide closures on the Piton des Neiges, Mafate and Trou de Fer trails, sometimes for weeks at a time. A trail that was open last month may not be open today. Second, book any gîte bed — at Caverne Dufour or anywhere in Mafate — well before you leave the coast; walking up a mountain to a gîte with no space left means an unplanned and unsafe descent in the dark.

Beyond those two checks, the general seasonal advice for the island applies to hiking as much as anything else: the dry austral winter from May to October is the more reliable season for multi-day routes, described further in best time to visit Réunion Island and Réunion Island weather by month. Pack for both heat and cold — see what to pack for Réunion Island — and if a trail closure or a full gîte forces a change of plan, an aerial view of the cirques is a reasonable substitute: a helicopter tour of the island departing from Saint-Gilles or a microlight flight over the cirques and the volcano shows Mafate, Cilaos and the Piton de la Fournaise from above in a single morning, without needing a single trail to be open.

For a lower-key day that still covers ground, a quad or buggy ride through the Hauts above Saint-Gilles gets you into the highlands without a multi-day pack, and a full-day tour covering 13 stops around the island is a practical way to see the coasts and cirques you are not hiking into. None of these replace the hikes above, but they are honest fallbacks when weather, closures or booked-out gîtes change the plan. For common planning slip-ups beyond hiking, see Réunion Island travel mistakes to avoid, and for a wider view of the island’s high points, best viewpoints in Réunion Island.

Questions about hiking in Réunion Island

Do I need a guide to hike in Réunion Island?

No guide is legally required on marked trails, and most day walks and the Piton des Neiges route are well signposted. A guide helps on the Mafate traverse if you are short on time, unsure of navigation in cloud, or want the GR R2 or GR R3 without route-finding stress.

How hard is the Piton des Neiges hike?

It is a genuine mountain hike, not a stroll: around 6 to 7 hours from Cilaos to the Caverne Dufour gîte, then a pre-dawn 2-hour push to the 3,070 m summit for sunrise. Good boots, warm layers for near-freezing temperatures at the top, and a booked bed at the gîte are all required.

Can you day-hike into Mafate, or does it need an overnight stay?

Both exist. A day walk from the Maïdo down toward La Nouvelle and back is possible for fit hikers with an early start, but crossing the cirque between several ilets, such as La Nouvelle to Marla to Roche Plate, takes one to three days with nights in gîtes, since there is no road out.

How do you check if a trail is open before hiking in Réunion Island?

Check the ONF (Office National des Forêts) trail status pages before every hike, in French or via translation. Heavy rain and rockfall close sections of the Piton des Neiges, Mafate and Trou de Fer trails regularly, sometimes for weeks, and there is no reliable English-language alternative source.

Do you need to book gîtes in Mafate in advance?

Yes. Mafate has no hotels and no road access, so the gîtes in ilets like La Nouvelle, Marla and Roche Plate are the only accommodation. They fill up weeks ahead in the June-to-September hiking season, and arriving without a reservation can mean walking hours further to find a bed.

What is the Trou de Fer hike like?

The classic version is a half-day return walk from Bélouve, above Salazie, through cloud forest to a viewpoint over the Trou de Fer canyon and its waterfalls. It needs no overnight gear but is often shrouded in cloud by mid-morning, so an early start matters more than distance.

What is the difference between the GR R1, R2 and R3 trails?

The GR R1 loops around the Piton des Neiges through all three cirques, the GR R2 crosses the island from north to south (or the reverse) through Mafate and past the volcano, and the GR R3 is a loop specifically around Mafate. All three are multi-day routes with gîte-to-gîte stages.