Search hotels in Saint-Denis

As I visited Reunion many times I can say the island is wonderful. Waterfalls, ravines, often erupting volcano, excellent beaches. St Denis is a base for discovering it by easily renting a car at the airport. The city is for work or nightlife. The prices are higher than in neighbouring islands. The higher the accomodation price the better value you get.

The place can be easily reachable for anyone and a lot of restaurant and shop around which gives you a very big choice. The atmosphere is cool and the people are very friendly. There is also a nice place to relax yourself at the barachois.

It is an extremely clean area and people are very pleasant and helpful. However, the cost of living is relatively high and shopping may not really be an option unless you want to buy branded items. Wrt transport, taxi service across the island is quite high, so you can use the bus as transport medium which cost €1.30 for 2hrs (can be purchased with the bus driver directly). Alternately, renting a car is also a good option as in some areas of the island, buses come every hour. The network operators (sfr, orange, etc) are extremely expensive for tourists and can only be purchased in the operators' shops.

Saint-Denis is the capital of the island and is OK for a day to acclimatise to the island, there are many restaurants and shops, and the "Jardin de l'Etat", the city's botanical garden, is very nice. But there are no beaches or many touristy things to see. I would definitely not recommend staying there for the rest of the visit, but rather going to the West of the Island with the amazing beaches and easier access to the hiking in the mountains.

Try and be there on the 21st June as each year they have a band music festival, the central city streets are closed off and a large variety of bands set up and play all evening. There were also great food stalls set up on one of the streets, fantastic evening. Easy place to walk around during the day to see all the older houses, very good tourist info centre. The Coffee Shop serves amazing delicious food in a lovely environment, sorry can't remember the street name, it is in the centre of the city. Take a bus ride down the west coast to the beach for the cost of a few euros, good bus service.

I live on Africa mainland so it felt a bit like (European) paradise. When I saw they have McDonald's I almost cried. Take at least an hour to walk the main street with colonial mansions. Watch the sun set at the sea front. Eat something at the food court on the sea side. Buy a souvenir at the large tourist bazaar. Take a cheap bus to the south. Take a bus from and to the airport for 5 euro.