To ensure the proper development of the lagoons on the west coast of the intense island, the Réunion marine nature reserve was created in 2007. This is the reason why beaches and coral reefs are few and must be preserved. Reunion Island owes this atypical physique to its young age, because even if 3 million years seem phenomenal, it is not much compared to its neighbor Mauritius which is approaching 9 million years. Its cliffs and basaltic expanses, sculpted by the lava flows from Piton de la Fournaise, are nonetheless splendid to observe. The east coast remains much wilder with a few rare pebble and sandy beaches.

The coast to the west invites you to swim and relax with its sandy beaches, its casuarinas trees and its 22 km of lagoons, such as Saint-Leu beach or even the Hermitage beach. On the other hand, there is a huge difference between the East coast and the West coast of the intense island. The bay of Saint-Paul is the only opening that sinks into the Reunion coast, its borders are rather homogeneous. Reunion has around 210 km of more or less wide coasts, between 0 and 5 km. The loop has been closed by Unesco, which includes Réunion on the 1st August 2010 as a world heritage site for its “Pitons, cirques and ramparts”. In order to preserve these extraordinary landscapes and its exceptional biodiversity, Réunion National Park was created on March 5, 2007, covering 42 % of the Reunion territory in 2016. Several forests, including the magnificent F Bébour tropical forest, as well as a myriad of pitons, ramparts, planezes or even inaccessible valleys. Wedged between its two mountain ranges, the Plain of Cafres to the southwest and the Plain of Palmists to the northeast, two lands extremely rich in vegetation separated by the Bellevue Pass. On the other side, the Piton des Neiges coating 40 % de la Réunion, surrounded by its 3 magnificent calderas that are the Mafate Circus in the north-west, the Circus of Cilaos to the south and the Circus of Salazie to North-east. On one side we find the Piton de la Fournaise covering 25 % of the intense island with 30 km in diameter, made up of the Bory crater and its highest point, the Dolomieu crater at an altitude of 2,632 meters. The island being the fruit of two volcanoes, the Hauts Reunion therefore represent approximately 80 % of the territory.

The heights of Reunion Island quite simply correspond to what is not on the coast, so in the mountains on more or less steep reliefs.

Reunion island