Eléonore and Denis on a trip in a van in Reunion Island

Here is a review of our 3 weeks trip with RUNAVAN in February 2023.

We get back the clean nickel van. Easy to handle for the driving and nothing complicated for the functioning of the equipment. We are reassured. We leave on a trip with a guide of all the rest areas of the island and we know where we can spend the nights and make water.

First tip: put all your belongings in bags that won't take up much space once you've packed everything into the compartments. If you arrived with large suitcases, put everything in the van and ask to leave your suitcases at RUNAVAN.

We go to Salazie then Hell-Bourg and Mafate. History to put us in full sight. The landscapes are breathtaking. We understand quickly that to organize us well, it is necessary to arrive at the end of the day to park us and to be already on the spot to hike in the morning. This allows us to take advantage of the good weather before the arrival of the clouds and the rain which occurs rather often at the end of the day at this period.

On the way back from the hikes, lunch and nap before driving to the next stage of visit. We take the opportunity on the road to do some shopping for fresh products.

We do not miss to make many stops on the beautiful points of view. The ideal being to arrive before the nightfall to find the good place (especially when the visitors of the day left and leave us sites often deserted).

Our route consists in going down by the East towards the South then to go on the Volcano, to make a detour by the Plaine des Palmistes then to push until Cilaos. In short, the must-sees...

You will have understood it we are more green nature than playa.

On the organizational side, some suggestions:

• bring a mini speaker to listen to music (poor radio reception and very little choice)
• it is only possible to charge devices with a USB port. We use our computers very little. But we still needed to charge them during our trip so we opted for a regular visit to the many libraries of the island where we were always very well received.
• for the laundry go light: there are ultra-modern laundries everywhere in the island.

The van is small so it goes everywhere and that's no small thing because the roads can be really narrow. It is simply furnished with the essentials on board. We appreciated not having to find hotels and to be constrained by their opening hours, to eat where we were, when we wanted and to avoid going to the restaurant systematically, not to pack and unpack our bags and especially to make our program day by day... in short the freedom of the vanlife. Without forgetting the supreme pleasure to open the doors of the van in the morning on beautiful landscapes.

As for hiking, I'm not very sporty but there are a lot of very accessible walks (we bought a guidebook before setting off). We did some beautiful walks.

A big thank you to the RUNAVAN team who warned us about the arrival of the threatening cyclone Freddy. Holidaymakers sometimes forget to listen to the news. They gave us some advice and offered us to come and shelter in their garage. We found a very safe place where we were so we spent a night in the shelter without any problem.

Top experience... it is the ideal way to visit Reunion Island where camping is freely accepted everywhere.

And to know more about our great trip in RUNAVAN, we made a little movie that you can see on their website.

Eléonore and Denis

To rent this van it's here!