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Reunion Island Car Hire or Tour


Tangerine Queen
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We are visiting Reunion Island on 3rd Feb and are trying to find a private tour company to take us on an island tour rather than use the ships tour, and its proving anything but easy. We have contacted all the ones we can find on line and they are all booked up. Does anyone know someone they can recommend ? How easy is it to pick up a tour when we dock ? Do they have mini buses waiting as in many other ports of call ?

Our last resort is hiring a car. Anyone done that here? How easy was it to get to the car hire company and drive yourself ? Bearing in mind we are British and drive an automatic car on the left, I understand in RI their cars are nearly all manual, right hand drives.

Getting desperate now so any advice welcome.

thanks

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We visited Reunion on a cruise in 2014. Reunion is a fabulous destination but we didn't find that there were any mini buses or tour operators at the port unlike a lot of other destinations. (This could have changed in the interim as more ships are calling there).

Reunion is quite an expensive place and our research indicated that taxis were scarce and very pricey. We ended up booking a ship's tour to Piton de Fournaise and it was one of the best tours we have ever done. The scenery is wonderful and it was well worth the trip.

Passengers who were hoping to pick up a tour at the port were very disappointed as there was only a shuttle in to St Denis.

 

Reunion was on our bucket list after seeing a documentary on the island a few years ago so we were desperate to see the island. We too tried to organise a private tour with no success and friends of ours who only do private tours were left with the shuttle to St Denis.

 

It seemed to us that everyone in Reunion drove brand new cars and our guide told us that the residents refuse to drive second hand cars so these all get shipped off to Mozambique which might account for the shortage and expense of taxis.

 

If you really want to see the inland part of Reunion I would definitely go for a ship's tour as it's a unique place a well worth it.

 

Good luck with whatever you choose to do.:)

 

I've just noticed that you have made other posts recently with the same question so I'm just repeating myself. My understanding is that hire cars are also expensive but perhaps try contacting one to see what the daily rate is.

Edited by bronte2
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Bronte2, thanks so much for your reply. Im pleased to hear you liked it to somch. You have reassured me that RI is worth investing time and money on. We had never heard of it before. We eventually managed to book an automatic hire car with Avis, and we understand their office is walking distance from the ship. We will do plenty of reseach now and decide which places we want to see with the time we have there. Hopefully it will all go to plan :). Thanks again xx

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  • 7 months later...

Yes we did hire the car from Avis and it all worked really well but we did a lot of research first. We paid £63 for a Peugeot 308 automatic for the day. If you have no walking issues it's an easy 10 minute walk from the ship (uphill). Google the route so you know exactly where you are going. Driving was ok for us but they are quite erratic drivers. Also it takes a lot longer to get anywhere than you expect. Leave plenty of time. One more thing, watch out for stray dogs, they are everywhere it was very sad to see. Good luck, it's a lovely island.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Yes we did hire the car from Avis and it all worked really well but we did a lot of research first. We paid £63 for a Peugeot 308 automatic for the day. If you have no walking issues it's an easy 10 minute walk from the ship (uphill). Google the route so you know exactly where you are going. Driving was ok for us but they are quite erratic drivers. Also it takes a lot longer to get anywhere than you expect. Leave plenty of time. One more thing, watch out for stray dogs, they are everywhere it was very sad to see. Good luck, it's a lovely island.

 

Would you mind sharing your itinerary for your day's self drive four - what were your timings? Thanks in advance.

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Bronte2, thanks for this valuable info. It's a shore excursion for us, then. I noticed on our cruise line's shore excursion page that the trip to the Piton goes up to 8000 feet and is not recommended for those with breathing difficulties, so unfortunately I have to give that one a miss. But the Garden of perfumes and spices excursion sounds equally lovely.

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Bronte2, thanks for this valuable info. It's a shore excursion for us, then. I noticed on our cruise line's shore excursion page that the trip to the Piton goes up to 8000 feet and is not recommended for those with breathing difficulties, so unfortunately I have to give that one a miss. But the Garden of perfumes and spices excursion sounds equally lovely.

 

Hmm that's interesting re the excursion to Piton de la Fournaise! I don't recall any warnings when we went as I would have been wary due to DH being a bit susceptible. He had no issues whatsoever but of course if you have been given a warning then it's not worth the risk.

 

I'm sure you will enjoy your excursion anyway. The scenery is so varied, it's a fascinating place.

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  • 9 months later...

We visited Reunion island some years ago.

We did our own thing using public transport as we don't really take the ships excursions.

That said, Reunion island can get very busy, and we were a little worried about the time.

If I ever visit Reunion island again, I would take a ships excursion. Better safe than sorry.

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