🇷🇪 Réunion

Solo and night travel

Solo travel is usually manageable when you stay in populated areas, keep transport planned, and avoid quiet beaches or poorly lit roads after dark. Solo women should use the same precautions and arrange transport through accommodation or known operators when arriving late; rare but real cases of sexual assault mean it is worth taking these precautions seriously rather than treating them as boilerplate.

Tourist areas and Saint-Denis

Markets, bus stations, and busy beach car parks see occasional pickpocketing and theft from parked vehicles, so keep bags and valuables with you or out of sight. Saint-Denis, the only real city on the island, carries ordinary urban petty-crime risk, and some neighbourhoods away from the centre call for more caution after dark.

Away from the coast

The interior cirques, particularly Mafate, have no road access at all and are reached only on foot or by helicopter, so plan multi-day hikes carefully, check conditions before you set out, and expect slower emergency response than on the coast. Most journeys elsewhere depend on the single road that circles the island, which can flood or close after heavy rain, so build in extra time.

LGBTIQ+ travellers

French law applies, including legal same-sex marriage, legal gender recognition without a surgery requirement, and anti-discrimination protections. The main practical concern is local discretion and social setting, especially outside tourist areas, rather than any criminal law risk.

Cyclones and volcanoes

Cyclone season normally runs from around November or December through April, with authorities in agreement that the peak risk months are January to April. Réunion also has active volcanic terrain, including Piton de la Fournaise, and hiking or road plans can change quickly after a weather or volcanic alert; the préfecture bans all public access to the volcano's caldera outright during eruptions, so always check the current alert level before heading up.

Sea and mountains

Shark attacks happen most years on parts of the west and southwest coast, most notably around Boucan Canot and Saint-Paul Coast, where local authorities restrict swimming and surfing to patrolled or netted areas and impose outright bans when sharks are detected nearby; stick to those areas and follow local flags and signage rather than swimming wherever looks appealing. Riptides are common and drownings occur most years, so treat open water with respect even where sharks are not the immediate concern. Remote mountain terrain, especially the interior cirques, can turn a minor injury into a difficult, slow rescue.

Mosquito-borne illness

Dengue and chikungunya are the main mosquito-borne risks. Réunion went through a very large chikungunya epidemic in 2025, with tens of thousands of confirmed cases; health authorities declared that epidemic over in mid-2025, and a serosurvey found roughly two-thirds of the population had already been infected. Local circulation of both dengue and chikungunya dropped sharply through 2026, and by August 2026 health authorities were not reporting active local transmission of either. That can change quickly and seasonally, so check the current situation close to your travel dates and use daytime and dusk mosquito-bite prevention regardless, since anyone not previously infected remains fully susceptible.

Other vaccine-preventable and contact-spread illness

Measles cases rose sharply across France in 2025, driven partly by imported cases and clusters among unvaccinated people, so confirm your routine MMR vaccination is current before travel. Mpox has caused a small number of cases in France, mostly linked to close or sexual contact within specific networks rather than casual contact; general awareness is reasonable but this is not a reason to change your itinerary.

Food, water, and animals

Hepatitis A and travellers' diarrhoea are practical food and water risks. Rabies is mainly an animal or bat exposure issue, so get prompt medical care for any bite or scratch, and consider pre-exposure vaccination for wildlife contact, caving, veterinary work, or extended stays including multi-day treks.

Before you go

Check routine vaccines before departure, including a current two-dose MMR given rising measles activity in France. Hepatitis A and typhoid are worth discussing for food and water exposure. Rabies pre-exposure vaccination is mainly for animal-contact, bat-contact, caving, veterinary, remote, or extended itineraries, including multi-day hikes into the interior cirques. Chikungunya vaccination is worth discussing for long stays, frequent visits, or travel during a period of active local transmission; availability and eligibility vary by country, so check with a travel health provider. A dengue vaccine can be considered for some eligible travellers after individual clinical assessment, but it is not currently available or recommended for travellers from the United States. Yellow fever vaccination is not recommended for local disease risk, but entry rules can apply based on where you arrive from or transit.

Entry rules

Proof of yellow fever vaccination is not required for entry to Réunion, and vaccination is not recommended for local exposure.

How official advice compares

Canada places Réunion in its normal-precaution category and gives the most Réunion-specific detail of any source reviewed, including on crime, roads, sharks, and the interior cirques. FCDO does not advise against travel and focuses on practical outdoor, road, cyclone, volcanic, and health risks. Germany highlights cyclone, seismic, and volcanic exposure in French overseas departments. Australia and the United States both assess France as a whole rather than Réunion specifically: Australia's Smartraveller and DFAT pages point travellers to the general France advice without a dedicated Réunion risk rating, and US State's exercise-increased-caution rating for France cites mainland terrorism and civil-unrest concerns that are not established for Réunion itself. New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore's travel advisories do not appear to publish dedicated Réunion-specific guidance beyond their general France pages.