Experience Réunion · Travel

Travelling in the Indian Ocean

Updated: 4 September 2026

By Frank Knabe · personal experience from living on Réunion Island

Far from Europe, close to many other destinations

Réunion Island is a long way from Europe. The flight to Paris alone takes more than eleven hours. For us, the advantage of this location is that many destinations in the Indian Ocean and beyond become much closer than they would be from Germany or central Europe.

Mauritius and Rodrigues are three quarters of an hour away by air from Réunion. Nosy Be and other destinations in Madagascar can be reached, depending on the connection, in roughly two to two and a half hours. Johannesburg is less than four and a half hours away on a direct flight. There are also direct services to India and Thailand, with flight times of around eight hours.

Exploring the region little by little

Over time, we are therefore discovering not only Réunion itself but also destinations that would probably have involved much longer journeys from Europe. During our first two years on the island we had already been able to visit Mauritius and Nosy Be. More trips are planned and will gradually be featured on our YouTube channel as well.

That is another aspect of island life that we find exciting: a place that initially seems extremely remote from Europe becomes a base for travelling in very different directions — to other islands in the Indian Ocean, to Africa and to Asia.

Flight prices from our experience

We have also not found that travelling from Réunion is automatically more expensive than travelling from Europe. Shorter routes are naturally often cheaper. Even flights to Europe, such as Paris, can regularly be found for under €400 one way when travelling outside the main French school-holiday periods.

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