Timing
Two decisions, and the smaller-sounding one matters more. The month sets the odds. The hour of the day decides whether you see into the cirques at all — because the interior of this island manufactures its own cloud, and on most days it starts before eleven.
Quick answer
Book a helicopter flight in Reunion for the first departure of the morning, in the dry season between May and October. The hour matters more than the month: air pushed up the ramparts condenses through the morning and fills the cirques from the inside, so a bowl that is open at eight is often closed by eleven. Flights run all year, and the wet months from December to March give the strongest waterfalls and the most lost slots.
Why the hour beats the month
Trade winds hit a three-kilometre wall, and the cirques fill with cloud from mid-morning.
Reunion sits in the path of the south-east trade winds. That air arrives warm and wet, hits a wall of rock three kilometres high, and has nowhere to go but up. Rising air cools, water condenses, and cloud forms — reliably, most days, all year.
Inside the cirques the effect is stronger still, because they are bowls. The cloud starts low in the morning, builds through the middle of the day and fills the amphitheatre from the inside out. By early afternoon the cirques are commonly a white lid seen from above, and the coast where you are staying can be in full sun the whole time.
This is why every operator on this island schedules its best circuits early, and why the single most useful thing on this page is: book a helicopter flight in Reunion for the first slot. Not the mid-morning one that suits your breakfast. The first one.
Month by month
Flights run all year and the differences are about odds and about water, not about whether there is anything to see.
May – Oct
The austral winter: drier air, steadier mornings and the clearest views into the cirques of the whole year. Cloud still builds over the interior by late morning, so the first slots are still the ones to take, but this is the season with the fewest lost flights. If you can choose your dates, choose these months.
Sep – Nov
Late winter into spring keeps most of the dry-season weather while the island is less busy. The waterfalls are thinner than in summer, which suits the volcano and the cirque walls more than it suits Trou de Fer.
Dec – Mar
The austral summer is the rainy season and the cyclone season. The cirques are at their greenest, Trou de Fer is at its fullest, and the cloud closes in earliest. Book early in your trip so a postponed flight still has days to move into.
Apr
The rain eases while the interior is still green from summer. A good compromise month: more settled mornings than March, more water in the falls than July.
Six timing rules that actually change the flight
All of these are decisions you make when you book a helicopter flight in Reunion, not on the day.
Between seven and nine in the morning depending on the season. This is the single decision that changes what you see most.
Not the last. If the weather moves it, you want days left to be moved into.
May to October for clear cirques and the volcano; December to March for water in the waterfalls.
The lagoon can be in full sun while the interior is closed. The operator decides on the conditions over the cirques.
If a slot is moved, the same week almost always clears. A refund ends the attempt.
A dawn check-in on the other coast means leaving in the dark. Book the side you sleep on unless the route is worth it.
The coast and the interior are two different climates on the same small island. A perfect beach morning is not evidence that the cirques are open, and a grey coast does not mean the flight is off.
Cloud and cancellations→The daily pattern
Before seven is best, seven to ten is good, and by midday the bowls are usually shut.
The island runs to a schedule, and once you know it the timing of a helicopter flight in Reunion stops being a gamble.
Before seven. The air over the interior is at its coldest and driest. This is the window in which a helicopter flight in Reunion sees to the floor of Mafate and across the Enclos Fouque in the same circuit.
Seven to ten. Still good, and thinning. Cumulus starts forming on the ramparts and filling the bowls from below. Most of the flights that people rate five stars are in this block.
Ten to one. The cirques are commonly closing in. Operators will still fly a helicopter flight in Reunion at this hour when conditions allow, often on an adjusted route that favours the coast and the volcano over the amphitheatres.
Afternoon. The interior is usually a lid. Coastal and lagoon routes still work beautifully, which is why the microlight listings are less hour-sensitive than a helicopter flight in Reunion is.
Common questions
The first departure of the morning. The interior makes cloud through the morning and fills the cirques from the inside, so a bowl that is open at eight is often closed by eleven.
May to October is the best month range for a helicopter flight in Reunion: the austral winter and the dry season here, with the steadiest mornings and the clearest views into the cirques.
Yes. A helicopter flight in Reunion runs all year. December to March gives the greenest cirques and the strongest waterfalls, along with more postponed slots and the cyclone season.
December to March, when the falls carry the most water — which is also the cloudiest time of year on the eastern side.
Far enough to place the helicopter flight in Reunion in the first days of your trip rather than the last, so a postponed slot still has somewhere to go.
Very little. The lagoon is frequently sunny while the interior is closed in, and the operators make the call on conditions over the cirques.
Go deeper
From $196 to $422, and what a minute in the air is worth.
The verdictOne recommendation for each town, and why.
No roadFourteen kilometres by seven, and not one road into it.
The chasmWaterfalls in a hole in the forest, reached no other way.
The volcanoTwo thousand six hundred metres of active crater.
The cirquesMafate, Cilaos and Salazie in thirty-six minutes.
Saint-Pierre: Helicopter Flight over the Volcano and Cirques
★ 4.9 · 646 reviews · Free cancellation 24 h