The honest answer
It is the most expensive single thing most people do on this island, and the question is fair. The answer here is unusually clear, and it rests on one fact rather than on scenery: a large part of what Reunion is famous for has no road and no path. A Reunion helicopter tour is not a better view of somewhere you could also drive to.
Quick answer
Yes — more clearly here than in most places, because half of the island cannot be reached any other way. The Cirque de Mafate has no road at all and is otherwise a one to two day walk. Trou de Fer has no path into it. Piton de la Fournaise only makes sense from above. Flights start at $299 and the route we recommend is $375 for forty-five minutes.
The argument for
Mafate, Trou de Fer and the caldera: three things a road cannot give you.
Most scenic flights sell a better angle on something you can also visit. A Reunion helicopter tour does not, and that is the whole case.
The Cirque de Mafate has no road. Not a rough road, not a seasonal road — none. It is the only inhabited part of France where that is true. Around eight hundred people live in it, supplied by helicopter, and the alternatives to flying over it are a one to two day walk in or a view from the rim at Maido of one corner of it. Eleven minutes of a scenic circuit takes you through the middle.
Trou de Fer has no path. Several waterfalls dropping three hundred metres into a chasm in the Belouve forest, with overhanging walls and a floor nobody stands on. The forest walk reaches a lookout on the rim. The chasm itself assembles into a picture only from above.
Piton de la Fournaise is the wrong shape from the ground. You can walk to the crater in about five hours return and it is worth doing. What you cannot do is see the thirteen kilometre horseshoe of the Enclos Fouque, the cone inside it and the lava corridor running to the sea as one object. That needs altitude.
The argument against, stated fairly
We would rather list these than have you find them afterwards.
From $299 to $422 a person. Real, and the reason to compare routes properly rather than to talk yourself out of it.
Also real. Mitigated almost entirely by taking the first slot and booking it early in your trip.
True. Weight decides the seating, and the circuit turns, so both sides get the cirques.
Thirty-five to fifty-five minutes. On an island seventy kilometres across that covers more than it sounds, but it is over quickly.
True, and labelled on every card. Two listings carry 190 and 138 ratings, and those are the ones with real evidence behind them.
You could walk into Mafate in a long day, and it is a wonderful walk. It is not the same thing, it needs the fitness and the days, and it still does not show you Trou de Fer.
What 532 reviews say
Two listings carry real weight, and the complaints are about cloud rather than about value.
Eight of the fourteen listings on this site carry a score, and between them they hold 532 ratings. The two that matter most are the fifty-five-minute crossing at 4.7 across 190 reviews and the thirty-five-minute flight at 4.8 across 138.
The highest score on the page is the Excellence circuit from Saint-Gilles at 4.9, resting on 27 reviews. Treat that as a good sign rather than as stronger evidence than the 4.7.
What the reviews consistently describe is the two things this page has been about: the moment the ground drops away into a cirque, and the caldera. What they consistently complain about is cloud — which is a timing decision, and it is yours.
Book direct
Our pick first, then the most-reviewed, the cheapest helicopter and the cirques-only route.
★ 4.6 · 66 reviews
★ 4.7 · 190 reviews
★ 4.8 · 138 reviews
★ 4.7 · 12 reviews
If you fly once on this island, fly early in the morning and early in your trip. Almost every disappointed review is a cloud story, and almost every cloud story is a late slot.
When to fly→The comparison
Maido, the volcano walk and the island day tour — what each one cannot give you.
The fair way to judge a Reunion helicopter tour is not against a cheaper flight. It is against the best alternative use of the same morning and the same money.
Against the Maido viewpoint. Free, an hour’s drive, and it looks into one corner of Mafate from outside. It is a wonderful view and it is not the cirque. A Reunion helicopter tour puts you inside the bowl at the height of its walls.
Against the volcano walk. About five hours return and among the best day walks anywhere. It gives you the lava underfoot and not the shape of the caldera. A Reunion helicopter tour gives you the shape and not the texture. They are complements, not substitutes.
Against a full-day island tour. Eight or nine hours by road, and everything it reaches has a road to it. That is the whole point: a Reunion helicopter tour is the only way to spend time over the parts that do not.
Against doing nothing that morning. This is the real comparison for most people, and it is the one where a Reunion helicopter tour wins most clearly.
Common questions
Yes, and a Reunion helicopter tour is worth it more clearly than in most destinations, because the Cirque de Mafate has no road and Trou de Fer has no path. You are not buying a better view of somewhere you could drive to.
The fifty-five-minute crossing at $422, which is the cheapest helicopter here per minute and covers the volcano, all three cirques and Trou de Fer. Our overall pick is the forty-five-minute route at $375.
Partly. You can walk into Mafate over one to two days, drive into Cilaos and Salazie, and hike to the volcano crater in about five hours return. None of that shows you Trou de Fer, and none of it shows you a cirque from the height of its own walls.
Book the Reunion helicopter tour for the first slot and put it in the first days of your trip. Operators postpone rather than fly a closed circuit, and the helicopter listings here are free to cancel up to 24 hours before.
The thirty-five-minute flight at $299 is a real helicopter circuit over the interior with 138 reviews at 4.8. It does not reach the volcano, and if that is why you came, pay the difference.
It is a different flight, not a cheaper one. An open two-seat aircraft over the lagoon and the lower ramparts from $196 is lovely, and it does not reach the volcano or the inside of 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