Cost
Eight helicopter flights and four microlights lift off from four towns on this island every morning, from $196 to $422. They are advertised in almost the same words and they are not the same product. What a Reunion helicopter tour price really buys is not minutes in the air but how much of an island with no roads through its middle you get to see.
Quick answer
A Reunion helicopter tour costs between $299 and $422 a person. Thirty-five to forty-five minutes — the standard product, and where most people should look — runs $299 to $375. The fifty-five-minute crossing of the whole island is $422. Microlights, which are an open two-seat aircraft on a lower route rather than a cheaper helicopter, start at $196.
Every trip, current fare
Fourteen listings with the columns that decide it: which town it leaves from, how long you are in the air, and what a minute costs. The two day tours at the bottom are on the ground and have no per-minute figure, because comparing a nine-hour drive with a flight by the minute tells you nothing useful.
| Flight | Duration | Price | Departs from | Cost per minute | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saint-Pierre: Helicopter Flight over the Volcano and CirquesThe volcano and the cirques in one flight | 45 min | $375 | Saint-Pierre | $8.33 | 4.6 · 66 |
| Saint-Pierre: Helicopter Tour over the Intense IslandThe cheapest helicopter on the island | 35 min | $299 | Saint-Pierre | $8.54 | 4.8 · 138 |
| Saint-Pierre: Helicopter Flight over the 3 CirquesMafate, Cilaos and Salazie in one loop | 36 min | $312 | Saint-Pierre | $8.67 | 4.7 · 12 |
| Saint-Gilles: Island Tour by HelicopterThe island circuit from the west coast | 45 min | $370 | Saint-Gilles | $8.22 | New |
| Saint-Pierre: Island Tour by HelicopterThe island circuit from the south coast | 45 min | $370 | Saint-Pierre | $8.22 | New |
| Saint-Pierre: Full Helicopter Flight over Reunion IslandThe best-evidenced flight here: 190 reviews | 55 min | $422 | Saint-Pierre | $7.67 | 4.7 · 190 |
| Saint-Gilles: Excellence Helicopter TourThe Excellence route, rated 4.9 | 55 min | $422 | Saint-Gilles | $7.67 | 4.9 · 27 |
| Saint-Pierre: Excellence Helicopter TourThe Excellence route from Saint-Pierre | 55 min | $422 | Saint-Pierre | $7.67 | 4.1 · 7 |
| Saint-Paul: Microlight Flight over Cirques, Islets and LagoonsA microlight over the lagoon and cirque edges | 60 min | $196 | Saint-Paul | $3.27 | 4.7 · 32 |
| Saint-Paul: Microlight Flight over Mafate and Piton MaidoA microlight along the rim of Mafate | 60 min | $202 | Saint-Paul | $3.37 | New |
| Saint-Leu: Flight over Reunion Island in a MicrolightThe long microlight route from Saint-Leu | 60 min | $266 | Saint-Leu | $4.43 | New |
| Saint-Paul: The Ultimate Microlight Flight over Reunion IslandThe longest microlight route offered | 60 min | $277 | Saint-Paul | $4.62 | New |
| Reunion Island: Full-Day Island TourThe whole island by road, guided | 8-9 h | $693 | Sainte-Rose | — | New |
| Reunion Island: Volcano, Beaches and Paradise Landscapes Day TourVolcano and black-lava coast, by road | 7 h | $576 | Sainte-Rose | — | 4.9 · 10 |
How the pricing works
How much of the island, which airfield, and which aircraft. The seats are the same.
Three things, and the first is the one people miss.
How much of the island the route covers. Reunion is only about seventy kilometres across, but it is folded: the middle is three collapsed craters ringed by walls a kilometre high, and the volcano sits in its own caldera on the far side. A thirty-five-minute flight reaches one half of that. Fifty-five minutes reaches all of it and comes back down the other coast. The Reunion helicopter tour price follows that geography almost exactly.
Which airfield it lifts off from. Saint-Pierre in the south is the closest field to Piton de la Fournaise, so a flight from there spends fewer of its minutes in transit. Saint-Gilles on the west coast puts the lagoon under you immediately and climbs into the cirques over the top. Neither is better; they are different first ten minutes.
Which aircraft it is. Four listings on this page are microlights — open, two-seat, lower and slower. They are the cheapest way into the air here and they are not a discount helicopter. They do not climb over a 2,632-metre volcano and they do not turn tightly inside a cirque.
What you get for the money
Every helicopter listing on this page includes the same core, and the differences are short.
The advertised duration is flying time. Thirty-five, forty-five or fifty-five minutes, and what changes between them is how much of the island is in the circuit.
Standard on every helicopter here. Without it you would hear nothing over the rotor, and the commentary is most of what tells you what you are looking at.
The coastal legs are over water, so jackets are fitted before you board.
Every operator weighs passengers at check-in and the pilot seats the cabin by weight so the aircraft balances. Ask politely; do not count on it.
Shown on the helicopter listings here. Worth having on an island whose interior makes its own cloud by mid-morning.
Saint-Pierre and Saint-Gilles are on opposite coasts and over an hour apart by road. Book the Reunion helicopter tour that leaves from the side you are already staying on.
The cheapest number on this page is not a helicopter. The microlights at $196 are an open two-seat aircraft flying a lower, coastal route — a different experience that happens to cost less, not a discounted version of the same flight.
Helicopter or microlight→Where the value is
The full crossing for value, the 45-minute flight for a first trip, and read the review counts.
Best value overall: the fifty-five-minute crossing at $422. It works out at about $7.67 a minute, the lowest rate of any helicopter here, and it is the only length that covers the volcano, all three cirques, Trou de Fer and the lagoon in one flight. It also carries 190 reviews at 4.7, more evidence than anything else on this page.
Best first flight: the forty-five-minute volcano and cirques route at $375. Our top pick, and the one to take if you want both halves of the island without committing to the full hour. It lifts off from the airfield nearest the crater, so more of it is spent over the good ground.
Cheapest genuine helicopter: $299 for thirty-five minutes. It carries 138 reviews at 4.8, more than any other short flight here, and it is the lowest Reunion helicopter tour price that still puts you in a turbine helicopter over the cirques.
Worth knowing before you compare: four listings are new. The two island-circuit flights and two of the microlights carry almost no ratings yet. That does not make them bad, but a Reunion helicopter tour price is easy to compare and evidence is not, so read both numbers.
Book direct
The eight helicopter listings, in the order we would show them to a friend: the flight that covers both halves of the island first, then the rest by what they reach.
★ 4.6 · 66 reviews
★ 4.8 · 138 reviews
★ 4.7 · 12 reviews
★ 4.7 · 190 reviews
★ 4.9 · 27 reviews
★ 4.1 · 7 reviews
Common questions
From $299 a person for thirty-five minutes over the interior, up to $422 for the fifty-five-minute crossing of the whole island. Microlights, which are a different aircraft, start at $196.
The thirty-five-minute flight from Saint-Pierre at $299, which carries 138 reviews at 4.8 — more than any other short listing on this page.
On a per-minute basis it is the cheapest helicopter here, at about $7.67 a minute, and it is the only route that reaches the volcano, all three cirques and Trou de Fer in one flight. If you are flying once, it is the one that leaves nothing out.
Because it is a different aircraft: open, two seats, lower and slower, and cheaper to run. It is excellent over the lagoon and the west coast, and it cannot climb over the volcano or manoeuvre inside a cirque.
No. The Reunion helicopter tour price is per person and covers the flight, the headset, the briefing and the jackets. What it does not cover is getting to the airfield, and the two coasts are over an hour apart by road.
The helicopter listings here are free to cancel up to 24 hours before. In practice operators postpone rather than fly a marginal window, so book early in your trip and keep the slot.
Go deeper
One 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.
The townsFour towns, and what each one puts under you first.
Saint-Pierre: Helicopter Flight over the Volcano and Cirques
★ 4.9 · 646 reviews · Free cancellation 24 h