Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Hawaii
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 02-18-2017, 11:22 PM
 
Location: Macao
16,284 posts, read 42,954,513 times
Reputation: 10231

Advertisements

(On another thread, I posted this about Reunion Island. I loved the island of Reunion, and would love to discuss it more with anyone interested. I thought I would re-post this as a new thread. If anyone is interested to talk about, ask questions, or inform me more about Reunion, I'd love the discussion. This is what I wrote in the other thread):

REUNION ISLAND - yes, it reminded me so much of Hawaii. Also the development, as Reunion was quite similar in its infrastructure. Also, an active volcano, which gave some great beauty to the island, as well. Some black sand beaches, etc.

Regarding beaches. Mostly they are on one side, and some of the cities had beaches too.....

Population of Reunion Island is around 850,000 people...the capital city of St Denis is around 200,000. The towns are more setup like I guess how France would set up towns. Meaning they have plenty of walkable areas, and things don't spead out all over the place like Hawaii. Pretty much all of the towns are very walkable with all your restaurants and everything else easily within walking distance in the towns. I guess somewhat like seeing an entire island of HILO's everywhere (the walkable parts)...different and more French-like built, but something like that.

Flying, there aren't many flights going in and out. At the airport, it looked like mostly France, South Africa, and neighboring Mauritius and Madagascar. Not much else, actually none from anywhere else on the day that I was there. Quite a small airport.

What did I do there. Driving into the three interior areas was amazing....they are kind of like 'bowls'. Meaning you have some wicked switchbacks to get up, over, and in. They are like three bowls in the middle of the country, and you can drive into a bowl, but then have to drive back out the same way - I guess like the road to Hana, but all uphill (or downhill depending on the direction). You can't drive from one bowl to the next, you have to drive around to another side of the island to get in a different one. Inside these bowls, you have little mountain towns that are walkable with the beauty of mountains on all sides of you. Just amazing getting in and out of them.

Around the periphery of the islands you have ring roads, pretty much all of which overlooks the ocean. You have a lot of small towns with beaches, or views, or other natural scenery. I really felt like I could live just about anywhere in Reunion easily. All the towns looked cool, with some good views of something.

Actually it had all the characteristics that I love about Hawaii (infrastructure, a good civil society, safety, beauty, social cohesion, multicultural, etc.) But instead of U.S. designed cities/towns like Hawaii, imagine the French designing the towns...

Comparing with French Polynesia, it looks like Papette is significantly smaller city than St. Denis, and the French Polynesia population only has a population of 267,000 (1/3rd the size of Reunion. It seems like Reunion probably has a bit of everything available to its citizens compared with French Polynesia, based on population numbers alone. Oahu is around 950,000 people, so Reunion's 850,000 was more like that size....but the population centers around Reunion were more evenly distributed, and St. Denis was smaller than Honolulu. St. Denis felt like a place about 3-4 times the size of Hilo, and the other cities/towns around the island felt more like Hilo's size, more or less.

(I'm no expert, I was recently visiting Reunion and loved it, but if someone disagrees, I'm open to hearing that as well).
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 02-20-2017, 01:41 AM
 
Location: SoCal
86 posts, read 79,205 times
Reputation: 426
I do love tropical islands but focus my attention on the South Pacific and Caribbean for the ease of travel back to my California homebase and the cultural alignment to English speaking nations. Having said that, we do live in a world that is replete with warm, beautiful and amazing islands in all the zones near the equator.

I have never been to Reunion Island (RI) but sense that is an island that Tahiti could/would be similar to if it were physically closer to France and had the labor supply to support an export agricultural economy. RI had for France (1) the strategically important location of being in the Indian Ocean, and (2) had access to slave labor which allowed the sugar industry to be developed. To this day, sugar and agriculture are still the economic drivers of RI which pays for the infrastructure, legal and cultural support from France. Tourism is being focused on as the next economic driver in order to create more jobs and thus reduce the wealth gap on RI.

RI has the interesting characteristic of having an active volcano while also having lagoons which suggests that part of the island is "new" in the live volcano region while the "old" lagoon sections are the dormant and sinking volcanos. In a rough comparison, it would be like Moorea and the Big Island being connected as the same island.

A major hindrance for RI for most readers on this site would probably be that French is the dominant language - and obviously the distant location from the USA.

The Republic of Mauritius is the neighbor island to RI which is a former British Colony that uses English as the official language. I suspect the topography and features are similar to RI given how close the islands are: For those who speak English it would seem at first glance that Mauritius would be the better alternative to RI?

Anyway, my lady friend was in the Seychelles last month and given the various connections and whatnot to get there and back, the thought of venturing to the Indian Ocean paradises definitely took a hit with me. Those islands are undoubtedly beautiful, though...
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-22-2017, 06:11 AM
 
Location: Macao
16,284 posts, read 42,954,513 times
Reputation: 10231
Quote:
Originally Posted by GusLevy View Post
I do love tropical islands but focus my attention on the South Pacific and Caribbean for the ease of travel back to my California homebase and the cultural alignment to English speaking nations. Having said that, we do live in a world that is replete with warm, beautiful and amazing islands in all the zones near the equator.

I have never been to Reunion Island (RI) but sense that is an island that Tahiti could/would be similar to if it were physically closer to France and had the labor supply to support an export agricultural economy. RI had for France (1) the strategically important location of being in the Indian Ocean, and (2) had access to slave labor which allowed the sugar industry to be developed. To this day, sugar and agriculture are still the economic drivers of RI which pays for the infrastructure, legal and cultural support from France. Tourism is being focused on as the next economic driver in order to create more jobs and thus reduce the wealth gap on RI.

RI has the interesting characteristic of having an active volcano while also having lagoons which suggests that part of the island is "new" in the live volcano region while the "old" lagoon sections are the dormant and sinking volcanos. In a rough comparison, it would be like Moorea and the Big Island being connected as the same island.

A major hindrance for RI for most readers on this site would probably be that French is the dominant language - and obviously the distant location from the USA.

The Republic of Mauritius is the neighbor island to RI which is a former British Colony that uses English as the official language. I suspect the topography and features are similar to RI given how close the islands are: For those who speak English it would seem at first glance that Mauritius would be the better alternative to RI?

Anyway, my lady friend was in the Seychelles last month and given the various connections and whatnot to get there and back, the thought of venturing to the Indian Ocean paradises definitely took a hit with me. Those islands are undoubtedly beautiful, though...
I would agree that Mauritius has significantly more English than Reunion, and Mauritius is strongly encouraging visitors, retirees, investors, etc. Even at the movie theater in Mauritius, there were advertisements encouraging foreigners to buy property on the Island.

As opposed to Reunion Island which is just content with being a part of France, and doesn't do much at all to look outside the French-speaking world for investors, tourists, or retirees.

Infrastructure in Mauritius was rather poor, it resembles more of India, mostly because most of the population is Indian. Mauritius also had horrible driving with a very poorly-designed road system. What I mean is that not much follow the coasts at all, and its easy to forget you are even on an island. Most of the Mauritius population is in the middle, and getting through the traffic and poorly-planned roads is a bit of a hassle. Whereas Reunion has very intuitive and logical road and traffic designs. More of ring roads that go all around the island, always with a view of the ocean, and where there is more population on the west side, there are two such roads, a slower one and a faster one that bypasses the towns from further up above.

In short, on paper, Mauritius looks like the classic winner for any English-speaking person. But Reunion Island is setup so well, I was really marveling and how well-designed the island was.

Thanks for engaging in the conversation.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-11-2017, 09:47 AM
 
Location: Placitas, New Mexico
2,303 posts, read 2,940,604 times
Reputation: 2187
Tiger Beer, thanks so much for your description of Reunion and comparison with Mauritius. I always had Mauritius on my radar for a future trip, but now would substitute it for Reunion. Which place do you think is easier for the single traveler?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-11-2017, 01:50 PM
 
Location: Macao
16,284 posts, read 42,954,513 times
Reputation: 10231
Quote:
Originally Posted by ABQSunseeker View Post
Tiger Beer, thanks so much for your description of Reunion and comparison with Mauritius. I always had Mauritius on my radar for a future trip, but now would substitute it for Reunion. Which place do you think is easier for the single traveler?
Single traveler. Hmm...

Mauritius had such a huge Indian population..easily over 50%..and many are beautiful, but extremely conservative. It is also a small island, in that I would think most conservative people would know that others might see them, and be cautious. But, on the other hand, Mauritius is more of a third-world country in many ways, that all of that might go out the window entirely with its other nationalities.

Reunion, I felt, would probably be more like dating in the U.S. The cost of living is high, and all the amenities are there. On the other hand, people were genuinely interested on equal footing (without that strange third-world you-can-buy-me-dinner-easily) attitude. So there was a novelty there, that felt third-worldish but on a first world scale. I guess like what it must be like for a French or Irish person to visit the U.S. and play off their accents. So, you had that going.

Neither would be like Brazil or Asia or anywhere like that.....but both would be better than the U.S. For me, I think I liked Reunion in that I had nothing over anyone financially, but they found my background interesting.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-15-2017, 03:13 PM
 
Location: Placitas, New Mexico
2,303 posts, read 2,940,604 times
Reputation: 2187
Thanks for the information, Tiger Beer. Have to think seriously about going sometime.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 06-06-2017, 09:49 AM
 
Location: Macao
16,284 posts, read 42,954,513 times
Reputation: 10231
Quote:
Originally Posted by ABQSunseeker View Post
Thanks for the information, Tiger Beer. Have to think seriously about going sometime.
I loved it so much, I'm going to back to Reunion Island again in July 2017! This time with Madagascar.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-22-2018, 04:46 AM
 
1 posts, read 4,988 times
Reputation: 15
Hello everyone,

I am french and I was settled in Reunion island for 20 years (almost all my life).

If some of you believe than Mauritius and Reunion are similar because they are close, it is absolutly not true.

1st beaches:

If you want to rest and chill, Mauritius will give you the best on this side with beautiful Resort. However if you are a sufer I will definitly recommend you Reunion Island.
It's one of the best sufer's spot around the world! I know there is a lot of sharks attacks compare to others place around the world. However you have more chance to die for your fly trip than by a shark attack (and you know how planes are safe)

In my case both of these island have beautiful beaches. They are just differents.

2nd Country Sides:

For this one definitly Reunion Island with its mountains. for a small island like Reunion I think it's really rare to find a setup like this one.
The highlight is around 3000 meters (piton des neiges), a old volcano.
You have another volcano (piton de la fournaise) still in activity and when you are going there you feel like if you were walking on Mars (it remind me something, a comparison between an image of Mars from the curiosity rover and a picture of this volcano. Both looked like similar! No need to go on Mars! Haha).

You have the 3 cirques as well with their valleys which are really beautiful and a lot of traditionnal village.

To be honest it'll be too long to speak about all the hiking trail but if you are someone who love that, so trust me it will woth it .

3rd Food:

As I told you I am French and something which is really important for us is food quality. Reunion is a part of France and is food as well. There is a huge variety of food for an island and most (maybe all) of them are excellent (It's a junction between Indian, Chinese and French food)! Cari is the main dish of Reunion island. it can be cooked with chicken, porc, fish ... it depend about what you prefer!

I know that I have a bit ignore Mauritius since my second point, ... sorry about it. But if you have the opportunity to move to Reunion island so just go there. And if I can reply to some of you who have questions, I'll be please to do it!

Have nice days globetrotter !
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-23-2018, 12:29 AM
 
941 posts, read 1,954,356 times
Reputation: 1338
Bonjour to vboissin and bienvenue to the forums?

I don't know how I missed this thread last year, but I agree with TigerBeer and vboissin about both islands. Mauritius for beaches and resorts (and maybe snorkeling and diving), Reunion for mountains, hiking, food, and everything else (well, probably not fish tacos, the French don't do mexican food, but they have plenty other to make up for it). Reunion also has some cool adventure sports like canyoneering (rappelling down waterfalls). Since I'm into hiking, I liked Reunion a lot better.

I like to say that Reunion is all of the Hawaiian islands in one: cliffs and scenery of Kauai, civilization like Oahu (though not huge city and French), peaks like Maui (but not driveable like Haleakala), and active volcano like Big Island. One of the 3 cirques/valleys has no road, so the only way in is to hike. It's a bit like Kauai's Kalalau, ecxcept not at the ocean, and there are small villages once you get there (with schools and post offices where the teachers and mailmen hike in).

TigerBeer, how was your second trip, and what did you see in Madagascar?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 02-26-2018, 01:35 AM
 
Location: Macao
16,284 posts, read 42,954,513 times
Reputation: 10231
Quote:
Originally Posted by KauaiHiker View Post
TigerBeer, how was your second trip, and what did you see in Madagascar?
My second trip to Reunion was just as interesting as the first. I spent more time in St. Pierre, and it was a toss-up between St. Pierre and St. Paul that I liked better. They both were walkable towns, as was most places in Reunion.

Madagascar, I didn't see much. Basically ended up in the capital city, and discovered first-hand that the 'other' locations, as everyone said, should have been my main focus. Instead I tried to see what there was to love about Tana, and found while there was some to love, the city itself was quite a mess. Madagascar was still unique and interesting.

But, REUNION, however. That's a place I'd love to get back to again and again.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:




Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Hawaii

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top