海角社区

Hello @Robert Hopkin

A few brief thoughts:

1. do you speak passable or fluent French? It's difficult to get by in Reunion if you don't
2. bear in mind that the cost of living is higher in Reunion than mainland France (food is on average 37% more expensive)
3. also bear in mind that the flight to Europe (Paris) is 11 hours long and is relatively expensive depending on when you travel. This is not necessarily an issue if you won't have a lot of family members visiting you, or if you don't need to "pop back" frequently to the UK or elsewhere.
4. 
   

If you've not yet visited Reunion I would recommend coming for a few weeks, and seeing what you think.

@champacs

Hello Champacs, Thank you for your advice. Yes we are reasonably fluent in French. Thank you for the information about shopping costs - we will bear that in mind. We are not too concerned about the travel costs commuting back to France as we do not have family there and if friends decide to come to visit,they would be coming from elsewhere in the world.

We will definitely come to visit before making any decision about long term commitment. The Forum has been very helpful about the geography of the island and, having been regular visitors to Mauritius, we are aware of the issue of the prevailing winds and weather coming from the south-east. We would appreciate your views about the population density as we are not comfortable in crowds of people. Is it really that over-populated or is that just in certain sectors where people are commuting to work in the major metro centres?

We would be looking for an apartment (or possibly low-maintenance house) to rent but in a quiet area with (for preference) either sea or mountain views and maybe, from what we have read, perhaps in the mid to south west from Saint Lieu southwards as far as Saint Joseph. There does seem to be a limited choice of rental properties.

We look forward to your and other's advice.

Best regards,

Robert