Saint-Gilles-les-Bains beach
The small resort village of Saint-Gilles-les-Bains is located in the western part of Réunion and is surrounded by the best beaches of the island. The largest and most popular of them is Plage de L'Eermitage Beach. The seven-kilometre-long coastline is relatively narrow, especially during high tides, and covered with snow-white sand mixed with coral particles. Coral reefs are also found in the sea, especially at low tides, so you should take care of special shoes.
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Beach description
The beach is surrounded by lush pine trees, which come close to the shore and provide a thick saving shade by midday. This allows you to stay here all day and have picnics in the shelter of trees. But to take a comfortable place and successfully park your car, you should arrive early, especially on weekends.
The beach has toilets and garbage cans, lifeguards watch the order. You can have a snack in a small cafe on the shore, sellers with trolleys offer ice cream and cold drinks.
The sea in the beach area is shallow and relatively calm, although sometimes there are quite strong currents, which lifeguards warn about. The rest of the time you can safely swim, snorkel and watch the exotic sea creatures which settled on the local reefs.
When is the best time to go?
Since there are mountains on the island, the climate on it is cooler and drier than on the neighboring islands. Since Reunion is located in the southern hemisphere, the calendar winter coincides with the climatic summer, so the best time to visit the island is from September to November and from April to May.