LUX* Saint Gilles Resort

English is spoken by the hotel team, alongside French, Russian and Chinese, so you can deal with the practical details without resorting to underwater hand signals. LUX* Saint Gilles is a beachfront resort built in a Creole-style architectural spirit, with pale villas, tropical gardens, coconut palms and casuarina trees.

This is a useful choice when the holiday needs to work for more than one person. You can spend the morning in the lagoon, leave someone else to the pool or the gardens, and regroup over dinner without organising a small expedition. The setting is polished but still tied to Réunion: local flavours, island architecture and the sea are all part of the place rather than decorative afterthoughts.

Families are catered for with the PLAY kids’ club for children aged 3 to 11, while couples have the beach, the pool bar and the gardens within easy reach. In other words, you can choose your own pace instead of treating every day like a military operation.

You are in Saint-Gilles les Bains, on the west coast of Réunion, at 28 Rue du Lagon in the L’Hermitage area. The hotel sits directly beside the white-sand beach of L’Hermitage and faces a protected coral lagoon. Saint-Gilles beach is close by, giving you two familiar coastal reference points rather than a resort floating in geographical limbo.

The nearest listed beach is Plage de La Saline les Bains, about 950 feet away by road, while Plage de l’Ermitage is roughly 2,100 feet away on foot. Three Bassins Beach is 2.2 miles away on foot, and the beaches around the centre of Saint-Gilles are about 2.5 to 2.6 miles away by road.

For a change of scenery, Eden Garden is about 1.5 miles away by road. The House of Coco and Botanical Gardens Mascarin are each around 8 miles away by road. The hotel also sits close to La Réunion’s west-coast road network, making it a practical base for excursions across the island.

The rooms and suites are air-conditioned and designed with a colonial touch: slate flooring, gentle lighting, handcrafted-style furniture and island fabrics. A balcony gives you somewhere to sit with the day’s last drink, while the minibar and kettle cover the small but important return-to-room routine when you are hot, salty and ready for water before anything else.

For two, the Superior Room or Deluxe Room keeps things straightforward, with a king-size bed, air conditioning, satellite LCD television and a modern bathroom with both bath and shower. The Junior Suite gives you more room around the super-king-size bed, which may matter when your holiday involves dive bags, wet clothing and the general sprawl of a person who has stopped pretending to travel light.

The Family Room is the sensible direction for a group of up to four, with enough space to avoid turning every evening into a negotiation over floor space. Room service runs around the clock, and the combination of air conditioning, a balcony, minibar and tea- and coffee-making facilities gives you the basic comforts needed for a proper night’s recovery.

Three restaurants form the main dining offer. La Cuisine is the principal restaurant, serving breakfast and dinner, with breakfast available as a buffet. La Plage sits between the beach and the clear-water pool and focuses on traditional Réunion Creole cooking, which is exactly the sort of food that makes more sense here than another anonymous international menu.

Orangine brings a livelier island feel, with polished wood and bright glass details, and seats 40 people. It is closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays, so those are useful evenings to plan around rather than discover the hard way when you are already dressed and hungry. Carry’s Bar adds local dishes cooked over a wood fire, including rougail saucisse and fish curry.

Le Bar is the pool bar, with cocktails for the stage of the day when conversation becomes more appealing than exertion. Vegetarian and vegan dishes are available across the restaurant menus, and 24-hour room service gives you a quieter option when you would rather eat privately than make a social event of dinner.

The large outdoor pool is the obvious place for a low-effort afternoon, with the beach directly alongside it and the protected lagoon beyond. Snorkelling is available, and the hotel also offers water-sports facilities, kayaking, tennis and beach volleyball. Table tennis and bicycle hire add alternatives for days when lying completely still begins to feel like another form of decompression.

LUX* Me provides massage in the tropical gardens, in a shaded kiosk between the filaos and close to the beach. Yoga classes take place in groups, while the fitness centre gives you somewhere to stretch the parts of your body that objected to carrying fins, cameras and the rest of the kit ashore.

When you want to leave the resort, you can arrange hiking, cycling and cultural excursions, as well as more energetic outings such as canyoning, four-wheel-drive safaris, paragliding, helicopter excursions and visits to lava tunnels. Fishing is also available. The children’s club and children’s activities mean that family members can split up for a while without anyone having to invent an urgent email.

The hotel has a 24-hour reception, a tour desk, concierge service and car hire. Private parking is available on site, with valet parking, and you can request an airport shuttle from the hotel. Pierrefonds Airport is about 23 miles away by road; Roland Garros Airport is about 30 miles away by road.

Check-in runs from 14:00 to 18:00, and you need to give the hotel your expected arrival time. Check-out is at 12:00. Early check-in and late check-out can be requested, which is worth considering if your travel plans do not fit neatly around the clock.

Free WiFi is available, including in the business centre, and rooms have air conditioning. Laundry and ironing services are available, as are facilities for disabled guests. Cash is not accepted, and pets are not allowed. Children of all ages are welcome; cots for children aged 0 to 2 can be requested, while extra beds are not available.

The hotel gives preference to local suppliers, bringing Réunion’s produce and culinary influences into its dining offer. It also encourages lower-impact ways of getting around during your stay, including electric-car hire, car sharing, buses and bicycles.

The coastal location makes those choices practical rather than theoretical: you can reach the beach directly, explore parts of the west coast by bicycle or bus, and use the hotel as a base for island excursions without making every outing a car journey.