Saint-Denis, Reunion · UTC+4 ☆

Saint-Denis is in the Réunion Time timezone (RET/UTC+4), observed year-round with no daylight saving on this French overseas department in the Indian Ocean.

Réunion is a French department: legally, administratively, and electorally part of France, though it sits in the Indian Ocean far from Paris. Saint-Denis is its capital, built on the narrow northern coastal plain beneath the volcanic mountains that rise sharply behind the city.

Réunion uses UTC+4, Réunion Time, year-round with no daylight saving. The Indian/Reunion timezone places the island on the same offset as Port Louis in Mauritius to the northeast.

Réunion’s interior is dominated by the Piton de la Fournaise volcano, one of the world’s most active, with more than 150 recorded eruptions since the 17th century.[3] The eruptions are generally non-explosive and flow toward the ocean at the island’s southern tip. Scientists monitor the volcano continuously. The island also contains three cirques — ancient calderas now eroded into dramatic amphitheatres of cliffs and waterfalls: Cilaos, Mafate, and Salazie.[4]

the isolated cirque of Mafate

Mafate is accessible only on foot or by helicopter.[5] The communities there, called îlets,[5] have no road access. Time in Mafate runs on foot travel, helicopter schedules, and the agriculture of isolated mountain farming. The civil clock is present but the island’s geography enforces its own.

9am in Saint-Denis is 5am in London in winter, 6am in British summer.

Read more about time in Reunion →