Domaine du Café Grillé — Attraction in Saint-Pierre

It was a marvelous experience, a lot more than was expected. The highlight is not just the coffee, but the botanical garden. The garden is big and there is much to see so it's a great go to, if you want to see the plants of La Réunion, or if you're a plant enthusiast. Just, get there a bit early if you want to see everything with time. I took like 2 hours and rushed the ending as it was going to close soon. I wish I was able to see a little more of the coffee part in action, and get more explanation of the process of coffee making. But there were signs to explain some of it. The ladies were really nice and welcoming and even lent me a guide book in English since my french isn't very well. She also came out of her busy work to show me the entrance of the garden and explained to me a little of what to expect. The Self tour was pleasantly worth it.

I didn't spend much time at the Cafe but it was nice, spacious, and very affordable. The coffee is very cheap (2.50) compared to an espresso of Bourbon Pointu in other places (8 euros). The creole snacks were very nice as well, and they had 1 euro macarons available. If you visit, take some time to sit down and enjoy more of their refreshing drinks as well. There is also a very nice and complete gift shop where you can buy an array of La Réunion souveniers and lastly, their coffee is available for purchase, at 24 euros, but it's only 100 grams. It does come in a very interesting, traditional package however that makes it a good souvenir as well.

I really enjoyed my...

I bought two tickets to the garden. Then the madam asked me, where we are from. Then she realized - and actually I told her, that we don't speak French. After that madam asked us to give her our indentitycard, passport or carkeys. And all that because of the booklet of the presentation written in English. Those items that they wanted would have been a security for that booklet. My opinion is, that giving a passport or carkeys of a rented car is too rigid and ridiculous demand for a tourist. So we didn't take the booklet and went to the garden without any guide. The garden is amazing and we could enjoy without that booklet, that could have cost our own security. It's possible to steal one's identity or copy carkeys and steal...

They do not use pesticides against mosquitoes because they have several varieties of geckos that would be harmed so the kind staff suggested we put on insect repellent before touring the grounds, which we did. The English book was a little confusing so we used Google translate to take pictures of the signs and listen to the translation in English. The best part for me was learning about a lot of plants that we had been seeing during our trip - especially what was poisonous! The gardens were lovely- I went back in to see the flower section again because I knew I had missed...