Les Terrasses de Niagara

Perched on a ridge above Niagara Falls, in Sainte-Suzanne on Réunion's eastern coast, this small property sits inside a planted tropical garden of banana, lychee, mango, jackfruit and avocado trees. Guests are free to pick their own fruit. The owner keeps a vegetable plot next door and grows the garden by hand, so the grounds work more like a smallholding than a lawn. Two creole-style cottages, the Cardinal and the Tec-Tec, sleep up to four or five people each, with air-conditioned bedrooms, a full kitchen, a washing machine and a wooden deck fitted with a barbecue. A third stay, the Paille-en-queue, is a wooden cabin raised four metres up in an old lychee tree, with its own terrace looking over the orchard toward the sea. It sleeps two. Rooms carry a three-épis rating from Gîtes de France. The falls themselves are visible from the terraces, one of the better-known cascades on the island. Location does the rest of the work: Saint-Denis is 20 minutes away, the airport ten, and the trailheads and swimming pools of the interior under 15 minutes by car. Canyoning and rafting operators run trips nearby, and the volcano is under two hours south. It is a compact base, self-catered, with linen included and cleaning offered as an extra.