Wanna go island-hopping in the Indian Ocean? Combine your destinations smartly and save a lot of money!
First things first: This guide won't explain you how to use a flight search tool. If you already have fixed plans regarding the islands you want to visit, the order in which you want to visit them and the dates for your trip, a price comparison engine will show you the best options. The goal of this article however is to help you combine the destinations in a way that you can save a lot of money and travel confortably.
The ideal reader of this article would be somebody who's thinking: "Hey, I have 3 weeks off work and I always wanted to go to to Mauritius. But maybe I could see another island, too?". That's a great idea! The Vanilla Islands (Seychelles, Madagascar, La Réunion, Mauritius, Comoros, Mayotte, and Maldives) are all located in the Indian Ocean, but they still offer great variety in culture and nature. This article will explain why some of the Vanilla Island destinations are easier to combine than others. We think there are three mayor factors that can make it easy and afforable to combine two destinations:
- Are there direct flights between the two destinations?
- Is there an airline that connects your home airport to both destinations?
- Does this airline have a codeshare/interline agreement with one of the local airlines?
As you can see, the optimal combination depends largely on where you live and, of course, your preferences. To answer the first question right away, please have a look at the following chart. A line between two destinations means there is at least one direct flight connecting the two. The thickness is determined by the frequency and capacity of the flight(s). Hover over a line to see which airlines are operating on that route. In general, the thicker the line, the better; you will have more choice and if you are lucky, low demand will force the airlines to lower their prices. Note that the Maldives are not in the list because currently there aren't any direct flights connecting Malé International Airport to any of the other Vanilla Island destinations.
Tip: As you might know, the Vanilla islands have quite different levels of per capita income. In general, it is advisable to fly from poorer countries to richer ones. This is because airlines adjust their prices to the spending power in the different origin markets. So, if you have the flexibility, try to visit the islands in this order rather than the other way around: Madagascar, Comores, Mayotte or Mauritius, Seychelles, Réunion.
We are updating this chart a few times per year, the last update was .
Mayor airlines connecting the Vanilla Islands
Air Austral have their hub at Roland Garros Airport, St. Denis, La Réunion (RUN). They also fly from Pierrefonds Airport, St. Pierre, La Réunion (ZSE) and connect 0 destinations in 0 countries to La Réunion. If you would consider travelling from Paris, check out their Vanille Islands pass.
Air Madagascar have their hub in Ivato International Airport, Antananarivo (TNR). They also fly from multiple other Madagascan airports and connect 0 international destinations in 0 countries to Antananarivo.
Air Mauritius have their hub in Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport (MRU). They connect 0 destinations in 0 countries to Mauritius.
Air Seychelles have their hub in Seychelles International Airport, Mahé (SEZ). They connect 0 international destinations in 0 countries to the Seychelles. Air Seychelles has a strong relationship with and is partly owned by Etihad.
The following three options describe the most common routing patterns you should consider when searching for flights. If you're already fixed on your combination of islands, it will tell you what to enter in a flight search engine. If you're still undecided: even better! You can play around with different options and find the optimal combination for you. Note that the prices mentioned in the examples below are just an indicator of what you could expect. Air fares change daily, so your milage may vary.
Option 1: Combine two destinations with a circle-back flight
That's the easiest option to combine two destinations. You basically book a return ticket to destination A or B. The advantage is that you can take any airline that flys to A or B and make use of promotitions that might only apply to one of the destinations. Let's say Emirates has a promotion to fly to Mauritius. Then go ahead and take advantage of that! Your second destination can then be added with a return flight from destination A to destination B (see the red-yellow arrow). This inter-island flight can be booked with another airline on a different ticket. Or you might be able to put all flights on the same ticket. Definitely try the following itineraries in the air fare comparision tool of your choice:
- Home-A-Home (return trip)
- Home-B-Home (return trip)
- A-B-A (return trip)
- B-A-B (return trip)
- Home-A-B-A-Home (multi-city trip, 4 legs)
- Home-B-A-B-Home (multi-city trip, 4 legs)
A circle-back trip might seem to you like a bit of a waste of time, fuel and money. But pricing quirks and long layovers can often make this the most effective option in terms of time and money. If you purchase two different tickets, be very careful to leave enough time before your homebound flight. In case of a flight delay, you might not be compensated if you miss your connection.
Tip: If you are flexible with your dates, try the Kayak flexible search for your yellow trip. This one lets you specify how long you want to stay and it shows you the cheapest prices in a calendar. Check this example for 18 to 25 days Frankfurt-Mauritius
Examples
- Different airlines, two tickets: Hamburg-Mauritius-Hamburg with British Airways and Mauritius-Réunion-Mauritius with Air Mauritius. Total price: 593 € + 184 € = 777 € per person (at the time of writing).
- Same airline, one ticket: Johannesburg-Mauritius-Reunion-Mauritius-Johannesburg with Air Mauritius. Total price: 667 € per person (at the time of writing).
Option 2: Combine two destinations with an open-jaw and a one-way flight
This option get's rid of the "unnessary" flight back to your first destination. That means that you fly home directly from your second destination. The easiest thing would be to just book three one-way tickets, but it's probably far from the cheapest price you could get. Instead, try to get at least two of the three flights from the same airline to get a little bit of a "volume discount". In most cases it's best to get the two most expensive flights from the same airline (usually the flights to/from your home airport).
So what you need to do is find an airline that serves both destinations of your choice. The white box below lists only airlines that serve at least two of the Vanilla Island destinations. Let's say you want to visit Madagascar and La Réunion; you should have a closer look at Air France and Corsair. You could also choose to "include codeshare flights" which gives you a few more options. If your choice of airlines is restricted (like when you don't live in Europe), you can also choose to list "coutries by airline". For example, South African Airways serves Madagascar and Mauritius; the Seychelles as well if you count codeshare flights.
Even if your destinations are not connected by the same airline or a codeshare, you might still find a good deal sometimes. But your chances to find a convenient and reasonably priced flight are much higher if you stick to airport combinations that are served by a single airline. Once you are clear about which two destinations you want to combine, try the following itineraries in the air fare comparision tool of your choice:
- Home-A-B-Home (multi-city trip, 3 legs)
- Home-B-A-Home (multi-city trip, 3 legs)
- A-B (one-way trip)
- B-A (one-way trip)
- Home-A and B-Home (multi-city, so called "destination open-jaw" trip)
- Home-B and A-Home (multi-city, so called "destination open-jaw" trip)
- Home-A-B (multi-city, so called "origin open-jaw" trip)
- Home-B-A (multi-city, so called "origin open-jaw" trip)
A special trick can come handy if you are looking to connect A and B with a one-way flight: We found that both Air Mauritius and Air Austral have pretty irrational pricing on the Mauritius-Réunion route: A return ticket is actually cheaper than a one-way ticket. So by purcharsing a return ticket, you can let the second flight go to waste and still save money! So to be sure, you should also check:
- A-B-A (return trip)
- B-A-B (return trip)
Sometimes you can trade convinience for money, for example you could go Mauritius-Seychelles with Air Austral and a layover in La Réunion instead of going straight with Air Seychelles. The later is more convenient but more expensive (a very common occurance with flight prices).
You will get the most favorable prices if the airlines on your ticket have a codeshare agreement. Here is a list of all codeshare agreements for flights between the Vanilla Islands:
Examples
- Different airlines, two tickets: Munich-Mauritius, Seychelles-Munich with Emirates and Mauritius-Seychelles with Air Seychelles. Total price: 904 € + 335 € = 1.239 € per person (at the time of writing).
- Different airlines, one ticket (no codeshare): Milan-Réunion-Seychelles-Milan with Air France, Air Austral, and Air Seychelles. Total price: 1.017 € per person (at the time of writing).
- Different airlines, one ticket (with codeshare): Berlin-Mauritius-Reunion-Berlin with Air France and Air Mauritius. Total price: 914 € per person (at the time of writing).
- Same airline, one ticket: Johannesburg-Madagascar-Seychelles-Johannesburg with Kenya Airways (each leg has a layover in Nairobi). Total price: 507 € per person (at the time of writing).
- Same airline, one ticket: Paris-Réunion-Madagascar-Paris with Air Austral (layover in La Réunion on the way back). Total price: 1.063 € per person (at the time of writing).
Option 3: Combine three destinations with two open-jaw flights
This option just takes the previous option one step further to add a third destination. To do this without busting your budget, you need to select one of the airline hubs (Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion, or the Seychelles) first and then find two other destinations that are served by the hub airline. Once your picked your destinations, try the following searches in the air fare comparision tool of your choice (with the hub airport being destination B):
- Home-A-B-C-Home (multi-city trip, 4 legs)
- Home-C-B-A-Home (multi-city trip, 4 legs)
- A-B-C (multi-city, so called "origin open-jaw" trip)
- C-B-A (multi-city, so called "origin open-jaw" trip)
- Home-A and C-Home (multi-city, so called "destination open-jaw" trip)
- Home-C and A-Home (multi-city, so called "destination open-jaw" trip)
Examples (full trip)
- Paris-Mauritius, Madagascar-Paris with Air France and Mauritius-Réunion-Madagascar with Air Austral. Total price: 993 € + 307 € = 1.300 € per person (at the time of writing).
- Paris-Mauritius, Mayotte-Paris with Corsair and Mauritius-Réunion-Mayotte with Air Austral. Total price: 805 € + 273 € = 1.239 € per person (at the time of writing).
More examples (inter-island open-jaw trip only)
- Madagascar-Réunion-Comoros with Air Austral. Price: 434 € per person (at the time of writing).
- Madagascar-Réunion-Seychelles with Air Austral. Price: 392 € per person (at the time of writing).
- Madagascar-Mauritius-Réunion with Air Mauritius. Price: 284 € per person (at the time of writing).
- Mauritius-Seychelles-Madagascar with Air Seychelles. Price: 468 € per person (at the time of writing).
- Mayotte-Madagascar-Réunion with Air Madagascar. Price: 367 € per person (at the time of writing).
Bad examples (wrong order of destinations)
- Madagascar-Mauritius-Seychelles with Air Mauritius and Air Seychelles. Price: 1277 € per person (at the time of writing)!
- Madagascar-Seychelles with Air Seychelles and Seychelles-Réunion with Air Austral. Price: 394 € + 360 € = 754 € per person (at the time of writing)!