The newest French department, in the Mozambique Channel between Madagascar and the African mainland. Its defining feature is the lagoon: 1,500 km² of it, ringed by a double coral barrier reef that is one of only a handful anywhere in the world. Humpback whales calve inside it between July and October, and dugongs and turtles feed on the seagrass. On land, Grande-Terre climbs to Mont Choungui's near-vertical cone, and the sacred forests hold flying foxes. Mayotte is Muslim-majority and Comorian-speaking, which makes it culturally unlike anywhere else in France, and it remains largely untouristed — infrastructure is limited and travel takes patience.
- The lagoon and the double barrier reef
- Humpback whales, July–October
- The S-shaped Passe en S dive site
- Mont Choungui
- Îlot de Sable Blanc
- The ylang-ylang and vanilla plantations
- Best time to go
- May–October is the dry, cooler season, and overlaps the whale season. December–March is hot, wet and cyclone-prone.
- Getting there
- Flights from Paris via Réunion or Nairobi to Dzaoudzi. A barge links Petite-Terre and Grande-Terre. Check current French government travel advice before booking — see the safety note on our France page.
Headline places
What france.fr leads with in Mayotte.
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The Mayotte Lagoon 1,500 km² inside a double coral barrier — one of very few in the world -
Mont Choungui A near-vertical 594 m cone with the whole lagoon from the top -
Îlot de Sable Blanc A sandbank that appears and disappears with the tide -
Passe en S The S-shaped reef pass that makes Mayotte a serious dive destination
Cities & bases
Where to sleep, and what each place is good for.
Mayotte by experience
The themes this region delivers on.
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Nature & outdoors Glaciers, gorges, volcanoes and 180,000 km of waymarked footpath -
Coast & beaches Three seas and an ocean — around 5,800 km of mainland coast, and far more overseas -
Mountains Six massifs — the Alps, Pyrenees, Jura, Vosges, Massif Central and Corsica -
Cities Paris, and eleven more cities that would headline any other country -
National & regional parks Eleven national parks and 58 regional ones — about a fifth of the country -
Sport & adventure Skiing, surfing, climbing, paddling — and the Tour, Roland-Garros and Le Mans
More of Overseas France
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Guadeloupe A butterfly-shaped Caribbean archipelago — rainforest on one wing, dry coast on the other -
Martinique The flower island — Mount Pelée, black-sand north, white-sand south and agricole rum -
French Guiana Amazon rainforest, a European spaceport, and the prison islands of Papillon -
Réunion An Indian Ocean volcano with three collapsed craters, and 1,000 km of walking trails