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France France scenic viewpoint

Belvédère des Trois Bancs

You can see 73 km from here, looking north.

Calculating the panorama…

Drag to turn around. The relief is drawn 2.2 times taller so the ridges can be read; far ridges are paler, as in the real air.

The view

Up to 73 km away.

Calculated on the relief one degree at a time, up to 250 km, with the curvature of the Earth and the refraction of the air: what stands above the horizon from here.

65out of 100

Our own rating, from the relief and the climate only: open horizon (35 points), how far you see (25), sea and named peaks in view (20) and clear months (20).

  • 73 kmFarthest ridgelooking north
  • 87%Open horizonof the circle where the horizon is below your eyes
  • 34%Seaof the circle where the horizon is the sea
  • 8Peaks in viewnamed summits that rise above the relief in front
  • 356 mAltitudeabove the sea, at the highest point of the viewpoint

The 8 peaks you can name from here

From west to east as you turn around: height, distance and direction. Each one links to its guide on Peakyas, our mountain atlas.

Piton Lacroix2,341 m · 48 km · south-eastPiton Plaine des Fougères1,800 m · 14 km · south-eastPiton de Gaulette1,614 m · 9.1 km · southPitons Plats1,951 m · 11 km · southPiton Terre Rouge1,639 m · 9.6 km · southChaîne des Mariannes2,228 m · 14 km · south

From the relief only: buildings, trees and haze are not in the model. On a hazy day you see much less; 250 km is the limit of our calculation.

The sun

The best sunsets are from August to November.

When the sun really disappears from this viewpoint — behind the relief or into the sea — and in which direction, on the 15th of each month, in local time.

  1. Janwest102 min before the sea-level sunset40%
  2. Febwest102 min before the sea-level sunset43%
  3. Marwest96 min before the sea-level sunset44%
  4. Aprwest92 min before the sea-level sunset51%
  5. Maynorth-west86 min before the sea-level sunset52%
  6. Junnorth-west84 min before the sea-level sunset52%
  7. Julnorth-west84 min before the sea-level sunset52%
  8. Augnorth-west90 min before the sea-level sunset53%
  9. Sepwest96 min before the sea-level sunset56%
  10. Octwest102 min before the sea-level sunset56%
  11. Novwest102 min before the sea-level sunset56%
  12. Decwest102 min before the sea-level sunset52%
  • Time: when the sun goes behind the horizon you see from here.
  • Minutes: how much earlier the relief hides the sun.
  • %: share of clear sky that month (NASA, 2001–2020).

The highlighted months are the clearest. Golden hour starts about an hour before.

The place

Belvédère des Trois Bancs.

Belvédère des Trois Bancs is a scenic viewpoint in France, 356 m above the sea.

On a clear day the farthest ridge you can see is 73 km away, looking north.

The sea fills 34% of the horizon.

8 named peaks rise above the relief in front; the most prominent is Chaîne des Mariannes (2,228 m), 14 km away.

The horizon is open, below your eyes, over 87% of the circle.

The skies are clearest from August to November.

Aussichtspunkt Drei Bänke in Réunion 01
Olaf2 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Get there and stay

Plan the visit

A guided tour, a bed nearby, a car.

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

From above

The viewpoint and its surroundings.

The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the viewpoint, with what OpenStreetMap shows nearby.

Belvédère des Trois Bancs seen from above (Sentinel-2)
Seen from above: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6 × 6 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Around, in OpenStreetMap

  • 24other viewpoints within 5 kmFenêtre de l'Îlet à Guillaume, Belvédère des Trois bancs, Belvédère de la Vigie and 21 more
  • 4named peaks within 5 kmPiton Patates, Piton de Saint-François, Piton du Butor and 1 more
  • 3cable car and funicular stations within 5 kmBois de Nèfles, Bancoul, Moufia
  • 3marked trails within 3 kmGR R2, Sentier Mercure, Sentier botanique de la Providence
  • 74shelters and huts within 5 km
  • 215car parks within 3 km
  • 1visitor centres within 5 kmOffice de tourisme Intercommunal du Nord de La Réunion
  • 171restaurants and cafés within 3 km
  • 63places to stay within 10 kmMaison Bellepierre, La Kaz Bellepierre, Central Hotel and 60 more
  • campsites within 10 km

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.

In our other atlases

What you see from Belvédère des Trois Bancs, and what is near.

Everything around this viewpoint — mountains, water, forests, birds, caves and the night sky — in the family's atlases.

Peakyas60 mountains within 25 km
Roche Écrite2,276 m · 14 kmMorne de Fourche2,267 m · 20 kmMaïdo2,205 m · 21 kmGros Morne3,019 m · 22 kmMassif du Piton des Neiges3,070 m · 23 kmPiton des Hauts Saint-Gilles2,378 m · 23 kmPiton des Neiges3,070 m · 24 kmTrois Petits Bonhommes2,464 m · 25 km
Forestyas2 forests and trees within 15 km
Jardin de l'État · 1.5 kmForêt de La Providence · 2.0 km

Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap, GBIF). Links open when each site is online.

Photographs

The view, as people saw it.

Aussichtspunkt Drei Bänke in Réunion 02
Olaf2 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Le belvédère des quatre canons
Clémenceau Lauret · CC BY-SA 4.0
Saint-Denis vu depuis le belvédère de la Montagne
Clémenceau Lauret · CC BY-SA 4.0

Other viewpoints nearby.

Belvédère des Trois Bancs

France

  • 65Viewyas Score
  • 73 kmFarthest ridge
  • 8Peaks in view
  • 356 mAltitude

Maïdo

France · 21 km

  • 90Viewyas Score
  • 248 kmFarthest ridge
  • 21Peaks in view
  • 2,176 mAltitude

See the guide

Piton des Neiges

France · 24 km

  • 91Viewyas Score
  • 248 kmFarthest ridge
  • 19Peaks in view
  • 3,040 mAltitude

See the guide

Cap Anglais

France · 24 km

  • 87Viewyas Score
  • 228 kmFarthest ridge
  • 23Peaks in view
  • 2,193 mAltitude

See the guide

Where these figures come from

Name and typeWikidata (Q130242013) · CC0
SunJ. Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms
Peaks in viewPeakyas (Wikidata, CC0)
Panorama and altitudeCopernicus DEM GLO-90 / GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
CloudsNASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2)
What is around© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Sister atlasesPeakyas, Islandyas, Forestyas, Birdyas, Canyonyas, Cascadyas

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.