Beaches
Nosy Be is a popular destination for visitors to the island of Madagascar. A smaller island just off the main island’s coast, Nosy Be features stunning stretches of unspoiled beaches, as well as warm and clear waters in which you can swim, snorkel and scuba dive.
Nosy Ve is one of the main attractions of Anakao. This island 1500 m long and 500 wide has the same proportions as the island of Madagascar but reduced to the thousandth. The popularity of this island in the south west of the country comes from the tern colony, the red tail tailed tropic which it is established and is of great interest for all birdwatchers and other tourists who visit Anakao.
Isalo National Park
Isalo National Park is a National Park in the Ihorombe Region of Madagascar. The park is known for its wide variety of terrain, including sandstone formations, deep canyons, palm-lined oases, and grassland. A nice stopover en route to Isalo is the Anja Park. This is a small nature reserve set up by the locals and all proceeds go to maintaining the reserve and helping the local community. The park is surrounded by huge, imposing granite mountains and is known for its large population of ring-tailed lemurs. Some 700 of these guys live in the park.
Avenue of the Baobabs
The Avenue or Alley of the Baobabs is a prominent group of baobab trees lining the dirt road between Morondava and Belon’i Tsiribihina in the Menabe region in western Madagascar.
Baobab trees, up to 800 years old, known locally as renala (Malagasy for “mother of the forest”), are a legacy of the dense tropical forests that once thrived on Madagascar. The trees did not originally tower in isolation over the sere landscape of scrub but stood in dense forest. Over the years, as the country’s population grew, the forests were cleared for agriculture, leaving only the baobab trees, which the locals preserved as much in respect as for their value as a food source and building material.
Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park
The word tsingy is indigenous to the Malagasy language as a description of the karst badlands of Madagascar. The word can be translated into English as where one cannot walk barefoot. The Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park is a national park located in Melaky Region, northwest Madagascar. The national park centers on two geological formations: the Great Tsingy and the Little Tsingy. Together with the adjacent Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve, the National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Antananarivo
Also known by its French colonial shorthand form Tana, is the capital and largest city in Madagascar. In the city itself, the Haute-Ville, with its beautiful colonial buildings, steep streets and cool climate (average altitude in Tana is 1400m), is a great place to wander about. There are also some excellent markets and shops that stock products and crafts from across the country at very competitive prices. Finally, Tana is the place in Madagascar to treat yourself to a fine meal: some establishments rival Europe’s Michelin-starred restaurants, but without the price tag.
Whale Watching in Madagascar
In winter (from June to the end of September), the sea around Sainte Marie, on the Eastern shore of Madagascar, offers one of the most natural fascinating spectacles in the world. Large groups of humpback whales (Megaptera) make their annual migration from the Antarctic to the sheltered waters around Ile Ste Marie where they calve, nurse their young and engage in their spectacular courtship rituals between the end of June and September. In winter, humpback whales stay and eat in cold seas. At the beginning of spring, after the birth of their calves, they move to tropical seas in order to mate close to the coasts. They will stay there up to the end of summer and start their way back to cold seas and abundant food. These creatures can grow up to 15m in length and weigh 45 tons, yet they seem incredibly gentle and peaceful as they slip smoothly through the waters. Mothers swim close to their new-born children, shepherding them through ther first migration.
