Madagaskar

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Madagascar’s western region – divided in two, with no roads linking the south and north – is filled with adventurous possibilities and it's from here that so many iconic Madagascar images originate. There are incredible highlights, from the otherworldly limestone spikes and crippled spires of the Tsingy de Bemaraha and the stomping ground of the fossa at the Réserve Forestière de Kirindy to the fabulous birdwatching of Parc National Ankarafantsika. Throw in the Allée des Baobabs, world-class resorts and so many opportunities to go out into the wilderness and you have a region that showcases all that's memorable about this remarkable country. Travel out here can be rough once you leave behind the paved national highways. Your rewards are priceless travelling epics you'll never forget.

Ifaty and Mangily, around 25km north of Tuléar, are two separate villages 3km apart that share the same beach, confusingly known as Ifaty Beach (the Dunes d’Ifaty, for example, is in Mangily). Ifaty is by far the smaller tourist destination, even while its name continues to usurp the latter. The popularity of this area is largely due to its location close to Tuléar and the excellent paved road that connects them. The beaches are really quite poor relative to other options: rocky at times, very shallow for much of the day and with seagrass beds rather than sandy bottoms. The unkempt villages, saturated by tourism, are not very attractive, either. Nevertheless, the snorkelling is good, the whales come past here and there are a lot of resorts to choose from, including some really good ones.

Eastern Madagascar is travel the way it used to be. There is a wildness here of primordial allure, from the misty mountains of Masoala, down the huge coastline with its pounding sea and overhanging palms, to the lush waterways of the Pangalanes Lakes. This part of the country is largely cut off from the rest, and from itself, by a degraded transport network, including some roads out of an engineer’s nightmare. Travelling here requires a combination of plane, car, 4WD, motorbike, scooter, pirogue (dugout canoe), ferry, cargo boat, taxi-brousse (bush taxi) and motorboat. This inaccessibility results in isolated communities and, for the traveller, a constant sense of coming upon undiscovered locales, including entire national parks. There’s no doubt it can be frustrating at times, but Eastern Madagascar produces more travellers' tales than anywhere else. If you value that, come here first.

The small town of Andapa lies in a beautiful valley surrounded by lush rice paddies, fields of coffee beans and the high peaks of the Marojejy massif. It is the nearest base for exploring both the Parc National Marojejy and the Réserve Spéciale Anjanaharibe-Sud. Between these two major parks lies the smaller Réserve National d'Antanetiambo. But you don't have to be planning a serious expedition into the parks: around the town are cool, shady forest walks and there are bicycles to hire to explore the villages.

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While it's the beaches that are the big attraction in the area north of Tamatave, with the quiet sand fringed coves of Mahambo being the best option, this region also holds other attractions including a tumble-down fortress in Foulpointe and an excellent zoo in Ivoloina. If you have your eyes set on the beaches and islands even further north then head to Soanierana-Ivongo, which is the ferry port for Île Sainte Marie. Beyond lies the daunting RN5 that can only be traversed by a reliable 4WD.

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Fort Dauphin (Taolagnaro) could be one of Madagascar's premier resort towns if it weren't so far from everywhere else. The setting is superb, like a gateway to some tropical paradise, strung out along a peninsula between sea and mountains. And, if you've driven for days through the spiny forest to get here, or even if you've flown out over the trackless highlands of Madagascar's interior, this prosperous mining centre, with its sealed roads and street lights, looks for all the world like a mirage of modernity.

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