Manambato (2019)

The last hour of our long drive from Tana to Manambato led us along a pretty bad street. But it was well worth it. The hotel we stayed at was located right at the beach and there were almost no tourists so we had the beach pretty much to ourselves. (Most tourists don’t even stop in Manambato but go on to Palmarium with the boat via the Pangalanes canal. But we stayed in Manambato for a night.) The water here is not from the sea so it’s not salty. The sea is not that far away (a few minutes with the boat) but it’s separated from this lake by a thin strip of land.

Palmarium

We came to Manambato mainly for Palmarium (also known as “Akanin’ny Nofy”), a hotel and small park originally set up by a German (therefore lots of German tourists were spotted) but now run by a Malagasy. It is somewhat more expensive than other hotels in Madagascar but it’s well worth it: The area is just beautiful, lemurs are quite used to people and you can get very close, staff is nice, and the bungalows are clean. We had a great few days here.

• Next: Foulpointe (2019)