Live the natural and cultural richness of Northern Madagascar.
Discover Ankarana (Tsingy) and Amber Mountain (la Montagne d’Ambre), our famous national parks. Take a very relaxing time far away from all, on the Indian Ocean dream beaches.
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Take a visit to the fishermen’s village of Ramena, cross by Antsiranana Bay to a small desert island and feel the beautiful view of the Emerald Sea.
The travel across the bay is done with a fisherman’s boat that brings you to a desert island where you could swim and make some marvellous discovery just with mask and tuba. |
This is one of the most popular trips (55 km) around Diego-Suarez on the RN6 road.
A landscape of another planet that stands before Analamera reserve
These Tsingy are very different from those of Ankarana because they are the result of an erosion called “lapiez”. This original geologic formation caused by bush fires, erosion and rainwater infiltration, gives a marvellous off-world landscape, to be observed in the afternoon. Impressions changes following light variations
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French’s Mountain (la Montagne des Français) is a limestone massif that rises 400 m.
It has similar Ankarana Tsingy rock formations and contains a particularly interesting wild fauna: lemurs, chameleon, geckos. Baobabs and other sweet plants are thriving in the dry forest that covers its slopes..
From Suarez hotel, a trail directly climbs up French’s Mountain and leads to an ancient military fort built between 1902-1908. From there, you could get a unique perspective on the Madagascar east and west coastlines and on Diego’s bay, the second bay by extension and the finest in the world.
French’s Mountain is probably the only place in the world where two different species of baobab live.
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Windsor castle and Amber cap |
Charming savannas, wild coast, panoramic views over northern Madagascar, deserted beaches for swimming and dreaming.
Windsor Castle and Courrier bay (baie du Courrier) with its dream sandy beach are located on the west coast of the Big Island. In the middle of hilly savanna, a mound of 391m high has an unmatched view of northern Madagascar until Diego-Suarez. This was an ideal observation point to watch sailboats far away, for pirates.
Then it is possible to continue to cap Amber (cap d’Ambre, the extreme tip of the island, only accessible in the dry season) |
Indian Ocean offers you its marvellous desert beaches for a “dolce farniente”, swimming and seabed exploration day.
Have a good time in the amazing beach of Sakalavas bay (baie des Sakalavas), a small place protected by coral reef. You could swim there or do kitesurf and windsurf (equipment rental available on site). You could also go along the coastline taking small trails that will bring you across rich vegetation and end to other somptuous beaches of white sand (baie des Dunes and baie des Pigeons), perfect places to bath and discover seabeds of Madagascar just with mask and tuba.
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National park of Amber mountain |
Around 40 km in south of Antsiranana (Diego-Suarez), you could find the national park of Amber.
Amber mountain (montagne d’Ambre), the first created park of Madagascar, protects a dense and tropical forest of which big trees are cumulating about 40m high. Its branches carry many orchids and ferns. The forest surrounds sacred waterfalls and crater lakes. This park shelters 7 species of crowned lemurs (Eulemur coronatus).
Many bird species live in this forest, some of them endemic of Northern Madagascar like the Blackbird of Amber mountain. You also could find the strange Uroplatus allauaudi, a flat endemic gecko. |
Around 100 km from Diego-Suarez, this massif lets you discover the Tsingy (limestone karst rock, heavily eroded surface), its canyons covered by forest, numerous caves inhabited by bats and underground rivers where crocodiles live.
The Ankarana has various vegetations: grassy plants as Euphorbias and Pachypodiums in high and dry Tsingy, in canyons, damper and free from drought, fig trees, baobabs and others typical heights trees of dry forest, are growing up. Canyon forests are good places to find lemurs. |
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