A little heaven: Saint Marie Island, Magascar

Pirogue from Ile aux Nattes to St. Marie Island (Madagascar)

One of “the” most beautiful touristic spots of Madagascar is the island St. Marie at the east coast. If every touristic places in the world would feel so wild…

Most of the tourists met in Madagascar during our month, have visited or planned to visit Saint Marie island. It’s a big, 57-metre-long island with all a traveller in an exotic country might need: crazy animals (whales and sharks), superbeautiful beaches (kilometres and kilometres), strong waves and reefs (for surfing and diving), old stories (hell a lot of pirates have lived there), a lot of real life (still wildness and lovely corners), a nice way to get to the places (by renting a bike or a motorbike) and still wilder and even more heavenly little islands (like our favourite Ile aux Nattes!). No wonder that every tourist (from outside of Madagascar but also all the local tourists) ends up there!

You can get to the island by a plane from the capital or by a ferry boat. The planes in Madagascar (Air Madagascar) is one big joke, you should never count on. The airlines are called between the people “Air Maybe” and this needs no more comments. In most of the cases there are late, cancelled or at least very expensive. The ferry boats go from the east coast: from two places: Mahambo, longer way, and Soanierana-Ivongo, shorter way. Ferry boat includes also a long few hours of waiting on the beach, when all the people and all the luggage will be transported by little boats to the bigger one. But this only gives you a lot of time for building the sand castles;)

The South: Ile aux Nattes – our favourite place in Madagascar

Some of the places – especially this sweet little hotel – we could visit thanks to the Madagascar tour operator and travel agency Le Voyageur. Thank you for finding this spot!