Madagascar

Places in Madagascar

• Ambalavao

  Ambalavao is a small highland city that functions as the gateway to Andringitra National Park, one of Madagascar's premier trekking destinations. The town hosts Madagascar's largest zebu market, held every Wednesday and Thursday morning, offering a vivid window into local Betsileo culture.

  Atlas entry

• Andasibe-Mantadia National Park

  Andasibe-Mantadia National Park offers one of Madagascar's most accessible wildlife experiences, centered around the Indri lemur—the largest surviving lemur species, famous for its haunting, whale-like songs that reverberate through the forest each morning and evening. The combined park encompasses both the well-developed Andasibe sector with its easy walking trails and the wilder Mantadia sector, home to denser rainforest and additional lemur species.

  Atlas entry

• Antananarivo

  Antananarivo, also known as Tana, is the capital and largest city of Madagascar. It offers more universities, nightclubs, art venues, and medical services than any other city on the island.

• Antsirabe

  Antsirabe (City of Much Salt) is a peaceful highland city in central Madagascar with a 2013 population of around 240,000. It offers colonial-era architecture, colorful rickshaws called 'Push-Push', and access to volcanic crater lakes, making it a refreshing break from the chaos of Antananarivo.

  Atlas entry

• Antsiranana

  Antsiranana (still widely called Diego-Suarez) is Madagascar's northernmost major city and a historic French colonial port. It's the 5th largest city in the country and serves as the jumping-off point for Montagne d'Ambre National Park, the Baobab Valley, Emerald Sea islands, and the famous beaches of Ramena.

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• Berenty Reserve

  Berenty Reserve is one of Madagascar's oldest private nature reserves, spanning 1,000 hectares. The reserve offers exceptional wildlife viewing with three lemur species commonly seen during daylight hours: ringtail lemurs, brown lemurs, and Verreaux's sifakas.

  Atlas entry

• Fianarantsoa

  Fianarantsoa (commonly abbreviated Fianar) is a gateway city in Madagascar's central highlands, serving as a critical transportation hub where roads converge from Antananarivo, Manakara, Ambalavao-Toliara, and Ranomafana. The city is the cultural heart of Madagascar's Betsileo ethnic community and offers a preserved historical old town with churches and traditional buildings undergoing restoration.

• Foulpointe

  Foulpointe (Mahavelona) offers a tranquil beach escape on Madagascar's east coast, protected by a coral reef that creates calm waters for swimming. This former 18th-century French trading post was once the center of the slave trade in the southwest Indian Ocean, giving it historical significance beyond its beach appeal.

  Atlas entry

• Hell-Ville

  Hell-Ville (officially Andoany) is the largest city on Nosy Be island and serves as the main commercial hub. Named after French admiral Anne Chrétien Louis de Hell who governed Réunion Island from 1838-1841, it offers a working Madagascan city experience away from resort areas.

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• Île Sainte-Marie

  Île Sainte-Marie (Nosy Boraha) offers a tranquil escape from Madagascar's busier tourist hubs. The island was a notorious pirate base in the 17th and 18th centuries, with rumors of the utopian republic of Libertalia existing in its bays.

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• Isalo National Park

  Isalo National Park offers Madagascar's most dramatic landscape diversity within a single park: towering sandstone formations, deep canyons carved by ancient rivers, palm-lined oases providing cool retreats, and vast grassland expanses. The park provides everything from short sunset walks to week-long treks through its varied terrain, making it accessible for casual visitors and rewarding for serious hikers alike.

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• Mahajanga

  Mahajanga (also called Majunga) is Madagascar's premier tourist city on the west coast along the Mozambique Channel. It gets less rain than the Indian Ocean east coast, making it a more reliable dry-season destination.

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• Morondava

  Morondava is a coastal town in western Madagascar offering a relaxed alternative to the chaotic capital Antananarivo. The town has good beaches extending north, is notably cheaper than the capital, and has fewer beggars.

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• Nosy Be

  Nosy Be is Madagascar's most developed resort island, offering pristine beaches, excellent scuba diving, and encounters with endemic wildlife including lemurs and chameleons. The island serves as a gateway to smaller marine reserves and neighboring islands like Nosy Komba and Nosy Tanikely.

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• Nosy Komba

  Nosy Komba is a small volcanic island off the northwest coast of Madagascar, a short boat ride south of Nosy Be. The island is known for its population of black lemurs that have become habituated to humans near the village of Ampangorinana, offering visitors a rare chance to interact with these creatures in the wild.

  Atlas entry

• Nosy Tanikely

  Nosy Tanikely is a small uninhabited island and marine sanctuary southwest of Nosy Be, Madagascar. The island offers world-class snorkeling among healthy corals, reef fish, and sea turtles in crystal-clear waters.

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• Ranomafana National Park

  Ranomafana National Park protects 41,600 hectares of lush rain forest in Madagascar's Fianarantsoa Province along RN25. The park is one of six that comprise the UNESCO World Heritage Rainforests of the Atsinanana, and it shelters several endemic lemur species in dense primary and secondary forest.

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• Toliara

  Toliara (also spelled Tulear) is a coastal city at the southern terminus of Madagascar's RN7 highway in Toliara Province. It serves as the main gateway for travelers heading to Ifaty's diving reefs and beaches to the north, and Anakao's fishing village to the south.

  Atlas entry