Mahajanga (Majunga) Getting there & around

Getting there & away

Land

Bus & taxi-brousse

Transport between Mahajanga and Antana­narivo by road is very easy – it’s one of the best maintained highways in the country. To travel in luxury book online with Transport Premiére Class(firstclass@mel-wanadoo.mg), which runs comfortable buses between the two cities (Ar69,000, 10 hours). These sit just two people to a row – as opposed to the average five or six in the traditional taxi-brousse – and include a packed lunch in the price.

The taxi-brousse station is east of town along the two-lane Ave Philibert Tsiranana. Vehicles go daily to Antananarivo (Ar15, 000, 12 to 15 hours, daily) and to Diego Suarez (from Ar50, 000, 36 hours) at least three times per week. The road is rough – particularly the 218km between Antsohihy and Ambanja. Apart from Antsohihy, there are few good places to break the trip. If you do decide to disembark en route, you may find yourself waiting several days for onward transport. For Nosy Be, you will need to change vehicles in Ambanja.

In the dry season it’s possible to go as far south as Soalala, Besalampy and perhaps even Maintirano, but the trip is long and difficult, and transport is scarce. To continue further south towards Morondava, you will need to either take one of Air Madagascar’s small twin-engine planes or backtrack via Antsirabe.

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Boat

The MSL ferry Jean Pierre Calloch (62 226 86), which leaves weekly for Nosy Be, and takes around 20 hours, is a far better alternative than the cargo ships that also sporadically go there.

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Air

Air Madagascar (62 224 21; Rue Victor Emmanuel) flies several times weekly to Nosy Be (Ar288, 000) and Antananarivo (Ar200, 000) and once a week to Diego Suarez (Ar330, 000). There are also twice-weekly flights on Air Austral (62 223 91; Rue Georges V) between Mahajanga and Dzaoudzi (Mayotte) for about €350 one way.

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