Market
Bazary Be
Tamatave’s colourful Bazary Be sells fruit, vegetables, spices, handicrafts and beautiful bouquets of flowers (should you feel the need to brighten up your hotel room).
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Tamatave (Toamasina)
Madagascar's most important seaport, Tamatave is a hot, dusty and chaotic town full of decaying colonial buildings, roadside markets and throngs of pousse-pousse carts. The emphasis is on commerce, not tourism, apart from being an important transit point.
There are some bright spots amid the fading architecture if you know where to find them, meaning that you can have a good time here for a day or two. It’s a convenient spot to break the journey between Antananarivo and Île Sainte Marie, or to organise a trip down the Canal des Pangalanes.
Top attractions
These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout Tamatave (Toamasina).
Plaza
Place Bien Aimé
At Pl Bien Aimé, you'll find the remains of a once-grand park; a dozen magnificent banyan trees weep before a crumbling colonial mansion.
Plaza
Place de Colonne
A monument to those killed in the 1947 uprising against the French, this plaza is in a sad state of disrepair.
Market
Bazary Kely
Bazary Kely sells fish and produce in the ruins of a commercial complex, west of the train station.
Museum
Musée du Port
The small university museum at the entrance to the port constitutes barely 2½ rooms of farming tools, fishing implements, archaeological finds and tribal charms, along with poster displays on deforestation and local conservation projects. Some of the captioning is in English, including translations of some typically cryptic Malagasy proverbs.
Church
Catholic Church
Landmark church in Tamatave. It's open to the public from shortly before to shortly after services.