Southern Madagascar

Isalo is one of Madagascar's most beautiful parks. It contains sculpted buttes, vertical rock walls and, best of all, deep canyon floors shot through with streams, lush vegetation and pools for swimming. All of this changes with the light, culminating in extraordinary sunsets beneath a big sky. Add all this to easy access off the RN7 and you understand why this is Madagascar’s most visited park.

Activities here are mostly arranged through the hotels, with at least one excellent independent operator. In addition to the full range of water activities, most hotels can also arrange excursions to Parc National Tsimanampetsotse, as well as whale-watching trips (per person from Ar80,000) to see humpback whales from mid-June or early July to September.

Now here's something special. Designed in part by Bruno Decorte of Bakuka in Tuléar, and opened in earnest in 2019, Olo Be has stunning rooms, all lovely curves, earth tones and expansive views (even from some bathrooms) with exquisite attention to detail. The restaurant is among the best along the Northern Reef, and the public areas are as stunning as the rooms.

This 760-sq-km park protects some of the last remnants of rainforest in southern Madagascar, as well as spiny forest and a remarkable 12 species of lemurs. It also boasts 129 recorded species of birds, and a variety of amphibians and reptiles, including crocodiles. In short, this is one of Madagascar's most diverse parks when it comes to both landscapes and wildlife. Questionable security in surrounding areas is our only explanation for why the park remains so little known.

Parc National Zombitse-Vohibasia protects one of the last stands of dense dry forest in all of southern Madagascar, a bird-rich island of foliage in the heart of a denuded semi-desert landscape. The park's 36,300 hectares shelters an astounding 72 recorded bird species and eight lemur species.

Located in the middle of nowhere, about half an hour west of Ranohira, this sapphire boom town spontaneously erupted astride the RN7 – it's only been here since the 1990s. The main street is lined with ramshackle structures selling provisions for the miners, from shovels to mobile phones. Side streets are lined with gem buyers in shaded huts and stones are organised into piles according to quality on the footpath. The highlight is the nearby mining area, where hand-dug mines pockmark the earth. 

In any case, it's a fascinating town to experience. By accident it has become one of the more unusual sights in Southern Madagascar, all the more so because it appears completely unconscious of the fact.

Madagascar’s southernmost tip, Cap Sainte-Marie is a thought-provoking climax to the ‘eighth continent’, a stark and windswept place that, like so many places down here, feels like the end of the Earth. This 18-hectare reserve, partly created to protect radiated and spider tortoises, ends at the cliff's edge.

This is the one must-see attraction in Tuléar. Essentially a 400,000-sq-metre distillation of the entire spiny forest in one place, it's a fantastic collection of 900 plant species; take a guide (tip expected) to learn more about the weird and wonderful plants on show here. It was established by a Swiss botanist and conservationist in 1980; his ancient Citroen that once used to gather the plants is now being consumed by them. Madagascar National Parks (MNP) take note: clone this place. Night tours (Ar10,000) leave at 5.45pm.