kite trip Mada, North and South

Hi there,
If i were you try to fly to Sambava first then visit Marojejy before you rise up to Vohemar and continue to Daraina reserve because the road between Daraina to Ambilobe is very bad and it's expensive to hire 4x4 then drive back to Sambava where you take a flight to Diego Suarez , the price of the flight is about 100€ instead of hiring 4x4 from Diego to Sambava.
In Diego you can practise you water sport ( kitesurfing) then you can fly from here back to Tana before flying to Fort Dauphin.
Good luck,
Anne

If you want to travel from Diego to Sambava (or the other way round - it's immaterial which way you do it), the NPs to visit are Montagne d'Ambre, Ankarana and the Daraina reserve. You'll probably need to spend a night at each of them. Three or four days is just about OK if you hire your own 4x4 (Ambilobe to Vohemar is not passable in a 2wd vehicle).

2 to 3 days for Marojejy is good. If you take #1's advice, keep in mind that there's only one direct flight a week from Sambava to Diego, so it will get full a long way in advance. (you'll also increase the time needed if you want to take in Montagne d'Ambre and Ankarana.)

From Fort Dauphin to Lavanono, you should plan for two days by 4x4 in each direction. Try taking in the Cap Sainte Marie Park on the way - good for plants, rock formations and tortoises.

Many thanks for your help, we have around 7 days to do the Diego-Marojejy and back to Sambava for flight to Tana, so Im thinking of sticking to the drive, possibly with local tour operator and do it as a tour. We could than fly to Tana and down to Fort D. I didnt realised the Fort D. to Lavanono takes two days to get there, still want to see and kitesurf that place, its one of my little dreams. Thanks again for advise, any help appretiated.

I live in FD and I've always heard that Lavanono is one day each way - and recent trips have taken this amount of time (as long as you set off as early as possible, and you might arrive in the dark depending on the time of year). It is entirely possible that it would take longer though, and any delays would cause problems. You could perhaps allow 3 days overall for the journey? So that if it takes you one day to get there, you can have your 2 days there and have an extra day for getting back just in case - and if you don't need it you have an extra day in FD. But then if the journey there takes 2 days, you can still have one or two days in Lavanono (depending on whether the extra journey time was due to bad roads and you'll need 2 days to get back, or a one off problem and one day would be OK).

You can kite surf in Shipwreck Bay in FD but I've got no idea how good it is, and as the name implies the bay is full of rusting metal.

If you do have some time here, you can go to Andohahela NP (one day), Nahampoana reserve (half day), Lokaro bay (one day or you can camp overnight on the beach), or just hang around on the beaches. Shout if you need any recommendations!

Saintaelphaba, great advise, much appretiated! We will definately try to explore around FD, do you know if there is a chance to hire a boat for whale watching and what sort of money we are roughly looking at? Many thanks.

When are you going to be here?

Depending on the time of year, you won't need a boat - you can see whales from the beaches or there are some particularly good little patches of grass on the headland. This is best around September, but I think from June there's a chance of seeing them. It would definitely be possible to hire a boat, but this might be a local guy and his pirogue! I think there's a place in Ste Luce that does whale watching trips, but I'm not sure how much this is sorry. Ste Luce is about 3 hours drive away from FD.

We are there around 8-11 august, Im still working on the schedule, we have 22 days between arrival and departure, but there is way too many things we want to see plus we are very keen kitesurfersso we want to get some riding sessions in as well. Would you mind having a quick peak at our plan so far and let me know what you think? Any help and suggestions are much appretiated.

-arrival sunday 22 at 11:40 in Tana, over night in Tana
-next day as early as possible flight to Diego
-3 days in Diego kitesurfing
-drive to Sambava with overnight stop in Daraina or other parks2/3 days
-Sambava to Andapa, hike to Marojejy,back to Sambava cca 4days
-flight to Tana and than flight to Fort Dauphin
-Fort D. and trip to Lavanono (2 days there) , back to Fort D. and flight to Tana and back to europe
i have a total headspin, to more I look into it the more we want to see. many thanks for any help, Pete.