Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020

Airport Transport Tana and Nosy Be

Country forums / Africa / Madagascar

Hey there!
Will be flying to Nosy Be and am wondering if it will be easy to find a taxi at the airport to take me to
my hotel at Madirokely Beach and how much this should cost?

Also, from Nosy Be I will fly to Tana and have a night stopover there, and will again need transport to
my hotel in Tana and back the next day, is taxi the only way and how much should that cost?

Thanks very much!

A taxi from airport to Tana (or back) is 35,000 Ar. Sorry, don't know about Nosy Be.

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If you can ask your hotel to arrange the taxi and to quote a definite price it would make matters simpler. There is a general chaos at the airport and you could avoid a lot of bother.

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I like to have the hotel that I am staying in hold up a sign with my name on it when I arrive at the airport. It certainly cuts out a lot of taxi drivers wanting to get my attention and crowding me to hire for their service. The down side is that prices are much higher when you take a taxi from the hotel. You can get a better price at the airport.
Nosey Be- plenty of taxi drivers to choose from. Price for tourist is 40,000 to 50,000 ariary. to Madirokely. Taxi around Helleville 1000 ariary and from Helleville to Madirokely 20,000 Ariary.
Locals get a better price. Usually half the tourist price. So don't be shy to bargain for a much better price.
Beware that tourists use ariary but many of the locals use Franc Malagas.
20,000 ariary equals 100,000 Franc Malagas.
I like the rest of us outside Tana use Franc Malagas. So you have to be careful because you could be quoted Franc Malagas and you will pay that in Ariary which means you will have paid five times the price.

There is a express community bus that runs from the airport in Ivato to Tana City that costs less than a taxi. Ask the information booth for times and price. They will also mention it over the load speaker but it is very garbled in three languages , but at least you know that there is such a bus available.

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Thanks very much for your help everyone!!!

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Back from an amazing trip and thought I would quickly update this topic, maybe someone else will have the
same questions:

Taxi Nosy Be to Madirokely (and back again) was 40'000 Ariary.

There is indeed an airport bus in Tana, Adema, that drops you off at your hotel, for only 10'000 Ariary. I asked the hotel to book it for the return trip as well, and it worked out perfectly well! I would def. use them again! Just make sure to allow enough extra-time, as we spent the first 20 minutes picking up more people from other hotels.

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