3 weeks in north over Christmas (Dec-Jan) - itinerary and rainy season?

Hi there,

My husband and I are planning a 3 week holiday to Madagascar. It's our first time to Mada and, as we are quite impulsive, we forgot to check the weather conditions prior to booking our flights!

We know that it's the rainy season but we've heard varying things about what that actually means. As the trip is basically going to be our honeymoon, we'd really like to spend some time relaxing in Nosy Be, so we're thinking we'll focus on the north. We're also hoping to not spend too much money, so we're considering flying into either Nosy Be or Diego Suarez and then traveling overland to the other location. From either Nosy Be or Diego Suarez, we are considering taking a series of taxi brousses back to Tana, but I can't find much information on whether or not this is feasible. I am a seasoned traveler, have extensive experience using local transport and can get around (ish) in French, but my husband is less keen on local transport and would like to limit the amount of time in transit (i.e. he's fine with spending a day in a taxi brousse but would like things to break up the journey). He's also willing to hire a driver but I'd rather avoid that to be honest, if at all possible!

Is there anything to see between, say, Nosy Be and Tana and could you potentially travel this distance in a taxi brousse? I know that overland travel can take a very long time so any estimates would be useful.

In addition, we're planning on avoiding the eastern coast due to the weather, but any thoughts on whether Diego Suarez and its surrounds will be massively affected? We're absolutely fine with some heavy rain for a few hours here and there but don't want to get stuck in one place for days on end in a rainstorm.

We're obviously fairly early in our planning but any thoughts/advice would be greatly appreciated! :) Thanks.

I'm gonna give you some answers and leave other bits for other people. I had a lovely adventure flying in to Diego and then going down to Ankify (beautiful spot) and taking a boat from Ankify to Nosy Be. I recommend that trip entirely. Then I rented a villa on Nosy Be, called Villa Tsirambesy, on Ambondrona Beach for a month and I totally loved it. The villa is huge but the top part is disconnected and available separately as a one-bedroom self contained apartment. The apartment is serviced daily, breakfast is served, and meals can either be self-catered or you can engage their cook. I thought it was very nice, but there are plenty of places to stay. I just prefer to not stay in a hotel, I enjoy my privacy. I grabbed a few taxi drivers phone numbers when I arrived in Hellville and then if I wanted to go out I would just call a cab to come get me. It was a few years ago, I don't remember what it cost, probably about $10 or so for the cab fare from Ambondrona to Ambatoloaka in the evening. There is a nice little ocean-front restaurant there on Ambondrona beach too.

No one is going to be able to answer your weather questions, because well, god only knows. Cyclone season can start later than January. February March is really the wettest time. In Fort Dauphin (yes the opposite end of the country to Diego) we usually have fine hot weather over xmas and new year, with occasional storms. The heavy rain in the wet season usually happens in the evenings, or, all day when there is a low pressure system (cyclone) around. When there is a cyclone around, most of Madagascar can be affected one way or another. Sometimes they come from the north around the top (Diego) and down the Mozambique Channel to Tulear, sometimes they come from other directions, one can never tell. You could indeed be in rain for days on end. You may also not see any rain at all... who knows? I wouldn't worry about it. You've booked your flights so just enjoy and don't worry about things you can't control too much until they happen. Take a few films on a usb flash disk or a good book, so you can entertain yourselves if you get stuck somewhere...

My best guess for taxi brousse from Diego to Tana would be around 48 hours. There are others here who will know better, I've never done that trip personally, I always thought it would be too hot to be sardined in a car all day. You do realise, it's very hot in the north and west at xmas, don't you?