Visit The Islands and Beaches of Madagascar
Nosy Be lies off the northwest of Madagascar and has a near-perfect climate – sunshine with brief showers that are often at night. The soils are fertile and sugar, pepper and ylang-ylang are all grown for export. There is one busy town, Hell-Ville, where the roads are packed with ancient Renault taxis, zebu-carts, bicycles and pedestrians. Tourist shops jostle for space with local stalls that sell everything from chilli peppers to mangrove crabs caked in mud.
North of Hell-Ville the road winds around the west coast where a few hotels cluster around sandy beaches. Nosy Be’s beaches are not ideal for swimming as they shelve gradually, staying shallow for miles out to sea, but they are peaceful and hassle-free, with pirogues lying abandoned in the sand and dhows floating past offshore.