Safari to Toamasina

origin of the railway and main road up to the capital

Set on the northeast coast of Madagascar, Toamasina is a working city with the largest port on the island.

The town was established here during the French colonial period because it is the site of a break in the fringing coral reefs, allowing access to ships.

Before the advent of air travel, Toamasina was the main port of entry for the island, a stop on the main steamer route from Europe, around the Cape of Good Hope and across the ocean to India.

During this period a railway was constructed down the coast and up into the mountains to the capital Tana.

As if that were not enough of a logistical challenge, the French colonists also constructed the remarkable Canal des Pangalanes, an extensive chain of man-made lakes and rivers that runs for 600 km down the east coast of Madagascar, from Foulpointe to Faragangana.

This coastline has never been considered a very healthy place to live (which is why the capital is so far away, up in the highlands) and the early 1900s saw repeated outbreak of the black death and other epidemics, which lead to the forced draining of the local wetlands.

The modern city of Toamasina is a bustling place, with a population of around 300,000 people. It’s not without interest, but isn’t sufficiently enthralling to draw many visitors. The streets are famously packed with pousse-pousses (bicycle rickshaws) and tuk-tuks (motorised rickshaws).

The main reason to visit this part of the coast is to stay at the Palmarium Hotel, which is perhaps the best location in Madagascar for seeing rare aye-ayes.

The area is usually accessed by road from Antananarivo, via Andasibe, often returning back up to the capital by air.

The best time to visit Toamasina is generally considered to be during the Sep-Nov dry season.

The town experiences a tropical rainforest climate, which is to say that it’s reliably hot, humid and rainy.

The temperatures are relatively constant year round, with peak daytime temperatures around 28C/82F and nighttime temperatures a potentially uncomfortable 20C/68F. The relative humidity is around 85% year round, which doesn’t help.

The Sep-Nov period represents the ‘dry’ season, although with an average of 125mm/5′ of rain per month, this would be considered rainy in most locations. However temperatures tend to be slightly lower and the prevailing conditions are very much sunny.

The Dec-Apr period represents the rainy season, with an average rainfall of around 400mm/16″ of rain per month, which is a lot. You can expect heavy and potentially continuous downpours every other day, but with plenty of sunny weather in between. Temperatures can soar Jan-Apr in particular.

Getting there

An obvious way to travel between the capital Antananarivo and Toamasina would appear to be by train, but in reality the railway is in no condition to offer reliable travel to any but the most time-rich budget travellers.

The most common way to traverse this route is by guided overland transfer, typically spending two nights at Andasibe in the highlands on the way through, from where it’s only about 4-5 hours by road to Toamasina.

The town is also served by Ambalamanasy Airport, which is connected to the capital by regular flights. Some people therefore drive down, then fly back up, leaving their guide to return on his own.

Where to stay

The town of Toamasina has a decent range of largely simple lower cost accommodation options, none of which we tend to recommend for inclusion in trips.

The main reason to come down to this coastline is to stay at the Palmarium Hotel, which is situated alongside one of the lakes on the Canal des Pangalanes, about 60 km south of the town. The property includes a small patch of rare littoral forest that contains a wide range of lemur species and is perhaps the best location to view rare aye-ayes.

rarely included in good quality safari trips