Tide + Time Tsara Komba

the best lodge in this area by a distance

Tide + Time Tsara Komba is located in the Nosy Be area to the northwest of Madagascar.

Set on the peaceful south side of the beautiful little island of Nosy Komba, Tsara Komba is a genuinely high quality small lodge, one of the very best in Madagascar.

This property is owned and operated by Time and Tide, a very upmarket safari company, originally centred on Zambia and which also owns the extremely high-end Miavana on the northeast coast of Madagascar.

Tsara Komba is focused around a quiet little beach and centred on a pleasant open-sided main building (The Divine House), with stylish lounge and dining areas.

A cascade of four terraces provides plenty of opportunities to gaze out at the amazing views of the ocean and the Tsaratanana Mountains over on ‘The Big Island’.

Behind the lodge the tropical forest rises steeply towards the top of the hill, a wonderful rich environment, home to endemic plants, lemurs, chameleons, hummingbirds, parrots, vanilla, cocoa and wild pepper.

The lodge staff is mainly composed of lovely friendly people from the local village, around thirty in total, including cooks, gardeners, nannies, chambermaids, waiters and pirogue skippers.

There is also a small spa.

Rooms

Guest accommodation at Tsara Komba is in just eight very nice suites, tucked away amongst the tropical forest, each with a large lounge, bedroom and bathrooms spaces under thatch, as well as a large private terrace.

Six of these are Ocean View Lodges with space for two adults and an additional child bed.

The other two are Ocean View Suites with 25% more floor area and space for two child beds.

These rooms are genuinely lovely and are designed in such a way that, if you wish, you really could spend a lot of time ‘at home’, taking your meals privately and making use of the visiting massage service.

The rooms are very open and are designed to make the most of natural ventilation. They do not have fans or air-conditioning.

It may also be worth pointing out that there are no walls to close up at night, so you are completely dependent upon your mosquito net for protection against insects. However, as you can see in the images, the bedroom area can be partitioned by the use of a second mosquito net ‘wall’, which is a really good idea.

Activities

Tsara Komba provides access to the following very wide range of guided activities …

• Island nature walks
• Marine safari
• Beach picnics on remote islands
• Snorkelling
• Diving
• Whale sharks
• Kayaking
• Paddle-boarding
• Wind-surfing
• Cultural visits

Nosy Be is the most popular beach location in Madagascar, initially because it is such a beautiful and diverse area, but latterly because it has an international airport. It therefore tends to feature in a high proportion of trips.

The usual stay duration is 3-7 nights.

Seasonality

The best time of year to visit the Nosy Be area is generally considered to be during the May-Oct cool dry season.

The May-Oct period represents a cool dry winter season, when daytime temperatures may reach 22C/72F, whilst nighttime temperatures manage to drop to around 18C/64F (which is still a little bit on the warm side given the high humidities). The relatively infrequent rainfall tends to come in the form of occasional showers, with the prevailing conditions being hot and sunny.

The Nov-Apr period represents a warm wet summer season, when daytime temperatures may reach 28C/82F, whilst nighttime temperatures struggle to get below 22C/72F, which can be quite uncomfortable in the potentially very high humidities. Rainfall can be extremely heavy and persistent, possibly exceeding 500mm/20″ per month during Jan-Feb.

Getting there

If you are not planning to visit other parts of Madagascar, then you can arrive on the direct charter flights from Europe or on the scheduled air service from Johannesburg (notably when connecting from the safari areas) into the main airport on Nosy Be.

If you are planning to visit other parts of Madagascar beyond this northern corner, then most likely you will enter and exit the country via the capital Antananarivo, connecting north by air from there, directly to the main airport on Nosy Be.

From the main airport on Nosy Be it is a motorboat transfer of around 20 minutes to the lodge.

If your trip around Madagascar includes visiting the Montagne d’Ambre and Ankarana and conservation areas on the mainland nearby, then you will most likely fly from Antananarivo to Diego Suarez, travelling down overland to arrive at the harbour at Ankify.

From Ankify it is a 30 minute motorboat ride out to the lodge.

the island is home to an international airport