Madagascar

[Golfinho]

BTW, didn't see any sunbathing or swimming in Tulear / Toliara either. The beach is dirty.

Forget Toliara for beaches. Sambava and Tamatave have nice ones. You're not going to get shark eaten splashing around waist deep with a girl or three, even if you're an American that 'speaks decent French. ' Morondava has a beautiful beach -- one that gives dirty a whole new meaning. Check it out and reframe your frame of reference.

[TailPipe]

Planning my first trip to Mada. Will arrive next week and could spend up to 3 months. Only interested in places with beaches.

Based upon reports, it looks like Nosy Be is a good starting point for a first-timer like myself. I speak decent French and have a healthy budget, so I plan to also visit:

• Antsiranana

• Mahajanga

• Toliara

I'm undecided about Toamasina. It was initially on my list because reports say the ladies are mostly black (my preference) and quite beautiful. However, I removed it after reading there is no swimming in its ocean due to sharks. Now I'm on the fence. Is Toamasina worth it? If yes, then where would it fit in the travel plan above?

The main 4 punting areas are Tana (mainly nightclubs), Nosy Be, Tamatave and Tulear.

The vast majority of WG in any place are cotieres meaning coastal dwellers that have more African features. If I remember well the darkest girls can be found in the south.

I did a couple that could be described as half castes. One in the highlands in Antsirabe and one in Manakara.

BTW, didn't see any sunbathing or swimming in Tulear / Toliara either. The beach is dirty. You can go to Mangily but you have to take a taxi brousse to get there but it basically is just a small village with a nice beach.

[TailPipe]

Oh yeah, for anyone wanting to RTFF.

1. First learn the names and locations of the largest 8-10 Malgache cities AND their French synonyms by hard. People will use them interchangeably. If you do not know both you will be utterly confused. I didn't and had to RTFF twice.

You don't have to read the whole forum. You can start in 2017 and discount the corona period. Barring some exceptions it's mostly rubbish written by bored punters like myself.

Once you have pinpointed cites of interest you can fine tune by searching the whole forum by place in Malgache and French.

2. Itineraries should be thought of in time and comfort and not in distance. 70 km could take you between 1-10 hours depending on the area / road conditions.

3. Carefully take note of any taxi brousse offering designated seats, 1 person / 1 seat. Any other can bring you untold pain and misery and is at your own risk. Personally never again. I prefer hitchhiking instead.

4. Visit the Tsaradia website for local flights and learn which flights are on offer. There's a high probability you will need one.

5. If you are too lazy to RTFF read the posts written by Neddy69, Pokeris, Amadeuss, SouthEaster, Golfinho, the Expert and others.

[Albert9989]

Planning my first trip to Mada. Will arrive next week and could spend up to 3 months. Only interested in places with beaches.

Based upon reports, it looks like Nosy Be is a good starting point for a first-timer like myself. I speak decent French and have a healthy budget, so I plan to also visit:

• Antsiranana

• Mahajanga

• Toliara

So my question. . . From Nosy Be, what is a logical travel plan to visit these other places? What order makes sense?

P.S.

I'm undecided about Toamasina. It was initially on my list because reports say the ladies are mostly black (my preference) and quite beautiful. However, I removed it after reading there is no swimming in its ocean due to sharks. Now I'm on the fence. Is Toamasina worth it? If yes, then where would it fit in the travel plan above?

I never been to Nosy Be and Mahajanga, but a geographical plan would be if you start in Nosy Be to go to Mahajanga and at last to Toliara, which is full south of mada.

With 3 months you have time to experiment some coastal roads, but they are the worst based on my readings here, but they can give some so nice surprise, with some girls found in villages, maybe it could be a plan. At least from Morondava but take advices as I didn't experiment these ways very difficult and long.

Also, Mada has suffered a lot, as usual, but the covid period has surely added a lot of pain, without tourists many hotels could be closed now. So take advices from people who knows.

What I can talk about is the way to Toliara from Tana.

In Tana, I stayed at hotel Sole, quite nice, I had a good session with the girl doing massage inside the hotel, not usual apparently but she agreed!

I stayed also in Select Hotel, not so good but can be a choice too.

Excellent restaurant "Les Artistes" where you can find rooms also.

And LE Glacier which is the place to be at least once maybe.

Easiest could be by plane but you miss all sightseeing along the road 7 going to Toliara from mada via Antsirabe and Fianarantsoa.

This way by the road is long, better to plan 2 or 3 days with a stop in Fiana and Isalo National Park depending if you like to visit some beautiful landscape.

From Mada I took Cotisse, very good transport. After I had a driver with his car, he drove me to Isalo where we stayed one night "Chez Alice", very nice lodge, with a trek in Isalo Park.

Then drive again up to Toliara but be careful, some parts of this road are risky after 5 pm and at night, Dahalo's are targetting buses and sometimes taking some lifes in addition to all the belongings of passengers.

In Toliara stayed at Hotel Serena. From there you can walk in the evening to the avenue bord de mer, and have dinner at Etoile de Mer where you will see girls hanging along the avenue.

Then the best part, for me, I went to Ifaty by tuktuk, beautiful coral lagoon with so nice beaches, to Hotel Bella Donna, excellent place where you will find a french chef cooking like a Gault & Millau 3 stars!

2 rooms are on the shore, very quiet, and I took benefit of one masseuse, not the most beautiful, I tried several, but we had a very good fit between us, so every days I had my massage, very good, in the room, followed by a full service. So nice reminds.

I did a trip also to see the whales in the sea outside the lagoon, beautiful sight there. I went 2 times, 1st I didn't saw very well the whales, but second they were just close to us.

So, this was what I did, but was in 2018 so many things happen up to now. At least I know that Bella Donna is still there in Ifaty, so you should try, at least for the food.

And if you speak french no problem to manage all the trip.

[ChocolateHuntr]

Planning my first trip to Mada. Will arrive next week and could spend up to 3 months. Only interested in places with beaches.

Based upon reports, it looks like Nosy Be is a good starting point for a first-timer like myself. I speak decent French and have a healthy budget, so I plan to also visit:

• Antsiranana

• Mahajanga

• Toliara

So my question. . . From Nosy Be, what is a logical travel plan to visit these other places? What order makes sense?

P.S.

I'm undecided about Toamasina. It was initially on my list because reports say the ladies are mostly black (my preference) and quite beautiful. However, I removed it after reading there is no swimming in its ocean due to sharks. Now I'm on the fence. Is Toamasina worth it? If yes, then where would it fit in the travel plan above?

[TailPipe]

I am planning my first trip to Nosy Be

Is there an English speaking hangout for expats?

I will do some boots on the ground searching for a place to stay, but I am open to referrals.

Thanks.

Consider this. When I went I just met one native English speaking mongerer in more than a month. A seasoned, confident punter will probably be ok. But if you want to hang out with English expats why bother with Madagascar? There's so many Anglo African countries with beautiful women to choose from.

I have learned a lot from the experience of hardcore Africa guys but I've also learned that their interests not necessarily equal mine. Most stay for a longer periods month (s) + and as such want to stretch their $ as far as possible and that is fine. But if you are a 2-3 week holiday maker do you really want to put up with the sub level infrastructure, living and travel conditions Madagascar has to offer?

What I want to say is don't limit yourself to a tunnel vision where only the price of a WG matters when you should be looking at the total package. Does it really matter to you that much if you pay 10 or 20 usd for a girl? If it doesn't there's a host of other countries to choose from.

[Pokeris]

How do you search for girls in their 20's in FB? Let's say you type in "antananarivo madagascar" in the search and then you click on "people" in the filter menu? I tried but only a few girls came up in the search. Maybe you are using FB dating app?

You can't search by age on FB. Facebook dating app is working just in some counties and madagascar is not one of them and I doubt its ever will be.

[AttilaTheHun]

All girls in Madagascar can use facebook for very small fee from telma or orange and every girl with smart phone has it. As I see you not understand that are you talking about like most of the times on this subforum I try to explain for you it not divides in 2 sections hard core pros and ordinary girls. As most mada girls need money even normal girls who never done it before can come in your hotel they all are just poor girls who try to survive somehow. If you send fb re guest for a mada girl and she accept it its 70-80 percent change she will start to reply to your messages also. If she start reply your message its 90-100 percent chance she agree to meet you (I mean to go out for dating and so on if someone looking for it) most of the times I skip this part and then they agree to meet I ask them second question can they come my hotel? Some refuse but many coming probably 50 percent come 50 percent refuse or simillar. Most of this girls is semi pros you never meet them at clubs or discos they are sweet sometimes shy and so on. Madagascar girls is not Kenyan, Ugandan or Tanzanian girls who late hours or not show at all. In many trips in mada I can remember just 2-4 non show up. If the girls is late they late 10-20 minutes in smaller cities but in tana can happens hours sometimes because of traffic so at tana I not use it a lot. Facebook is work great for anytime sex sometimes you wake up 6-7 am morning and see girls on facebook online already as many girls go sleep early and wake up early in mada. You just text them and they come. Where else you can get girl 6-7 am in the morning not leaving your hotel in mada? Or you going new small city and plan stay here just one night you arrive late after dark at hotel and already have a girl not need to go out and look as you already find on facebook in advance. I like mix all types of mongering, takes contacts on streets, from waitress, clubs, bars and so on but facebook its good instrument to put more variety on mongering which works best for me in mada as you can get a girls which you never seen in discos or walking somewhere on the street and they are more fresh than discos girls.

How do you search for girls in their 20's in FB? Let's say you type in "antananarivo madagascar" in the search and then you click on "people" in the filter menu? I tried but only a few girls came up in the search. Maybe you are using FB dating app?

[AttilaTheHun]

Yeah I remember that place, have eaten and drank there a few times and every once in a while a decent looking freelancer will walk by. You do hear english spoken there but I never found the other customers particularly friendly. If you want to splurge a bit they do a massive burger for 10 K which is pretty good.

And Neddy is right about the French as well. I found that they are a very cliquey bunch who are not very welcoming, even to other visiting French speakers! There are a few exceptions but not many.

Be prepared for a bit of hard work if you speak no French. You will get by in Nosy Be, other places not so much.

I've read somewhere that Fort Dauphin and much of Anosy Region leans more Anglophone than Francophone, this is from the American and Norwegian Lutherans who ran the main schools and was followed up by the Rio Tinto mine being mainly South African staffed, you can find lots of English speakers there. Having said that, I couldn't confirm it because I haven't been there and haven't read any report from that region.

[SouthEaster]

Yeah I remember that place, have eaten and drank there a few times and every once in a while a decent looking freelancer will walk by. You do hear english spoken there but I never found the other customers particularly friendly. If you want to splurge a bit they do a massive burger for 10 K which is pretty good.

And Neddy is right about the French as well. I found that they are a very cliquey bunch who are not very welcoming, even to other visiting French speakers! There are a few exceptions but not many.

Be prepared for a bit of hard work if you speak no French. You will get by in Nosy Be, other places not so much.

[Amadeuss]

Hopefully the language barrier remains for a long time.

And don't let Starbucks, McDonalds, Tesla and all this crap cross the borders of Ile Rouge. Freshly baked baguettes, tasty filet de zebu, cafe au lait, cuisine d'influence franchise.

[SouthEaster]

I have been to Mada 4 times and if there is an expat place where they speak English I have yet to find one! The only place there may be some that I know of is Tamatave as some big Canadian company is mining nickel there. Even then did not see it but then again wasn't looking that hard. In Nosy Be you will probably have the best chance of finding someone who speaks English simply because there are a lot of different foreigners there. Good luck.

[Neddy69]

I am planning my first trip to Nosy Be in Sep / Oct.

I lived in Angeles City and Baretto for 6 years and, before I head back there, I want to visit Nosy.

A couple questions that I have, if you don't mind?

Is there an English speaking hangout for expats?

I will do some boots on the ground searching for a place to stay, but I am open to referrals.

Thanks.

The only English speaking hangout I ever came across is Sharkis Bar in Tamatave. There's South Africans, Canadians and even a Jamaican hanging out working for the mines in Moramanga. Other than that prepare to learn decent French otherwise no Frenchman will talk to you.

La Buse.

For accommodation try Coucher du Soleil.

Who will make landfall on Isle rouge in October if prevailing winds permitting.

[Oschino2]

I recently arrived to MG, I've done a good job of RTFF already and will explore a few parts of the country. If anyone wants to share tips or possible meet shoot me a PM.

[Kako123]

Or 29 million? Haha.

Last I checked, around 28 million. So, yeah. Sorry mate just couldn't help it!