How about a trip to Nosy Be, a few kilometres away from the big island (that’s what insiders call Madagascar) in the Mozambique Channel? Having lived in Mauritius since 2012, it was time to discover Nosy Be, rightly nicknamed the Scented Island. Perfect timing as a friend has been there for several weeks already. I’d be sharing his bungalow and together we would be discovering the primary forest of Lokobe and Nosy Iranja… From Mauritius’ Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam international airport, we headed for Reunion Island for a quick stopover before flying for two hours to reach Nosy Be, a Madagascan island lost in the warm waters of the Mozambique Channel.
It’s stifling hot on the tracks of Nosy Be’s small airport. Here, there are no gangways to tip you into an air-conditioned airport. A trip to Nosy Be is first and foremost an adventure, far from the comforts of the West. Welcome to Africa or Asia? That’s the question I asked myself all the way to Dar Salaam, a little tourist village by the sea. However, don’t expect lots of tourists with rucksacks, khaki shorts and cameras! In reality, it is a tourist village, but there are very few of them. The island of Nosy Be welcomes around 120,000 tourists a year, and the peak tourist season is between June and August (during the summer holiday season in Europe), so during my trip to Nosy Be in December 2024, there were no crowds of tourists, much to my delight! At this time of year, Western tourists travelling in the Indian Ocean are more likely to be found on Mauritian beaches… And as for the temperature in Nosy Be in December, there’s nothing new under the Indian Ocean sun: it’s very hot and humid, even though it’s not yet the heavy rainy season! If you can stand the tropical heat, you can easily book a trip to Nosy Be in December!
To work, I only need two things: my laptop and an internet connection. For a digital nomad used to European capitals or the most famous spots in South-East Asia, the question of access to electricity doesn’t arise, but here we are in Africa! In other words, if the house, bungalow or flat you rent on your trip to Nosy Be isn’t equipped with solar panels, you’re in trouble!
Here, power cuts occur frequently and can last for hours (which also means no air conditioning and no fans!) So you’ve got it: if you’re planning to set down your digital nomad bags in Nosy Be (or more generally in Madagascar), make sure your rental property is equipped with solar panels. Of course, this will quickly push up your rental’s cost, as solar panels are unaffordable for Malagasy people, which explains why very few homes are equipped with them. On the other hand, when it comes to internet connection, Orange Madagascar sells top-notch monthly packages… I was surprised by the connection quality during a video call from Nosy Iranja to Paris? Video was crystal clear, lag-free and no choppy sound, so for digital nomads who regularly need to hold meetings or make video calls, a trip to Nosy Be, between work and discovery, is totally doable!
However, for digital nomads who like to work in air-conditioned coworking spaces while sipping on a matcha latte, Nosy Be is not the place. There are no coworking spaces here. You’ll never come across anyone in the street with a laptop in their hand. And you won’t find a matcha latte, or any of the trendy drinks you’re used to drinking in New York, Warsaw or Bali. Here, globalization has stayed on the country’s doorstep. For digital nomads who love adventure in the heart of an authentic land, a trip to Nosy Be is a good choice, but if you want to work while networking with expatriates from the 4 corners of the world from trendy cafés where you order vegan burgers, pass on; Nosy Be is not what you’re looking for!
There aren’t many cars on Nosy Be, but the main roads, which have been tarmacked since spring 2024, are overrun with tuk tuks… which gives Nosy Be island a real Asian flavour. Between the tuk tuks and the ox carts, it’s a complete scenery change, even for me, who has lived in Mauritius for many years… Along the roadsides, ylang-ylang trees bursting with scents, zebus, ducks and chickens, and pedestrians, lots of pedestrians… Few Madagascans have cars there and one ariary (the local currency) is one ariary, so they avoid taking the tuk tuk for a short distance. With a tuk tuk, you can go anywhere on the island, which gives the excursions a particular charm. And the good thing is that there’s no stopping the Malagasy tuk tuk… If a 4*4 can do it, so can a tuk tuk! Hold on tight, because your trip to Nosy Be is going to be a bumpy one! Stony roads, muddy roads, uphill roads, or even all 0f them at once, nothing scares tuk tuk drivers, not even police checks, which are more like checkpoints for a small fee than random checks. For an unforgettable excursion during your Nosy Be holiday, you can take a ‘special’ tuk tuk, meaning that you charter your tuk tuk, or, alternatively, you can share it, with up to three people per tuk tuk, not counting the babies and young children crammed into their mothers’ laps… It’s a bit of an adventure, you’re stuck close together, but with your nose to the wind, you also have a front-row seat to capture the authentic life scenes on the island…
If you want to see lemurs jumping on your shoulders during your trip to Nosy Be, head to Lémuria Land. Surrounded by tourists, you’ll meet these amazing animals that live only in Madagascar, but if you want to experience a more authentic lemur encounter during your trip to Nosy Be, head for Lokobe National Park!
You can explore Lokobe in just a day, and you’ll leave with some unforgettable memories… Of course, you’ll need a guide for this unique experience. Nestor will be our guide for this day dedicated to discovering Madagascar’s biodiversity. Departure by tuk tuk from Dar Salaam to reach a small village in the south-east of the island… Already arrived in Lokobe? Certainly not! Now it’s time to board a traditional pirogue and row along the coast of Nosy Be to reach the Lokobe national park and its typical little village. Arriving in this little paradise where modernity hasn’t reached yet (with the exception of a few solar panels that provide electricity to the inhabitants), Nestor, our guide on this excursion to Nosy Be, accompanies us into the Lokobe primary forest, in search of lemurs (several species inhabit the forest), chameleons of all kinds, boas (brrr), snakes… Nestor knows all their hiding places and his knowledge of the forest means we can observe them without disturbing them. There are no tourists there, no boas to place around your neck for a souvenir photo of your trip to Nosy Be, and no lemurs jumping on your shoulders. In the heart of this primary forest, you can watch real wildlife in silence. Nothing is promised. During our excursion to Lokobe, we didn’t see any boas, and that’s certainly for the best!
Immaculate beaches on a sea turtle nesting ground, a sandbank in the middle of the Mozambique Channel which, at low tide, allows you to cross from one islet to another, a traditional village of 200 souls made up of wooden huts on stilts and woven ravenala… This is a far, far cry from the mass tourism that invades the beaches of Bali, Thailand or Mexico. Nosy Iranja is an excursion absolutely not to miss on your trip to Nosy Be! And if you get a chance (take it!), spend at least one night there! On the islet, there are no roads, no cars, no mopeds, no dogs, just ducks, a few buffaloes and goats. In the heart of Nosy Iranja, a lighthouse rises above the mango trees. I’ve rarely seen such a natural spot… At around 2.30pm, the boats set off again for Nosy Be or the Grande île, which is only a few kilometres away. It is now that the beauty of Nosy Iranja is revealed to visitors who know how to take their time. By chance, we met the keeper of the lighthouse (which had not been operating for about twenty years). Well, to be honest, getting to the top of the lighthouse is a bit risky; it’s not lit, some steps are missing when others are cracking and the structure is eaten away by rust, but witnessing the 360° sunset over Nosy Iranja is just fabulous!
The discovery of Nosy Iranja was really the highlight of my trip to Nosy Be… Eating grilled fish by the beach, spending part of the night under the stars, with no visual pollution (there’s no electricity here) and just being… Here, issues take a long, long way. The Following day, after a couple of banana fritters delighted at dawn, the warm waters of the Mozambique Channel are ours (the boats that bring visitors from Nosy Be don’t reach until around 11am). The tide is going out and we’re watching out for the best moment to reach the second islet that makes up Nosy Iranja, that magical, protected place where marine turtles come to lay their eggs. Witnessing the first great journey of the baby turtles after crossing this sandbank in the heart of the Mozambique Channel was one of the most memorable moments of this excursion to Nosy Iranja (and of my trip to Nosy Be!), so much so that I even considered moving there for several weeks to get the real experience of living and working, for a while, away from it all! The problem would of course be electricity, you might say, but I’ve already devised a solution that I think would be welcomed by the head of the village of Nosy Iranja… A bit utopian? Maybe, I don’t know, but that is what I’ve got inspired from my incredible trip to Nosy Be!
