Mahajanga

Mahajanga's identity is built around its baobabs — mature trees line several of the city's main boulevards, giving the city centre a genuinely distinctive streetscape rather than confining the baobab experience to a single out-of-town avenue. The seafront promenade, along the Mozambique Channel, is where the city gathers at sunset, and the working port and market quarter give a sense of daily life distinct from the more tourism-oriented towns further south. A short drive from the city centre, the Cirque Rouge is a natural amphitheatre carved by erosion into the surrounding sediment, its layered pink, ochre and red bands a genuinely striking, almost otherworldly landscape best seen in the late-afternoon light.

Katsepy, a small settlement directly across Bombetoka Bay from Mahajanga, is reached by a short ferry crossing and offers a quieter, less developed beach than the city's own promenade, plus a still-functioning lighthouse with views back across the bay. It works well as a half-day trip from Mahajanga, and is also the more common overland route toward the Anjajavy area and other points further southwest for travellers continuing that way.

Ankarafantsika National Park, roughly three hours from Mahajanga, protects a large area of dry deciduous forest built around a lake system — a genuinely different habitat from the rainforest parks further south and east. The park is one of the most reliable places in Madagascar to see Coquerel's sifaka, a strikingly marked white-and-chestnut lemur, alongside a range of nocturnal species on guided night walks. The lake itself holds crocodiles, visible on boat excursions arranged through the park, adding a different kind of wildlife encounter to the park's daytime lemur walks.