Before travelling | During your journey
Diving & snorkeling
Madagascar sea beds are among the most beautiful spots for divers. You will see an infinity of multi coloured fish with exotic names continuously drawing arabesques in a fairyland of shellfish and corals of indefinable shapes. Clown-fishes, butterflies, lions, unicorns, napoleons or surgeons and the inoffensive whale-sharks are among the undersea fauna a diver might expect to encounter here. The infrastructure for divers is concentrated in three main points:
-
South West
Along this coastal area there is one of the biggest coral barrier in the world. Ifaty and Mangily, 26 km to the north of Tuléar are the top spots, then follow Nosy Ve, just opposite Anakao, a beautiful Vezo fishermen’s village, and Belo-sur-Mer to the south of Morondava.
ReefDoctor
is a great non-profit marine conservation organization carrying out
several educational
and social projects together with the local fisher populations of the
A
recommendable diving
centre in Tulear
is L'Ancre
Bleue
at the
Mangrove Hotel, 20 km south from Monrondava. It organises departures
for Nosy Ve. Reservations at the Hotel “Chez
Alain”, BP 89,
Quartier “Sans Fil” Tuléar 601
– Phone: 94 415
27 Fax 94 423 79.
In Anakao
Le Safari Vezo offers accommodation facilities with 30
traditional bungalows bordering a lagoon. Contact at +(0)32 02 638 87.
The number of diving centres in Ifaty
is quite large. Here we would like to mention some:
- Le
Deap Sea
Club - contact
Hôtel Nautilus - BP 519
Tuléar 601 -
Phone.: +(00 261 20) 94 418 74 - Fax : (00 261 20) 94 413 80
-
Le
Lakana Vezo, BP 158
Tuléar
601 -
Phone: +(261) 20 94 426 20 ou +(261) 032 04 097 98 - Fax : +00
261 20 94 413 20
- Fifi
Diving School (http://fifidiving.skyrock.com/)
by the Bamboo Club: diving centre for beginners and experienced divers
that also offers water sports for the most adventorous and departures
on board of a catamaran to
explore the lagoon of Ranobérent. Equipment for rent.
- The Dunes
Hotel has its own PADI
school. BP 285 Ifaty 601 Tulear -
Phone +(261 20) 94 439 00
- Le Grand Bleu next to the Hotel Vovo Telo is run by Richard, an experienced diver, who offers diving, whale watching and ship excursions. Phone: +261 (0)32 07 822 12
In Morondava
the Ecolodge du
Menabe offers pa
PADI diving school with
equipment for 12 divers and accommodation with non private facilities
in six bungalows at the seashore. Web:
www.menabelo.com
 © Lauretta Burke |
- Nosy Be
This archipelago comprises nine really beautiful spots: Tanikely, for beginners and all levels, sea beds rich in colours and a great varieties of marine fauna, the Epave Zaïda, a trawler which has been sunk on purpose, average visibility but impressive fauna, the Manta point, a sand plateau sprinkled with very colourful corals adequate for beginners, Corail Noir, which has been recently discovered, and offers for divers with some experience colonies of black corals that may be up to 1.5 m high, the Grotte, also for level II, a sand bed between 18 and 26 m, the Banc du Chameau, ideal for beginners, two plateaus rich in hard and soft coral, Pain de Sucre, a rocky peak inlaid with shellfish to the south and colonised by corals forming a fabulous garden on its west and north sides fabulous for divers of level I, and of course the slope of Nosy Iranja, at the limits of the continental plateau, also for divers of first level. Further south the Greg Wall at the Radama Islands, offers a slop with incredible sights between 13 and 38 m. Another very worthy diving spot is the so called Banc du petit Castor at the Mitsio Islands, which revels divers of level I a plateau covered with magnificent tables of coral.
Here
some diving centres
offering its services in the region:
- Oceane's
Dream
at the village of Ambatoloaka, with two catamarans
offering diving cruises to Mitsio and Radama Islands. This centre also
operates motor boats for day diving excursions at the bay of Nosy Be.
It is a PADI accredited centre, which is also member of the
international guideline association for responsible diving
(www.longitude181.org)
BP 173 Nosy Be 207 Madagascar
Phone: +261 32 07 127 82
E-mail: oceaned@moov.mg
Web: www.oceanesdream.com
- Tropical
Diving in Hellville: Manager
Marc is a PADI monitor and
operates two motor vessels fully equipped for diving.
C/o Hôtel Coco Plage Ambatoloaka - BP 212 Hell-Ville Nosy
Bé 207 - Phone : 86 616 28 -86 610 72 - GSM : +261(0)32 07
127 90
- Bleu
Oceane
on Madirokely beach, Nosy Iranja and Nosy Saba. This professional
diving centre has very good English speaking instructors. They also
offers PADI courses and cruises around the archipielago.
Phone:+261 20 86 928 10 / +261 32 07 05880
Web: www.diving-madagascar.com
- Manta
Dive Club with bilingual PADI
instructors and diving
cruises on board of a catamaran equipped with two zodiacs.
Madirokely, BP 326 Nosy-Be – Phone/fax : 86 614 18 - GSM :
+(0)32 07 207 10
- Mitsiky
Plongée Madagascar,
at the Southern part of the
Amabaro beach. French speaking diving centre with PADI courses and two
motor baots.
BP 297 – Hellville Plage d'Ambaro - Dzamandzar - Route
d'Andilana
Nosy Be.
E-mail: info@123plongee-madagascar.com,
phone: (+261) 32 02 203 55
- Blue
Dive
on Madirokely beach: This diving centre, which also offers PADI
courses, cooperates with the Hotel Nosy Iranja.
Phone/fax : 86 616 31 - GSM : +(0)32 07 207 20
- Sakatia
Dive
Inn on the Sakatia island: It
also offers accommodations.
Contacts : BP 186 - Hell-Ville - Nosy-Be - Phone 86 615 14
- Forever
Dive
also on Madirokely beach. It has a PADI instructor and operates a motor
diving boat. GSM : +(0)32 07 125 65
-
Sainte Marie
| This island on the Eastern coast of Madagascar offers some beautiful diving grounds like the Ile aux Nattes with two spots outside the lagoon and one under the wreck, the tiny islands Ilots aux Sables with two natural aquariums with an extraordinary clear visibility, the island of aux Baileines, formed on an outcrop of coral reef, Pointe a Larrée, a priviledged spot for pelagic fish and the Cocoteraire, an exceptional diving spot under a 30 m long wreck. |  |
| © Lauretta Burke |
Some
recommended diving
centres at Sainte Marie are:
- Il
Balenottero,
a PADI centre located at the port of Ambodifotatra.
It operates three vessels and also offers whale watching tours and
diving cruises to Masoala.
Web: www.ilbalenottero.com
- Mahery
Bé: between
Vohilava and Mahavelo, phone: +261 (0)32 04 75 777,
mail: maherybe@live.fr
- Le
Lémurien Palmé
at the hotel Betty
Plage in the north part of Ambodifotatra;
Phone: + 261 (0)32 04 81 656, Web: www.lemurien-palme.com
mail: lemurienpalme@moov.mg
- Maningory
(Ile aux Nattes)
Phone/fax 57 402 20 - GSM: +261(0)
32 07 73 641 - Inmarsat : 00 871 761
942 787
