Where to stay and Dive in Nosy Be Madagascar

[MarisolMoreno]

Hello! I need help for choose a place to be our base for diving in Nosy Be - Madagascar. We will be there in May.

Could anyone help us ordering the following spot dive places from better to no that good: Nosy Sakatia, Nosy Komba, Nosy Tanikely, Nosy Iranja & Nosy Mitsio?

The issue is we don’t know where to stay, these are the options:

• Lodge Nosy Sakatia Nice place, isolate (perhaps too much) super dive? With the plus of do a night fluo dive, We never have done a fluo night dive before. Sound quite interesting
• Stay in Nosy Komba. I have found a dive center that make dive excursions to Nosy Sakatia, Nosy Komba, Nosy Tanikely, Nosy Iranja y Nosy Mitsio from there. But the night dive in Sakatia wouldn’t be possible.
• Stay in Nosy Be around Andilana. And from there move to the rest place for diving. The positive part of this is we could do more staff out of the water and more places to choose where to sleep and eat. But I don’t know if it is worth it.

Any advice is welcome! thanks!!

 

[TheFlyingPenguins]

We're also looking for Nosy Be recommendations, including liveaboards. If you come across anything that helps you, please update us! We'll be there in October & November so sadly we won't overlap

 

[Wingy]

Depending very much on your budget and how long you plan to be on Nosy Be - Nosy Sakatia Lodge is lovely and "remote" in that it's on the north of the island so you are pretty much confined to Nosy Sakatia island although the owners are fantastic (unfortunately closed when I was there but communicated via email from Europe to try and help find someone to take me diving in Cyclone season)
Pros - Class operation, beautiful very quiet island, can access sites further north up to possibly LOB to Mitsio Archipeligo.
Cons - You are on an island off an island off a really big island - making airport transfer, doing Lakobe National Park (Recommended though there are chameleons on Nosy Sakatia) and topside activities a very timely exercise...ditto boat dives to Nosy Komba and Nosy Tanikey.

Nosy Komba - Cons really as above except Komba has a great village for local crafts, Eddies Restaurant, Lemurs and Chameleons...boat ride Komba to Hellvilles closest port 30mins. Not sure of the Op you have found there but I would consider

Scuba Nosy Be
Menabe Plongee

Scuba Nosy Be were also closed but thanks to great organisational skills the owner of Anjiamarango Eco Resort at Bafoatake Bay (closer to Nosy Sakatia than Komba and Tanikey) which I would highly recommend we went out using their equipment with the guy who does the whale watching tours. He was excellent.

A word of caution - choose a good op as there are a few with less than stellar safety practices and you are a long long way from home and help - it's the worlds third poorest country so emergency responses are non existent.

Andilana is pretty and you do have more opportunities to do topside stuff like visit the ylang ylang distillery and drink rum aranje.

Another (cheaper) option is basing yourself at Amboatalaka where you have a pretty cool little village where ox carts and women with babies tied to there backs cruise past restaurants, boutiques and ATMs. Tourist guides will tell you it's a seedy hooker infested place (which is somewhat true, there are hookers and a Sunday drunk fest beach fest where your wallet is guaranteed to be ripped off) but it's actually convenient for scuba Nosy Be and a couple of others (PM me for who not to dive with) but it's actually a cool little village.

I have a contact there for land based tours - Aquajet Sarl - Navez can organise most things and is a lovely young man.

Very special place - enjoy

 

[TheFlyingPenguins]

Thanks for that detailed report Wingy, very helpful!

 

[jplant]

Depending very much on your budget and how long you plan to be on Nosy Be - Nosy Sakatia Lodge is lovely and "remote" in that it's on the north of the island so you are pretty much confined to Nosy Sakatia island although the owners are fantastic (unfortunately closed when I was there but communicated via email from Europe to try and help find someone to take me diving in Cyclone season)
Pros - Class operation, beautiful very quiet island, can access sites further north up to possibly LOB to Mitsio Archipeligo.
Cons - You are on an island off an island off a really big island - making airport transfer, doing Lakobe National Park (Recommended though there are chameleons on Nosy Sakatia) and topside activities a very timely exercise...ditto boat dives to Nosy Komba and Nosy Tanikey.

Nosy Komba - Cons really as above except Komba has a great village for local crafts, Eddies Restaurant, Lemurs and Chameleons...boat ride Komba to Hellvilles closest port 30mins. Not sure of the Op you have found there but I would consider

Scuba Nosy Be
Menabe Plongee

Scuba Nosy Be were also closed but thanks to great organisational skills the owner of Anjiamarango Eco Resort at Bafoatake Bay (closer to Nosy Sakatia than Komba and Tanikey) which I would highly recommend we went out using their equipment with the guy who does the whale watching tours. He was excellent.

A word of caution - choose a good op as there are a few with less than stellar safety practices and you are a long long way from home and help - it's the worlds third poorest country so emergency responses are non existent.

Andilana is pretty and you do have more opportunities to do topside stuff like visit the ylang ylang distillery and drink rum aranje.

Another (cheaper) option is basing yourself at Amboatalaka where you have a pretty cool little village where ox carts and women with babies tied to there backs cruise past restaurants, boutiques and ATMs. Tourist guides will tell you it's a seedy hooker infested place (which is somewhat true, there are hookers and a Sunday drunk fest beach fest where your wallet is guaranteed to be ripped off) but it's actually convenient for scuba Nosy Be and a couple of others (PM me for who not to dive with) but it's actually a cool little village.

I have a contact there for land based tours - Aquajet Sarl - Navez can organise most things and is a lovely young man.

Very special place - enjoy

 

[scubajunky17]

Depending very much on your budget and how long you plan to be on Nosy Be - Nosy Sakatia Lodge is lovely and "remote" in that it's on the north of the island so you are pretty much confined to Nosy Sakatia island although the owners are fantastic (unfortunately closed when I was there but communicated via email from Europe to try and help find someone to take me diving in Cyclone season)
Pros - Class operation, beautiful very quiet island, can access sites further north up to possibly LOB to Mitsio Archipeligo.
Cons - You are on an island off an island off a really big island - making airport transfer, doing Lakobe National Park (Recommended though there are chameleons on Nosy Sakatia) and topside activities a very timely exercise...ditto boat dives to Nosy Komba and Nosy Tanikey.

Nosy Komba - Cons really as above except Komba has a great village for local crafts, Eddies Restaurant, Lemurs and Chameleons...boat ride Komba to Hellvilles closest port 30mins. Not sure of the Op you have found there but I would consider

Scuba Nosy Be
Menabe Plongee

Scuba Nosy Be were also closed but thanks to great organisational skills the owner of Anjiamarango Eco Resort at Bafoatake Bay (closer to Nosy Sakatia than Komba and Tanikey) which I would highly recommend we went out using their equipment with the guy who does the whale watching tours. He was excellent.

A word of caution - choose a good op as there are a few with less than stellar safety practices and you are a long long way from home and help - it's the worlds third poorest country so emergency responses are non existent.

Andilana is pretty and you do have more opportunities to do topside stuff like visit the ylang ylang distillery and drink rum aranje.

Another (cheaper) option is basing yourself at Amboatalaka where you have a pretty cool little village where ox carts and women with babies tied to there backs cruise past restaurants, boutiques and ATMs. Tourist guides will tell you it's a seedy hooker infested place (which is somewhat true, there are hookers and a Sunday drunk fest beach fest where your wallet is guaranteed to be ripped off) but it's actually convenient for scuba Nosy Be and a couple of others (PM me for who not to dive with) but it's actually a cool little village.

I have a contact there for land based tours - Aquajet Sarl - Navez can organise most things and is a lovely young man.

Very special place - enjoy

Wingy, how do you rate the diving in Nosey Be ?