Masoala is both a beach holiday and a wildlife one, and it suits people who want both and are happy under canvas. It does not suit anyone who needs the Big 5, because Madagascar does not have them and the lodge would be the first to say so. What it has is a reef in front of the tent and a rainforest behind it, and a morning decision about which one to walk into.
Updated 28-Nov-2022
Is it a beach holiday or a wildlife one?
The Masoala Forest Lodge page answers the question with a floor plan. The tented accommodation is pitched between a warm, coral-rich ocean on one side and primary rainforest on the other, so the walk from your bed takes you either into the trees or into the water. The beaches are private, which the page translates as: the sand you wake up to is yours.
So the honest answer is that it is a beach holiday on the days you choose and a forest one on the others, and the two sit so close together that you can change your mind at lunch.
What is the forest side like?
Primary rainforest is forest that has never been cleared and, as the page puts it, it carries itself accordingly: dense, old and full of wildlife that has had a very long time to become fascinating. The lodge’s own site puts numbers on it. Eleven kinds of lemur live in the Masoala area, including the red ruffed lemur, which is endemic to Masoala and appears, appropriately, in the page’s own captions. Panther chameleons are seen regularly. The lodge keeps 85 hectares of rainforest as a buffer between its grounds and Masoala National Park, and seven marked trails run through it.
Guided walks go out by day and by night, and the night walks are the ones to insist on. The lodge lists eight species of nocturnal lemur, leaf-tailed geckos and sleeping chameleons among the things a torch finds. Forest streams, clear enough to see the bottom, run out of the trees towards the sea, and you can swim in them, which after a walk in a rainforest is less an activity than a necessity.
What is the sea side like?
The page lists the sea’s programme as snorkelling over coral, sea kayaking along the coast, fishing, and whale-watching when the whales oblige. The lodge’s site adds where: the snorkelling is in the Tampolo Marine Reserve, right off the beach, and the kayaks go out to islands, reefs, river mouths and empty beaches. Antongil Bay, the water in front of the lodge, is a humpback breeding ground. We are not going to tell you the months, because the page does not, and whales keep their own calendar.
What does “under canvas” mean here?
Seven tree-houses, built on stilted wooden platforms from ravenala and raffia palm, bamboo and local timber, with a canvas and mesh inner tent where the walls would be. Each has a private en-suite bathroom with hot water. Fourteen guests, maximum. The communal rooms are a Beach House for dinner and a Sea Deck for breakfast, tea and sundowners, and the page’s captions, “Dinner by lantern” and “Fireside on the sand”, describe the evenings better than we could.
Canvas here does not mean roughing it. It means a mesh wall between you and a forest that is awake all night, and the sound of the bay on the other side. Some lodges charge extra for that. Here it is simply the room.
Who should book Masoala?
- Couples and small groups who want a reef and a rainforest without a transfer day in between.
- Anyone for whom “lemur” is a reason to travel rather than a word in a crossword.
- Snorkellers who would like the forest walk afterwards, and walkers who would like the swim.
- People who sleep better behind mesh than behind glass.
Who should look elsewhere?
Anyone who needs the Big 5. Madagascar is not that Africa, and no amount of canvas changes it. Anyone who wants a resort rather than a lodge of seven tents. And anyone who cannot abide a rainforest’s weather, because the forest is old and the rain is how it got that way.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Beach or wildlife | Both, with the tent in between |
| Rooms | Seven tented tree-houses, 14 guests at most |
| Forest | Primary rainforest beside Masoala National Park, 85 hectares of lodge buffer, seven trails, day and night walks |
| Sea | Tampolo Marine Reserve snorkelling, kayaking, fishing, whale-watching |
| Beaches | Private |
| Big 5 | None, and none promised |
If a morning spent choosing between reef and rainforest sounds like the right kind of problem, Madagascar is where we would send you, and this is where on the island we would start. Tell us when, and we will come back with options.
