Anakao

The transfer to Anakao was unremarkable: we took the same tiny De Haviland plane that took us to Morondava and had a mysterious layover in the middle of nowhere (see pix) en route to Tulear (I suspect the pilot had to use the boys room). In lieu of a romantic cruise from Tulear to Anakao, we had a slight logistics change that made us take a Taxi-Brousse for half the way, followed by a tiny fishing boat that stopped at every fishing village on the way to our hotel... very exotic. Five hours after landing in Tulear, we finally disembarked at the Anakao Club Resort. A rare find, our hotel was the first bit of real luxury we experienced on the big Island. Nice. We did nothing but relax and went snorkeling/bird watching on Nosy Ve (a tiny Island off the coast - a 30 minute pirogue ride). Anakao Club Resort is a brand new property held by an Italian perfectionist from the Val D'Aoste. Although it was not mentioned in any of our guidebooks, we highly recommend it for its exceptional management and impeccable facilities (currently 6 bungalows).