Madagascan island resort is a treasure trove of both adventure and peace
Landing at a small airport means your lift is right outside the building and, when transferring from Nosy Be to Tsarabanjina, so is the road to your first stop, Manga Soa Lodge. The first part of the winding, untarred track is literally on the other side of the airport fence and reminds visitors that they’re heading somewhere remote, with just a few kilometres taking 20-30 minutes to drive thanks to the terrain.
On the beach at Manga Soa, a delicious vanilla iced tea (it hits different when you can see vanilla pods growing nearby) begins the more glamorous part of the trip. A comfortable, covered (no immediate sunstroke here) motorboat is a calf-deep wade offshore, and if the sea is kind and flat, the only splashes you might experience from the crossing are from dolphins or fish accompanying the boat. And you may miss some of those if you’re looking up at the striking frigate birds criss-crossing the sky above you.
Time passes quickly, and before long, the white sand of Tsarabanjina’s West Beach emerges from the sea, populated by a long line of staff and the occasional chirpy guest, all dancing and singing their welcome.
Constance Tsarabanjina’s dining and bar area is every guest’s first point of call on the island. It’s a wonderfully outfitted space with a beach sand floor and a sign that proclaims, “No shoes, no news” – encouraging a philosophy of interaction with loved ones and fellow guests rather than the usual staring at phones and computers. Another sign reminds guests that, before dinner every night, there is a time set aside to enjoy a cocktail (a different option every night) and chat to staff and fellow travelers as you develop a plan for your holiday activities the following day, before ascending a central staircase to the dining room and a three-course meal and paired wines.
The resort is the definition of ‘pristine’. Everything seems in sharper-than-usual focus: tall trees with glossy leaves and clear turquoise water over crisp white sand, both warm on the skin. Sunset somehow adds to this with a gorgeous ‘golden hour’, making everything in view utterly breathtaking.
Although Tsarabanjina is a small island, the resort stretches out quite a long way – walking to the furthest rooms takes a good few minutes. The encouragement to eschew shoes makes sense on the mostly sand paths, though after dark, the possibility of a bug or a gecko being in a shadow somewhere means many guests still wear flip-flops, which can be deposited on a custom-made rack when entering the bar area.
Dinner on night one includes a starter involving ‘frog crumbs’ (the translation from the French may be wanting), a Zebu steak, and bananas Foster that burns with a blue flame for a couple of minutes.
Resident Attractions
A morning beach walk reveals the day’s first treasures. Impressively, even the flotsam and jetsam adhere to the villas’ décor themes. There are sun-bleached bits of coral and driftwood and shells with accents of purple, beige, and grey. Hanging from a tree branch is a swinging day bed. Don’t lie down there early on if you want to get anything else done with your day.
One villa on the North Beach stretch features a hammock and sunbeds atop a huge rock, giving them a tanning advantage over their neighbors, as the sun reaches them first. At the end of the beach, a rock archway provides the perfect frame for the Four Brothers – four basalt outposts home only to birds (above the water) and a plethora of marine life (below it). There’s an even better view from the hill between that end of the beach and the bar area and West Beach, which features a table for private romantic dining as well as a love-seat swing. The path that leads up there is labeled “Picturesque” and it’s not lying…
Breakfast includes a wide range of pastries that can be washed down with espresso or a mug of Malagasy coffee, black and impenetrable, which pulls a dark veil over whatever may have happened after cocktails the previous night.
WiFi is only available in the villas, which means your life beyond your holiday becomes a limited series you only watch when heading back to brush your teeth, change clothes, or rest. The rooms are cool, luxuriously simple, and right on the beach, offering far more reasons to lurk there, should you not be tempted by diving, snorkeling, kayaking, stand-up paddleboarding – or yet more eating.
Action and Satisfaction
Kayaking comes up first, with a paddle around the island a great way to see those parts less easily accessible by foot. Whichever direction you head from the beach, you’ll face a stretch into the wind at some point, which will feel like rowing up a steep hill. But the water supports all the cliches: even whoever came up with the name for the color – aquamarine – had to resort to tautology to try and capture the richness of the shade.
Snorkeling off the beach offers more spectacular underwater sights than most hobby divers will ever have imagined, but there are other options available too. One of these is to take a short boat ride to a nearby rocky islet, where the reefs are even more luxuriant. The resort’s assistant manager, Elena Zanella – also a marine biologist, which is an exceptional extra dimension – and two other staff get in first to check conditions before welcoming guests to join them. Schools of fish – perhaps 20 different species – flow by in abundance, with Zanella regularly diving down to the bottom to point at a particular fish or coral outcrop and then returning to the surface to explain what she’s seen.
If such physical exertions have tired you out, finish off the day with a sunset cruise. The skipper keeps his 300-horsepower engines on a tight rein so that the experience doesn’t pass by too fast, slowing as the boat reaches the northern tip of the island. The actual sunset takes place in a number of gorgeous installments – first subtle, shaded pastels with a grading that any talented painter would be proud to mimic, and then after glasses of champagne and snacks have been served, a vivid vermilion light turns on behind Brother 1 (the island to the west, not a guest whose name you’ve forgotten) and the real show begins. Clearly, the spot where the boat stops to take in this view has been cleverly chosen, with Brother 1 marking the exact spot where the sun will hit the horizon and the jagged rocks on the edge of the island framing a hugely dramatic scene.
And that’s just one day…
Text and photography | Bruce Dennill
For more information or to book a stay, go to constancehotels.com.
