Diego Suarez Trips & Tours

If you’re travelling to northern Madagascar, chances are you’ll find yourself spending a couple of nights in the genteel town of Diego Suarez (officially Antisaranana since 1975), and that’s not a bad thing. The surrounding ring of rolling hills and the Rio-esque Sugarloaf mountain give you plenty to flash your camera at, and the deep-water harbour is one of the most beautiful in the world. With its wide colonial streets, lined with fragrant stalls of vanilla pods and home-brewed rum, impressive buildings and melting pot of cultures from Creole to Chinese, the town itself is colourful, compact and a whole lot of fun. Just don’t try to do anything between 12pm and 3pm when the locals retreat for their well-earned siesta…