Saint Marie Island

Saint Marie Island is a narrow island 57 km long, located 7 km off the east coast of Madagascar. It is renowned worldwide as a magnificent seaside resort, providing both all the opportunities for a relaxing vacation on the beach and excellent conditions for diving and fishing.

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Highlights

Since the late 17th century, this island has been one of the Indian Ocean’s main pirate bases. Famous pirates such as Olivier Le Vasseur, Robert Culliford and William Kidd visited here. Locals claim that somewhere here on the island is hidden treasure of pirates, but no one has managed to find these treasures so far. Today, while vacationing in this paradise corner, in Forbans Bay, you will see parts of sunken pirate ships sticking out of the azure water, which are reminders of the violent past.

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Many hotels and restaurants have been built here in recent years, making the island more and more popular with tourists every year. St. Mary’s Island has not yet seen mass tourism. Here are clean and snow-white beaches, azure waters of the ocean, very picturesque nature. It is worth noting that this place will be very popular with divers.

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To visit St. Mary’s Island is best in August-September. This is the time when the island’s lushly colorful nature is at its peak, and humpback whales from Antarctica come to the coastal waters to watch.

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Popular diving spots

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  • Suanambo Reef, consisting of black corals (dive depth – 28 meters);
  • The Wall of Groupers (dive depth up to 40 m);
  • The 55-meter-long shipwreck “Kokoterae”, which lies at a depth of 15 meters;
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  • The 8-meter long fishing boat “Leopard” (dive depth – 34 m).

How to get to St. Mary’s Island

The island can be reached by boat from the town of Soanierana-Ivongo (Soanierana-Ivongo), running to Ambudifutatra Bay. The fastest boats from Cap Sainte Marie (tel: 57 404 06, 1 hour, 4 EUR) leave for the island every morning. There are also boats The Princesse Saphira (tel: 032 04 681 86), Rozina IV and Magnifique, which depart later and take about 2 hours, fare 25,000 MGF.

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Alternatively, the island is only an hour’s flight from Antananarivo.

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