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Ambilobe → Nosy Be (Ankify port + ferry) transfer

From the junction town of Ambilobe down to Ankify, the mainland port for Nosy Be — 120 km of road, and then a decision about a boat.

The road

About 101 km south on the RN6 to Ambanja, then roughly 20 km out to the pier. The RN6 section sits inside the Colas rehabilitation funded by the European Union and the European Investment Bank and was 96 per cent complete in January 2026. The short Ankify spur was tarred in 2011 and has been patchy since.

Two river crossings sit on the RN6 half. Cyclone Gamane destroyed the bridges at the Mahavavy, on the edge of Ambilobe, and at the Ifasy about 31 km further south, in March 2024. Both are crossed on rehabilitated fords today, with a modular bridge alongside at Mahavavy since December 2025. Two to two and a half hours is a fair estimate for the driving.

The boat is what shapes the day

Ankify faces Nosy Be across roughly 30 km of the Ampasindava strait, and the first question is whether the car crosses with you.

Our own driver's figures, from crossing in August 2026 rather than from a guidebook: the vehicle ferry costs about 200,000 Ariary each way, 400,000 return, and takes two hours. A foot passenger pays around 20,000. The first sailing is at 07:00 and the last at 14:00.

If the car stays on the mainland, the fast boat — known locally as la coque — makes the same crossing in twenty to forty-five minutes for something around 20,000 Ariary. It runs to no timetable and leaves when it fills.

Two named vehicle operators publish phone numbers, Toky Bac 2 and Cameraman Bac, and both advise reserving a vehicle place rather than turning up hopefully. We arrange that for you.

The 14:00 rule

Miss the last vehicle crossing and there is no boat until morning. Since the drive from Ambilobe is only two to two and a half hours, leaving by ten gives real margin — and that single departure time is what we build the day around.

Cross in the morning for a second reason as well: the strait is calmer early.

Through the Sambirano valley

The last hundred kilometres run down into cocoa country. Ambanja sits on the Sambirano river and is the cocoa capital of Madagascar — around sixty per cent of the people here farm, cacao first, then vanilla, ylang-ylang, coffee and pepper. The Millot estate, one of the largest cacao plantations in the country, receives visitors, and the pods hanging straight off the trunks are not something most people have seen before.

This valley is also where the Ambanja panther chameleon comes from, and you stand a fair chance of meeting one crossing the tarmac.

Practical

Bring Ariary in cash. There is no card machine at the ramp, and a vehicle crossing is a substantial sum to be carrying without knowing about it in advance.

Ambilobe has both fuel and a cash machine, which on this corridor makes it the sensible place to sort out both before starting.

At the Nosy Be end, ignore the ticket sellers who offer to carry your passport to the counter for you. Buy at the window yourself — it is the one warning that appears in almost every traveller's account of this crossing.

Price per person

* Travelling alone? The whole car is yours — a private trip costs the same in total. Bring a travel companion and the price per person halves.

Zebu on the road are part of driving here. Herds cross the national roads and rest on the warm tarmac, and after dark they are genuinely hard to see even on full beam — which is one reason we do not drive between towns at night. A zebu is worth around 400,000 to 500,000 Ariary, more than a month's wages for most people in this region, so an animal on the road is somebody's livelihood rather than an obstacle. Knowing which stretches carry herds, and at what hour, is exactly the kind of thing a driver who runs these roads every month knows and a rented car does not come with.

Chameleons cross these roads, slowly and without looking, and your driver will stop for them. In much of northern Madagascar it is fady — taboo — to kill or even touch one, and that belief is the reason the big Oustalet's chameleon is still common here when it has thinned out elsewhere. In many villages they are held to carry the spirits of the ancestors, so harming one, even accidentally at the wheel, is not a small thing. One piece of advice a visitor would never guess: in traditional belief even pointing at a chameleon is a bad omen, and the misfortune is held to fall on the person and their family rather than on the animal. Admire it, keep your hand down, and let your driver decide what happens next. Fady varies from region to region and sometimes from village to village, which is another reason to travel with somebody who knows which one he is in.

Nosy Be is an island. The price covers the drive to Ankify port; the car ferry crossing for the vehicle is NOT included and is charged extra at the current ferry rate. Many visitors cross as foot passengers by speedboat instead — tell us your plan and we'll help you choose.

Prices are per person. Full car = cheapest per seat. Children under 3 travel free on a lap. The price covers the booked travellers only — every traveller in the car pays.

Read first: driving in northern Madagascar — night, zebu, fuel and the rains →

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