Travel to Masoala National Park

The name Masoala translates to ‘eyes of the forest’—a reference to the aye-aye, whose luminous eyes pierce the darkness of Madagascar’s nights. Covering 2,300 square kilometers of the northeastern peninsula, Masoala is Madagascar’s largest national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the Rainforests of the Atsinanana. Scientists estimate that this single peninsula, representing less than 2% of Madagascar’s land area, harbors more than 50% of the island’s total biodiversity.

What makes Masoala truly extraordinary is where it meets the sea. This is one of the only places on Earth where primary tropical rainforest grows directly to the ocean’s edge, creating a landscape of startling beauty—emerald canopy cascading down mountainsides to white sand beaches and turquoise waters. The park encompasses not only these terrestrial forests but three marine reserves (Tampolo, Ambodilaitry, and Ifaho) protecting coral reefs, seagrass beds, and the warm waters where humpback whales come to breed. Established in 1997 after decades of conservation efforts, Masoala protects an unbroken chain of ecosystems from coral reef to cloud forest.