North of Tulear on an Indian Ocean beach, Ifaty enables visits to both spiny forest and offshore reefs. The spiny forest is a bizarre tangled mix of drought-resistant plants with extravagant adaptations to their environment such as baobabs and didieracae (known as octopus trees).
This is a good location for locally endemic birds including nightjar, long-tailed ground roller and sub desert mesite. Reptiles include three-eyed lizards, spiny tailed iguanas and day geckos.
In recent years the spiny forest has been cut heavily and the beach has seen more hotels. In our opinion it is preferable to visit Anakao, to the south of Tulear instead.
