Auberge De La Table

Built from local timber and limestone, the bungalows at Auberge de la Table sit among the spiny forest of the Antsokay arboretum, twelve kilometres from Toliara. Each room has mosquito netting, standing fans, and a private bathroom, plain furnishings suited to the heat. The arboretum itself holds more than 900 plant species, most endemic to southwest Madagascar, and a night walk can turn up grey mouse lemurs moving through the branches. You can hear little else after dark but insects and the arboretum's own birds. The hotel sits along the Route Nationale 7, near the Mozambique Channel, with a lagoon offshore that has kept its reef largely intact. Reaching the sea means a drive along the coastal track through Saint-Augustin. A freshwater pool and a small library give guests somewhere to sit out the midday heat, and the kitchen works from local produce, including a goat's cheese made on site. Rooms range from standard doubles to family and triple bungalows, six configurations in total. It is a quiet, plant-filled base. Excursions run from the property to Nosy Ve for its red-tailed tropicbird colony, to the mangroves and cave at Sarodrano by traditional pirogue, and to the beaches around Ifaty. Stargazing needs no guide here: the coastal sky over Toliara Province is unusually dark, and clear most nights.