Madagascar

Overview: 

A Nature and Wildlife Par­adise, the stun­ning island of Mada­gas­car is home not only to lush green rain­for­est, stun­ning canyons and sparkling sandy beach­es, but also the rare and incred­i­ble baobab trees, the endan­gered lemurs, colour­ful chameleons and unique Flo­ra which is not found else­where on the plan­et – with this geo-log­i­cal and beau­ti­ful life-giv­ing island being a tru­ly unique and incred­i­ble won­der of the world.  

Along­side being home to almost a hun­dred species of rare and adorable Lemurs, Mada­gas­car is also a key spot on the migra­tion route of Hump­back Whales  — mean­ing that for 3 months in the Autumn you’ll see thou­sands of Whales breed­ing and nurs­ing their infants in the crustal clear waters of the Indi­an Ocean that lie off the main island – with the Island also being one of the few places you can spot and swim with the great whale shark – the largest fish on the plan­et ! 

While made famous by the fun­ny – but some­what inac­cu­rate – Mada­gas­car ani­mat­ed film and home to stun­ning scenery, the Island is still fac­ing and bat­tling against pover­ty – a lega­cy of its occu­pa­tion by France, with much of the island infra­struc­ture under­de­vel­oped – mean­ing less than 400,000 vis­i­tors reach the island each year. With the roads that lead around the island being full of pot­holes and vis­i­tors and locals often fac­ing long delays in their trav­els – espe­cial­ly for those who take the famous taxi-brousse — a pub­lic trans­port bus sys­tem where pas­sen­gers often find them­selves trav­el­ling along­side live­stock to reach the tourist hotspots.  

Yet despite this, the island of Mada­gas­car is a true par­adise, and is also com­posed of 13 small­er islands, that give a great chance to go island hop­ping and explore the incred­i­ble sandy beach­es and marine life that lie off their shores, with the stun­ning jun­gles, incred­i­ble canyons (which come com­plete with rick­ety rope bridges) thou­sands of  unique ani­mal and plant life , stun­ning Flo­ra, tow­er­ing baobab trees and of course the res­i­dent Lemurs help­ing to make the beau­ti­ful island of Mada­gas­car a tru­ly unique won­der of the world.  

Where:

The island of Mada­gas­car is the fourth largest island in the world and the main island, along with is accom­pa­ny­ing 13 small­er island are found to the east of main­land Africa next to Mozam­bique and is bor­dered by the stun­ning and sparkling Indi­an Ocean.  

Getting there:

Giv­en Madagascar’s posi­tion as both a lone island and with it being based on the east­ern coast of Africa it can be a chal­lenge to get to – with land or fer­ry cross­ings ruled out from cen­tral Africa, you’re only option is to fly direct to the cap­i­tal Antana­nari­vo.  

While this sounds rel­a­tive­ly straight for­ward, the fly­ing options are lim­it­ed to a select few coun­tries – France, Cana­da, Amer­i­ca, Turkey and South Africa for rep­utable air­lines and from some select African Coun­tries such as Ethiopia and Kenya.  

With these flights also oper­at­ing a cou­ple of times a week and being in high demand, the cost for these flights gets con­tin­u­al­ly pushed up – so it’s high­ly advised to book well in advance and even then you’ll be look­ing at pay­ing at least $700 Usd and as much as $2000 Usd depend­ing on your depart­ing coun­try – so the soon­er you book the bet­ter ! 

How­ev­er while get­ting there is expen­sive, get­ting around and to the sights is not, with the famous taxi-brousse – a pub­lic bus that runs off its own sched­ule and takes you and locals round the island cost­ing no more than a dol­lar or two – while a cheap way of get­ting round the island, expect it to be crowd­ed, not spa­cious and to have the occa­sion­al bit of live­stock shoved in your face – it’s ceraint­ly a momer­able expe­ri­ence for tra­vers­ing the won­der ! 

Alter­na­tive­ly for those who don’t fan­cy the taxi-brousse – you have the option of hir­ing your own 4x4 (and dri­ver if you wish) expect this to be a tad more expen­sive but also be a bumpy expe­ri­ence as the roads in Mada­gas­car are noto­ri­ous for pot holes ! – but it does mean you can go at your own pace and take in all the sights of the won­der at your own whim.  

Alter­na­tive­ly and per­haps the safest, cost effec­tive and best option once you arrive in Antana­nari­vo you can take the has­sle out of things and sim­ply book a series of day or mul­ti day tours around the island to the var­i­ous stun­ning sights of the Island – and then jump on a boat to explore and get to the addi­tion­al 13 islands and treat your­self to some scu­ba, snor­kel­ing or just kick back on one of the incred­i­ble gold­en sand beach­es that make up the won­der. 

Best time to Visit:

While Mada­gas­car is stun­ning the year round, it also has both dry and wet sea­sons – with the wet sea­sons which giv­en the rain­for­est and the incred­i­ble Baobab trees life run­ning from Novem­ber – March and the dry sea­son from April to Octo­ber.  

As the dry sea­son not only avoids the chances of you get­ting soaked but also gives you the best chance to see the incred­i­ble wildlife of Mada­gas­car, we’d strong­ly rec­om­mend vis­it­ing the won­der between April – Octo­ber. 

With the peri­od between August and Sep­tem­ber our top pick for when to vis­it as this is when you’ll find the Whale Sharks, Hump­back Whales and Lemurs all view­able and con­verg­ing on the island – giv­ing you the best chance to expe­ri­ence all the incred­i­ble wildlife of Mada­gas­car on one trip. 

Explore: 

Mada­gas­car is a nature and wildlife lovers par­adise, with an incred­i­ble assort­ment of rare, plant life, fau­na, ani­mals and stun­ning nature reserves, nation­al parks and sparkling sandy beach­es – with some­thing for every­one.  

Whilst you’re spoilt for choice between div­ing with Whale Sharks, watch­ing hump­back whales, spot­ting elu­sive lemurs, walk­ing beneath the stun­ning and icon­ic Baobab trees, island hop­ping or sim­ply kick­ing back on the incred­i­ble beach­es that stare out into the Indi­an Ocean – the below is our top 14 things to do and explore when vis­it­ing the won­der of   

 Avenue of the Baobabs:

Start­ing with per­haps the most icon­ic sight of Mada­gas­car, the rare and incred­i­bly beau­ti­ful Baobab trees – which can be found all over the beau­ti­ful island but in par­tic­u­lar­ly at the stun­ning Avenue of the Baob­a­bs – a long and clear road that are lined with hun­dreds of the incred­i­ble trees – and that is unques­tion­ably the post­card snap of the beau­ty of Mada­gas­car.  

Under threat by both log­ging, resources and time, the Baobab trees can grow up to 100 feet tall and per­haps more impres­sive­ly 36 foot wide – as a result of the gal­lons of water they soak up dur­ing Mada­gas­car rainy sea­sons – with vis­i­tors free to walk among the trees along the stun­ning avenue and be both dwarfed by them and get a sense of their grand scale. 

While the Baobab trees are also the ori­gin of many leg­ends in the island – that you’ll no doubt be told as you jour­ney through them, they have also occu­pied the island for more than a thou­sand years – with the old­est ones on the avenue believed to date back more than 750 years – with a trip to see the Baobab trees espe­cial­ly at sun­rise or sun­set being not only a incred­i­ble and unique expe­ri­ence but some­thing you can’t miss out on at the won­der of Mada­gas­car.  

 Tsingy de Bemaraha National

Although a lit­tle off the beat­en track, the stun­ning Tsingy de Bemara­ha Nation­al Park looks out over the west coast of the island into the Indi­an Ocean and fea­tures the most dra­mat­ic and best unique land­scapes of Mada­gas­car – includ­ing the famous rope bridge and lad­ders of Mada­gas­car that takes you across and over the stun­ning lime­stone cliffs and deep gorges that make up the park.  

Acces­si­bly only by a 4x4 dri­ve – and being a half day dri­ve from the cap­i­tal of Antana­nari­vo the park is the place to come for hik­ing in the coun­try. With the park, which was formed as a result of geo­log­i­cal decay over hun­dreds of years of the lime­stone cliffs that form the bor­der of Mada­gas­car, fea­tur­ing not only the option to cruise down the stun­ning Tsiribi­hi­na Riv­er which lies in between gorges, but fea­tur­ing unique botan­i­cal scenery, lush green fields and forests and strik­ing and deep canyons – and if you’re lucky some stun­ning and incred­i­ble wildlife includ­ing the famous Lemurs and their prey which make the island a tru­ly mag­i­cal place to vis­it. 

Andasibe-Mantadia National Park :

Home to the Indri Lemur – a cute ted­dy bear like but cer­tain­ly loud Lemur that has become the nation­al Sym­bol of Mada­gas­car, and which you can find at home in the stun­ning Anda­sibe-Man­ta­dia Nation­al Park. 

Home to 14 oth­er lemur species – which are equal­ly unique if not quite as cud­dly, the Anda­sibe-Man­ta­dia Nation­al Park is an area of pro­tect­ed and sweep­ing rain­for­est that not only con­tains the Lemur but fea­tures some incred­i­ble hik­ing trails where you can observe the unique plant life of Mada­gas­car, some stun­ning lakes, tow­er­ing water­falls – with the park being not­ed for its night walks, which not only give you a chance to walk through the rain­for­est at night and see the Lemurs at their most active – but where you can see an assort­ment of the oth­er natives to the rain­for­est includ­ing chameleons, Frogs and mon­keys as you walk amongst the tow­er­ing trees and lush green scenery of the Anda­sibe-Man­ta­dia Nation­al Park 

Lemur Island

Found Next to the Anda­sibe-Man­ta­dia Nation­al Park , Lemur Island is a res­cue Sanc­tu­ary for Lemurs who have either been injured or been kept in cap­tiv­i­ty before they are released back into the wild. With the almost 100 mul­ti­ple species of Lemurs in the park known for not only their unique cute­ness – with sizes rang­ing from small babies to full grown adults, but also how tame they are – giv­ing you the per­fect chance to snap a self­ie with one if you wish – and mak­ing the Lemur Island a great place to come to under­stand, appre­ci­ate and view Lemurs out­side their nat­ur­al habi­tat.  

Isalo National Park

Anoth­er incred­i­ble spot for hik­ing and wildlife view­ing, the Isa­lo Nation­al Park fea­tures some of the best stun­ning scenery that Mada­gas­car is famous for – with glis­ten­ing lakes, deep gorges and incred­i­ble plant and wildlife – which can all be explored over a series of stun­ning hikes deep into this nation­al park.  

The high­light though (at least for us) is both the three incred­i­ble water­falls you can dip in – and the many Lemurs who are known to be much more inquis­i­tive on the island and fol­low and even steal food from humas in the Isa­lo nation­al park – giv­ing you a great if risky chance to see the adorable Lemurs in the wild.  

To get to the island you’ll need either a tour or long trip by 4x4 as it’s found in the south and you’ll be required to hire a guide to ensure you both don’t get lost and are respect­ful to the Lemurs – but the chance to trek round the island with them and view the stun­ning sights of the park includ­ing the impres­sive Canyon des Makis, the beau­ti­ful Piscine Naturelle and the stun­ning arch of the Isa­lo Win­dow – which makes for a win­dow view over the rest of the park from where you can look  

Ranomafana National Park

Home to 12 species of Lemurs includ­ing the incred­i­ble and endan­gered gold­en bam­boo lemur the Ranomafana Nation­al Park is a great spot for the unique wildlife on Mada­gas­car with their also being chameleons, mon­keys and an incred­i­ble assort­ment of col­or­ful birds that call this unique nation­al park – which is full of immense and tow­er­ing rain­for­est, lakes and water­falls home.  

With vis­i­tor restric­tions and a guide required to access and trek in the park, you’ll have the best chance to spot the wildlife and also enjoy the park in rel­a­tive soli­tude and you even hae the option to go both dur­ing the day and the night time to increase your chances of lemur spot­ting – with the incred­i­ble rain­for­est scenery that makes up the Ranomafana Nation­al Park being arguably the best and most scenic spot in the whole of the won­der of Mada­gas­car.  

Berenty Private Reserve

A sci­en­tif­ic research post ded­i­cat­ed to the study and preser­va­tion of lemurs – the Beren­ty Pri­vate Reserve is a spot where you can almost guar­an­tee Lemur sight­ings in the wild and where you can tour the reserve with the help of sci­en­tist and guides to tru­ly under­stand the con­ser­va­tion work and threats that face both the Lemurs and Mada­gas­car.  

Found on the south of the Island the reserve also gives you the chance to wit­ness the stun­ning ‘danc­ing moves’ of Lemurs – a sight fea­tured on the Plan­et Earth doc­u­men­tary where sifakas Lemurs will jump and dance between trees in a quite incred­i­ble and some­what bizarre dis­play of their beau­ty. If lucky you’ll also get a chance to tour the reserve in the evening to see the noc­tur­nal lemurs and fol­low the sci­en­tist that work here in their dai­ly work and even assist in pro­tect­ing and pre­serv­ing both the won­der of Mada­gas­car and the incred­i­ble lemurs.  

Kirindi Forest

Explorable by two looped cir­cuits the stun­ning Kirin­di For­est is not only a reformed log­ging site which now hous­es incred­i­ble green trees and some unique baobab trees – but is a true unique sight in Mada­gas­car as it is the best place to see the fos­sa – the arch ene­my and preda­tor of the Lemurs.  

Known as a mini skin­less leop­ard, the Fos­sa use the Kirin­di For­est as a mat­ing place – and you’ll see the females sum­mit the trees look­ing to sur­vey their pos­si­ble match­es below before decid­ing on a part­ner – and it’s this process that makes the Fos­sa so vis­i­ble in the Kirin­di for­est – with a trip here an incred­i­ble expe­ri­ence not just for the Fos­sa sight­ings but also the incred­i­ble green and lush for­est and the chance to walk amongst baobab trees in the mid­dle of the unique Mada­gas­car rain­for­est.  

Diving the Indian Ocean

Along­side the incred­i­ble rain­for­est, baobab trees and Lemurs that make Mada­gas­car a unique won­der – there’s also an abun­dance of life and incred­i­ble coral teem­ing under­wa­ter – with the seas off the coast of Mada­gas­car being home to the third largest coral reef sys­tem and more than 7,000 dif­fer­ent marine life – includ­ing sharks, tur­tles, man­ta rays, stingrays, octo­pus and an assort­ment of bright and colour­ful fish – with a chance to dive the incred­i­ble crys­tal clear sparkling waters or even get scu­ba cer­ti­fied a tru­ly immense and beau­ti­ful expe­ri­ence – just be sure to bring a high qual­i­ty go pro.  

Nosy Be & diving with Whale Sharks

Locat­ed off the main­land of Mada­gas­car as a small island the famous small beach of Nosy Be is quite sim­ply every­thing you could ever wish for from a beach, with white sandy shores and crys­tal clear blue water that stretch for over a hun­dred miles – com­plete of course with numer­ous beach resorts and beach par­ties – it’s exact­ly what peo­ple imag­ine when they think of the Gold­en Shores of Mada­gas­car.  

Along­side the stun­ning beach Nosy Be also offers incred­i­ble snorkelling and div­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties right from the shore – but per­haps more unique­ly and incred­i­ble it is also a key spot on the migra­tion of Whale Sharks – and every Sep­tem­ber – Novem­ber you have the chance to snorkel along­side the worlds largest fish in warm waters – with these non-threat­en­ing 30 foot majes­tic ani­mals often accom­pa­nied by shoals of fish who use the size of the whale sharks for both pro­tec­tion and to sweep up the algae that the whale sharks pick up on their trails – with a chance to swim along­side these majes­tic beasts being a tru­ly incred­i­ble and awe-inspir­ing expe­ri­ence and one not to be missed.  

Île Sainte Marie & whale watch­ing –

The for­mer pirates bay of Île Sainte Marie is again anoth­er stun­ning beach spot – with sparkling water and stun­ning white sand beach­es lead­ing into the incred­i­ble Indi­an Ocean – with the Île Sainte Marie which is a small island of main­land Mada­gas­car known as a fan­tas­tic place to sam­ple fresh seafood and base your­self when head­ing out island hop­ping in Mada­gas­car.  

But more impor­tant­ly than the beach­es and food — Île Sainte Marie is also the best place to go in Mada­gas­car to go whale watch­ing – with the incred­i­ble hump­back whales stop­ping off here between July – Sep­tem­ber to breed and then raise their young. While the adults can grow up to 16 metres in length, you’ll get to see them not only breach the waters but also gath­er in legions of thou­sands to feed – with the sight of wit­ness­ing the incred­i­ble and majes­tic ani­mals from either the safe­ty of the shore or from a scenic boat ride over the warm and crys­tal waters a tru­ly mem­o­rable expe­ri­ence in the won­der of Mada­gas­car.  

Island Hopping

For those who have a spot more time and have trekked the rain­forests and gone div­ing and just can’t get enough of the stun­ning coast­line and crys­tal-clear waters – Mada­gas­car offers some of if not the best island-hop­ping oppor­tu­ni­ties on the plan­et.  

Allow­ing you to move between scenic par­adise island –Mada­gas­car has a fur­ther 10 unique and stun­ning islands in addi­tion to Nosy Be and Île Sainte Marie that all offer stun­ning dive and snorkelling trips and each com­plete with their own unique white sandy beach. Best of all these islands are often off the tourist trek so you’ll have the pick of the best beach spots to your­self. 

While all the islands are stun­ning the islands of Tsara­ban­ji­na, Man­afi­afy and Nosy Iran­ja are par­tic­u­lar­ly stun­ning, with each one offer­ing the idyl­lic sur­round­ings of palm beach­es, the chance to cruise the islands by boat, para­sail­ing and if you’re lucky the sight of tur­tles com­ing ashore to lay their eggs and their younglings hatch­ing and head­ing into the ocean – with a spot of island hop­ping a tru­ly mag­i­cal and won­der­ful expe­ri­ence and a great way to kick back after explor­ing the unique won­ders of main­land Mada­gas­car.  

Getting around: Road Trip or Train

While not nec­es­sar­i­ly a won­der – part of the explor­ing expe­ri­ence on Mada­gas­car is sim­ply get­ting around it, with the coun­try while beau­ti­ful being a tad under­de­vel­oped in its infra­struc­ture. While you can take the famous taxi-brousse to get around the island – and accept you may end up with a few chick­ens on your lap and a local falling asleep against your shoul­der – we’d rec­om­mend a more scenic and prob­a­bly more com­fort­able option – with the self-dri­ve expe­ri­ence of the incred­i­ble dirt road of the N5 high­way or the train ride of Fia­narantsoa to Man­akara as two alter­na­tive options that will not only make your trav­el expe­ri­ence more enjoy­able but give you a unique and thrill seek­ing expe­ri­ence to get around Mada­gas­car.  

For the N5 high­way, you’ll need to hire a 4x4 – which can be eas­i­ly done at the air­port and then head to the high­way, which as soon as you get on you will find is cov­ered in pot­holes for a bumpy yet adven­tur­ous expe­ri­ence. But more than that it will also take you off the beat­en track, allow­ing you not only to get to all the main­land won­der of Mada­gas­car above but giv­ing you the chance to pass through unique jun­gle, water­falls, lakes and desert like ter­rain – and improve your chances of spot­ting Lemurs in the wild – with the N5 high­way going in a cir­cu­lar motion to the best spots of the island and being one of the most bumpy and scenic expe­ri­ences in the world – for a tru­ly incred­i­ble way to see Mada­gas­car.  

For the Fia­narantsoa to Man­akara train – it’s a tru­ly beau­ti­ful train ride and one of the only ones we’d rec­om­mend­ed in the coun­try on account of safe­ty and infra­struc­ture con­cerns. When hop­ping on the train you’ll be amongst locals and get a real expe­ri­ence for every­day Mada­gas­can life – as the train which can take a full day to reach its des­ti­na­tion ploughs through the incred­i­ble scenery of main­land Mada­gas­car to the sea – and best of all you’ll get a chance to chat, eat with and sing with the locals for tru­ly authen­tic expe­ri­ence as jour­ney through the heart of this incred­i­ble coun­try – just don’t expect healthy and safe­ty stan­dards to meet those of the west­ern world.  

Antananarivo

Undoubt­ed­ly where you’ll arrive and get your first impres­sions of the won­der of Mada­gas­car the town of Antana­nari­vo serves as the cap­i­tal of the island – and since the inde­pen­dence of Mada­gas­car is now home to near­ly 2 mil­lion peo­ple.  

While lack­ing in the lemur sight­ings, dive sights and rain­for­est of the rest of the coun­try, Antana­nari­vo is a great place to base your­self – or hire a 4x4 – with tours to the coun­tries won­ders in abun­dance from here and also being a place of stun­ning French archi­tec­ture, local marks and a great place to stock up on waters, food and sou­venirs before you head into and begin explor­ing the true won­der of the world that is Mada­gas­car.  

How long to stay:

Giv­en the logis­tics involved in get­ting to Mada­gas­car, the numer­ous incred­i­ble sights to see and the oppor­tu­ni­ties the won­der affords to see hump­back whales, swim with whale sharks and see Lemurs in their nat­ur­al habi­tat – we’d rec­om­mend a min­i­mum of 2 weeks prefer­ably 3, which will give you enough time to see every­thing and account for the slow pace that things in run at in the island.   

Top Tip:

While Mada­gas­car is a tru­ly beau­ti­ful coun­try, it’s also one of the poor­est – and for this rea­sons it’s advised to keep an eye on your items and not to flash the cash or show off wealth – as this is like­ly to make you a tar­get for pick­pock­ets, scam­mers and thieves, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the mar­kets of Antana­nari­vo. 

We’d also advise mak­ing sure you stock up on water and food in Antana­nari­vo – the only place where major super­mar­kets oper­ate and be warned that Mada­gas­car runs on ‘island time’ so it’s advised not to set your­self a strict itin­er­ary or depend on pub­lic or inter­na­tion­al trans­port to meet your trav­el needs – as chances are you’ll be faced with delays and set­backs which can ruin your trip there ! 

Cost:

The tricky bit of Mada­gas­car is get­ting there and regard­less of where you trav­el from you can expect to bud­get $700 Usd for flights in low sea­son and up to $2000 USD in high sea­son – and we’d advise to book well in advance and com­bine your trip to Mada­gas­car with a stop off or vis­it else­where such as Paris or Amer­i­ca to help bring the over­all cost down.  

How­ev­er once there, you’ll find that prices are incred­i­bly cheap in Mada­gas­car with food and drink cost­ing no more than a cou­ple of dol­lars and rea­son­able qual­i­ty hotels all avail­able for no more than $20 Usd a night – or cheap­er if you don’t mind slum­ming it.  

 You’ll also be able to get tour guides and trips – which are pret­ty much manda­to­ry when vis­it­ing the rain­for­est for no more than a $100 usd a spot — and some go as cheap as $40 USD which can offer you mul­ti day trips to chase the lemurs, go div­ing or explore the stun­ning rain­forests on the islands.  

While we’d rec­om­mend hir­ing a 4x4 to get around – either with or with­out you own dri­ver, you can expect that to come in at around $50 usd a day – and get­ting some jer­ry cans with petrol is strong­ly rec­om­mend­ed giv­en the lack of petrol sta­tions around the island. For those who use up their bud­get on fly­ing in and want to keep the costs down then the taxi-brousse is the best option for you – and again it comes in incred­i­bly trip cost­ing no more than $2 USD for a round trip across the island.  

While the cost of your Mada­gas­car trip will vary based on the itin­er­ary and activ­i­ties you choose – espe­cial­ly for the divers – you can expect to pay the lump sum of your trip in get­ting there and then eas­ing off the costs when you arrive, with the aver­age 2–3 week trip to Mada­gas­car expect­ed to come in at 3,000 USD. 

Best photo spot:

While Mada­gas­car is tru­ly a nat­ur­al and wildlife par­adise, the best place for pho­tos are two-fold – first­ly at the incred­i­ble Avenue of the Baob­a­bs espe­cial­ly at sun­set when the trees come alive and their scale and beau­ty is illu­mi­nat­ed – it tru­ly is the post­card snap.  

 Sec­ond­ly, you’ll require a bit of luck but snap­ping the Lemurs, Whale Sharks and Hump­back Whales in their nat­ur­al habi­tat, espe­cial­ly against the back­drop of either the stun­ning rain­for­est or white sandy beach­es is a tru­ly awe-inspir­ing and epic expe­ri­ence – and that encap­su­lates the nat­ur­al and incred­i­ble beau­ty of the won­der of Mada­gas­car.