Madagascar trip report

[AFKAE]

General
The country and people are on the barebones of their backside. It is listed as one of the poorest countries in the world. Despite this the people are friendly and cheerful. Everybody seems busy trying to scrape together an existence.
If you are looking for another Indian Ocean Maldives/Mauritius/Seychelles type destination then this is most definitely not it. There are a few nice relaxing places on Sainte-Marie, but I wouldn’t say it’s worth it just to go there.
If you are looking for somewhere that has a very high incidence of endemic flora and fauna, then quite possibly there is nowhere better in the world.
Flights
We used Virgin points for AF J flights from CDG to TNR. Outbound was a daytime service and really good we had 8E and 8G which are a central pair. Return was overnight and another central pair 2E and 2G. We opted for the formule express which gives you a cold starter, cheese and dessert and is served quickly. I managed a reasonable amount of sleep which is good for me as I usually struggle.
Arrival
It’s visa on arrival. There is a fee dependent on your length of stay. Less than 15 days and you only pay the fee. Over 15 days you pay a bit more and get a visa, they can be 30,60 & 90 days. We needed a 30 day visa as we were just over the 15 days. The process was quick (good being at the front of the plane and almost first into the process). First booth pay fee (USD or €). Second booth visa stuck in passport, 3rd booth visa is stamped and initialled and off you go. Probably not much more than 5 mins for us. Not sure what it would be like if you were last off the plane. It was reassuring to note that they have adopted European baggage handling techniques and anything with a priority label was put on the carousel last! We had a transfer waiting to the nearby Relais des Plateaux.
Itinerary Day 1
Unfortunately our Madagascar Airlines/Tsaradia/Air Madagascar (it changes name every week) and instead of an easy midday departure we had a 5.30am flight to Tolear. The entire owned fleet comprises 3 ATR72’s, we ended up on a leased Cem Air Q400 with South African flight crew. Everything was great and bang on time. There was probably only about 15-20 people on board and we were the only non-locals. On arrival our escort guide Josh and driver Fabrice were both waiting to greet us and stayed with us for the next 12 days. Both were absolutely brilliant throughout our stay. A 7.15am arrival at the hotel (Auberge de la Table) caused a bit of confusion, but we were able to check in and scoff the packed breakfast we had been given early in the morning. The hotel has an Arboretum attached which we visited during the afternoon and then again in the evening managing to catch sight of a mouse lemur.
Day 2 Travel a shortish distance to Ifaty visiting the Honko mangrove preservation project en route. There are 5 villages who depend upon the mangroves. Hotel Dunes d’Ifaty for 3 nights. Afternoon visit the Spiny forest to see Baobab trees-one that is 1300 years old. Also saw some Kung Fu crickets. Loads of birds and butterflies.
Day 3 Early morning and late evening walks in the spiny forest. Spotted a mouse lemur chomping its way through a kung fu cricket. Lesser hedgehog tenrec-looks just like a hedgehog!
Day 4 leisure day-the hotel is on the coast and has a beach but it was windy and the sea looked a bit choppy and unfriendly
Day 5 A 3 hour drive to Zombitse National Park, with a guided walk. Highlights were Zombitse sportive lemur (not found in any other location), Verreaux’s sifaka and the Scops owl. Back in the car and continue the drive to Isalo National Park. 2 nights at Relais de la Reine.
Day 6 a pretty full on 13km hike through the park. Initially to the Piscine Naturelle and a waterfall. A brief stop and then on to Namazaha camp for lunch. Ring-tailed and brown lemurs were hanging around looking for scraps. On to the blue pool and then the black pool. This is the one I opted to swim in-the water temperature was low compared to the air and there was a sharp intake of breath on entry. At the end I was quite glad to see the car!
Day 7 start heading towards Ranomafana. After 3 ½ hours stop for lunch at Anja NP . Another 3 hours after lunch to get to our accommodation Setam lodge-2nights.
Day 8 Ranomafana National Park in the rainforest. Too many things to list, but highlights were Milne-Edwards sifaka, O’Shaugnessy’s chameleon and boophis tree frogs.
Day 9 A tough day for our driver, almost 9 hours from Ranomafana to Antsirabe via Ambositra. The roads are all in a shocking state. These are not African style dirt tracks, but the national highways. The section from Ranomafana to Ambositra is 135km and took 5 hours-an average speed of about 17mph! A stop for lunch before continuing to Antsirabe, Fabrice the driver looked knackered when we got there. Overnight at Couleur Café.
Day 10 Back on the road again (was it REO Speedwagon?), this time back through Antananarivo for lunch and continuing on to Andasibe. 2 nights at the Cyperus Hotel.
Day 11 Analamazoatra National Park. A great walk and our first encounter with Indris. Their call is a bit like whale sound and has a range of 4km. When they start up directly above you it’s very loud and a really eery sound. Again so much other stuff, but the Indris definitely the highlight.
Day 12 Mantadia NP. More Indris, leaf-tailed geckos and the extraordinary Giraffe Necked weevil. In the afternoon drive back to Antananarivo. Relais des Plateaux airport hotel
Day 13 flight to Sainte-Marie. We’re now into the chilling at the end of the trip. 3 nights Princesse Bora lodge. On the beach, nice snorkelling. Diving opportunities for those that do.
Day 14 we opted for a whale watching trip and had some good sitings
Day 15 day of leisure, took a tuk tuk into the main town Ambodifototra. It took about 30 mins to have a look round and then tuk-tuk back to the hotel.
Day 16 supposed return flight to Antananarivo. We got bumped off. This took all contingency out of our timing to meet the flight home. Rebooked for next day. Squeaky bum time.
Day 17 made it back to Tana at 3pm for midnight departure to CDG. Phew.
It’s a fabulous destination for those interested in flora and fauna, I understand it is now heading into peak bird-watching time there as it’s the mating season. So much stuff that exists nowhere else in the world. As a general travel destination I don’t think it has a lot to offer, travel is difficult and the country is really impoverished.
Josh blamed everything on the 2009 coup and rocketing downhill from there-but that’s a whole other story. Happy to try and fill in any gaps if there are questions.

[Greygoose]

An interesting read. Thanks @AFKAE. You packed a lot of travel and animal spotting into 17days and I’m exhausted (and jealous) just reading about it!!
Is there a Travel Agent that helped you put it together, that you’d recommend, or was it all your own work?

Re Day 10, were you thinking of Canned Heat?

[Lottie]

It does sound like a fascinating trip, apart from the 9hr driving section! Did you pre-arrange your driver via a Uk agent or direct with a local agent?

[AFKAE]

@Greygoose, @Lottie Yes it was all done through a UK agent called reef & rainforest, who use a local agent called SETAM. R&R did a good job on the initial itinerary and really no involvement once it was agreed. SETAM recruited the guide and driver who are both effectively freelancers. Their recruitment was a masterstroke, but SETAM failed us when we got bumped off the flight, they couldn’t do anything.

I discussed using a UK agent with our guide Josh and he felt it was the right thing to do and if you tried to go direct with a Malagasy agency it would be quite a gamble. He reckons there’s a big range from the best to some poor ones.

It is hard work, but it’s the kind of place you will probably only ever go to once, so you feel a bit obliged to cram in as much as you can. Having said that, we’ve been back a few days and I’m still recovering!

[AFKAE]

Greygoose wrote:

Re Day 10, were you thinking of Canned Heat?

Google seems to confirm it as REO Speedwagon.

[Man of Kent]

Thanks @AFKAE sounds like a great, if tiring trip.

[Metty]

AFKAE wrote:

Greygoose wrote:

Re Day 10, were you thinking of Canned Heat?

Google seems to confirm it as REO Speedwagon.

Yes, but ‘On The Road Again’ was indeed Canned Heat. Both song titles appropriate for HfP Destination forum. Tempting to suggest some others but I don’t want to cause thread drift, especially as @AFKAE has done such a good job!

[meta]

This is a great post.

Did you go to Allée des Baobabs? Nosy Bé looks like a nice place to relax by the beach.

It would be helpful to include some costings.

[AFKAE]

meta wrote:

This is a great post.

Did you go to Allée des Baobabs? Nosy Bé looks like a nice place to relax by the beach.

It would be helpful to include some costings.

No, the Allee des Baobabs was too far away to be able to tag on. Lots of Baobabs to be seen in the Spiny Forest.

Agreed on Nosy Be, I think there and Ile Sainte-Marie are the two chilling possibilities.

Regarding costings it’s a bit difficult without releasing commercially sensitive info. What I bought was pretty inclusive, hotels (on half board basis), guide and driver, transfers, local guides, park fees. About the only thing we paid for was alcoholic drinks, gifts and tips. All up for the 2 of us for 17 days was just under £9K. That excludes international flights, but not domestic flights.

Local beer 12-13,000AR £2-£2.20 good value as 66cl bottles. Glass of South African house wine 15-18,000.

Where restaurants had a priced menu (I didn’t pay loads of attention because it was included) quite often a set 3 course might be 85,000AR call it £14-£15.

Normally I don’t like to include dinner with hotels, as part of the adventure is going out every night and discovering local restaurants. But that just will not work here. You’re pretty much committed to eating in your hotel.

Just to put a bit of context on how achievable it is I had my 67th birthday out there and my wife is 2 years younger than me, so for those of you in your prime it’s an absolute doddle!

[AFKAE]

Metty wrote:

AFKAE wrote:

Greygoose wrote:

Re Day 10, were you thinking of Canned Heat?

Google seems to confirm it as REO Speedwagon.

Yes, but ‘On The Road Again’ was indeed Canned Heat. Both song titles appropriate for HfP Destination forum. Tempting to suggest some others but I don’t want to cause thread drift, especially as @AFKAE has done such a good job!

The one I can’t get out of my head is “Davy’s on the road again” which is deffo Manfred Mann.

[masaccio]

Thanks for posting this; it sounds right up my street as a holiday.

Did you DIY or travel agent? If DIY, where did it rate in difficulty?

[meta]

@AFKAE Many thanks. The trip is in the works for me, but possibly not until 2026.

[AFKAE]

masaccio wrote:

Thanks for posting this; it sounds right up my street as a holiday.

Did you DIY or travel agent? If DIY, where did it rate in difficulty?

@masaccio we used a uk agent, who then had a local agent. I think you could certainly cut out the uk agent to help the budget, but doing everything yourself without a local agent could be quite challenging.

[RarityMonk]

Just starting to contribute to the forum as a newbie. @AFKAE – great trip, and I loved reading through your adventure. It bought back lots of happy memories about our trip there in 2017.

Appreciate some of my knowledge will be a bit out of date, but if I can contribute anything to help other travellers thinking about visiting Madagascar I’d be very happy to. Here’s the itinerary we did:

MAN-CSG-TNR
Antananarivo (stayed at The Citizen)
Antananarivo – Antsirabe (stayed at H1 Antsirabe)
Antsirabe – Miandrivazo (stayed at Baobab Miandrivazo)
Tsiribihina riverboat to Belo sur Tsiribihina
Belo sur Tsiribihina – Bekopaka (stayed at Le Soliel des Tsingy)
Bekopaka – Kirindy (stayed at Relais du Kirindy)
Kirindy – Morondava (stayed at Palissandre Cote Ouest)
MOQ-TLE
Tulear (stayed at Auberge de la Table)
Tulear – Ranorhia (stayed at Isalo Rock Lodge)
Ranohira – Ranomafana (stayed at Thermal de Ranomafama)
Ranomafana – Antsirabe (stayed at H1 Antsirabe)
Anstirabe – Ivato (stayed at Green Palace)
TNR-NOS (stayed at Constance Tsarabanjina)
NOS-TNR (overnight to reposition)
TNR-CDG-MAN

We visited Grand & Petit Tsingy and Allée des Baobabs amongst a number of other locations. We booked our drivers through an ex-pat based in Madagascar.

If you’re thinking about going, just do it. The trip wasn’t without its challenges (roads and flights in particular as @AFKAE has aptly described) but the people, plants and animals are all wonderful!