Discover the best of Madagascar on this fascinating tour with lemurs, colorful tribes, tropical beaches, bustling markets, and ever-changing scenery.
On this hotel-accommodated 1000 Views of Madagascar tour, you will have the opportunity to explore the highlights of this 4th largest island in the world, Madagascar.
This is an island waiting to be explored - lemurs, colorful tribes, tropical beaches, bustling markets, and ever-changing scenery are only some of the highlights that you will see unfold in front of your eyes during your vacation. If you are looking for a Madagascar holiday that has everything essential, that you have read in guidebooks about, then this is the holiday option for you!
Highlights
Antananarivo, Andasibe, Ansirabe, Ifaty, Isalo National Park, Fianarantsoa, Tulear.
Email us now for more information on the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or a This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
This 12-day Madagascar tour, starting and ending in Antananarivo, shows you the incredible sights of Madagascar where you get to experience the culture as well as the wildlife.
Departure Dates: This safari is run on scheduled dates throughout the year, but can also be tailor-made to meet your dates, time period, and group size.
DAY 1: Antananarivo
Departure Dates: This safari is run on scheduled dates throughout the year, but can also be tailor-made to meet your dates, time period, and group size.
DAY 1: Antananarivo
On arrival in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, you will be welcomed and provided with assistance by one of our friendly staff before transferring to your hotel in the city. Spend the rest of the day at your leisure.
Superior Accommodation: Hotel Carlton, Palissandre Hotel & Spa, or similar (rooms with en-suite bathrooms)
DAY 2: Antananarivo – Andasibe (B)
Along the way, we will see Merina villages spread in the rocky mountains. We arrive at Andasibe in the afternoon and check-in at the hotel. In the evening we will set off from the hotel at approximately 7 pm on a night walk to observe night active lemurs and other nocturnal animals. We return to the hotel where we overnight.
Distance: 150 km Departure: 10h00
Superior Accommodation: Andasibe Hotel, Vakona Forest Hotel, or similar (rooms with en-suite bathrooms & veranda)
Superior Accommodation: Andasibe Hotel, Vakona Forest Hotel, or similar (rooms with en-suite bathrooms & veranda)
We start our morning with a visit to the Special Reserve of Andasibe to see the Indri, the largest lemurs on the island. This 810-ha reserve is unique with its endemic fauna and flora and contains a wide variety of orchids, canopy, and endemic animals like chameleons, tenrecs, and many birds. In the afternoon, we visit Andasibe village, which is typical of the Betsimisaraka (“The-Many-Inseparables”) community, the second-largest tribe on the island that is known to cultivate rice and live mainly off the forest. This short visit gives us insight into the local people, to see how they live and what they eat. We overnight at the same hotel.
Superior Accommodation: Andasibe Hotel, Vakona Forest Hotel, or similar (rooms with en-suite bathrooms & veranda)
DAY 4: Andasibe – Antsirabe via Ampefy (B)
We drive back to Tana, and head south to Antsirabe, across the highland landscape with its beautiful rice fields on display. The spectacular eroded hills called ‘Lavaca’ remind us of the Far East with its rice fields and green landscape with vegetables and fruit trees. We stop in Ambatolampy for a quick visit to this huge agricultural city, also recognized as the “capital of aluminum recycling”. Arrival in Antsirabe is around 18h00. ‘The place of salt’ is an elegant city known as the center of the beer industry – we can smell the Star Brewery as we enter the town! Founded by Norwegians in 1856, it is the only place that really feels and looks like a European city. It has a temperate climate and therefore fruit and vegetables which grow in colder climates, are found in Antsirabe.
Distance: 309 km
Superior Accommodation: Royal Palace Hotel, Plumeria Hotel, or similar (rooms with en-suite bathrooms)
Superior Accommodation: Royal Palace Hotel, Plumeria Hotel, or similar (rooms with en-suite bathrooms)
Day 5: Antsirabe to Ranomafana National Park (B)
After breakfast, we drive to Ambositra, the center of Madagascar's wood carving industry. The highlands are characterized by their architecture: The houses are made with ornately carved wooden balconies and shutters with bright colors. Further on we pass the ‘le col de Tapia, a type of tree resistant to bushfires. The landscape is still dominated by rice fields, pine forests, eucalyptus trees, and rocky mountains. We turn off from the main road to reach our destination for the day: Ranomafana National Park.
Distance: 250 km
Superior Accommodation: Setam Lodge, Hotel Thermal, or similar (rooms with en-suite bathrooms)
Superior Accommodation: Setam Lodge, Hotel Thermal, or similar (rooms with en-suite bathrooms)
DAY 6: Ranomafana National Park (B)
The approximately 40,000 ha of Parc National de Ranomafana with its rainforest-covered hills and abundant wildlife, has long been considered one of Madagascar’s highlights and is one of the country’s national parks most heavily visited. Its entrance lies about 7 km from Ranomafana village and altitudes in the park range from 800 m to 1200 m. In addition to its densely forested hills, Ranomafana’s terrain is characterized by numerous small streams which plummet down to the beautiful Namorona River. Although much of the region has been logged, the easternmost part of the park retains relatively large areas of primary forest. You will go for long walks in the National Park spotting some of the lemurs, chameleons, and other animals.
Superior Accommodation: Setam Lodge, Hotel Thermal, or similar (rooms with en-suite bathrooms)
DAY 7: Fianarantsoa – Isalo (B)
Returning on the road we came on, we leave Ranomafana and visit a local wine farm for wine tasting near Fianarantsoa ‘the city where one learns good things’. It is the gate to the South, the capital of the Betsileo tribes, and the center of the catholic religion. Most of the best schools in the country are also found here. Fianarantsoa is the center of the wine industry - the climate is said not to be ideal for grapevines, but it is a tradition left by the priests and monks who lived in the area of Fianarantsoa. We then head southwards to Ambalavao, we visit the ‘Anteimoro Paper Factory’ which is a vestige of the Arabian civilization on the island. We continue to Ihosy the capital of the Bara tribes, who are shepherds of Zebu, and further on pass through the mountain chain of Andringitra, which serves as a transition between the dry south and green highlands with its famous ‘3 hillocks’ and its huge ‘archbishop's cape’. Along the way, we will see from afar a spectacular huge granite dome with twin rock towers called ‘the gate of the south’, which in fact marks the end of the highland and the beginning of the south. The ‘Bishop's hat’ is another noticeable, imposing formation and a sacred location for the local people - a place where their ancestors chose a collective suicide rather than give in to the Merina tribes. We then pass through the huge ‘Plateaux de Horombe’ with its very deep red soil, which reminds us of ‘the no man's land’ and we arrive in Isalo.
Distance: 355 km
Superior Accommodation: Jardin du Roy, Isalo Rock Lodge, or similar (room with en-suite bathroom & air-conditioning)
Superior Accommodation: Jardin du Roy, Isalo Rock Lodge, or similar (room with en-suite bathroom & air-conditioning)
DAY 8: Isalo (B)
DAY 9: Isalo to Ifaty (B)
After breakfast, we continue to Tuléar, the terminal of the National Road N° 7. This part of our journey brings us to new scenery among the dry forests of the west and the spiny desert of the south. On the way, we admire the different ‘Mahafaly tombs’ and the ‘Antandroy tombs’. After a short visit to Tuléar, we drive to Ifaty, which lies about 27 km from Tuléar. Due to the bad condition of the road, it will take us about 2½ hours to reach Ifaty, the driest part of the country. Situated in the Deep South, the landscape is dominated by the cactus-like, spiny forest of different Euphorbiaceae and Didieraceae. We will cross the dry and sandy soil where the local people battle to find drinking water. Mangrove trees line the coast alternated by Vezo communities which earn their living from fishing. We will see many small pirogues with men who go out fishing twice a day, while children and women wait on the coast to collect the fish before taking them to Tuléar for sale.
DAY 10: Ifaty (B)
DAY 11: Ifaty – Tuléar – Tana (B)
Today, we will visit and hike in the Isalo National Park. The park covers an area of 81,540 ha, comprising the entire stretch of the Isalo massif. This huge mountain is very spectacular with its eroded sandstone elevations. After a 10-minute drive from Ranohira village, we park our car and walk for about 1½ hours to reach the Natural Swimming Pool. Along the way we will see vegetation like Uapaca Bojeri, Pachypodium Rosulatum or ‘elephant's foot’, and Aloe Isaloensis, a native species of aloe endemic to Isalo.
The eroded mountains also served as a place where the Bara kept their dead before they could bury them in their actual tombs. We start our climb and reach the massif after walking about 20 minutes, where we will have a spectacular view of the huge sandstone mountains with their beautiful colors and strange and battered formations creating many different images like ‘the tortoise’, ‘the masks’ and ‘the crocodiles’. We see small streams of water, and rivers which are marked by lines of brilliant green generally made up of numerous Pandanus Pulcher and the delicate, slim-stemmed, feathery-leaved palm Chrysalidocarpus Isaloensis. Along the way, there may be sifakas, brown lemurs, and ring-tailed lemurs, as well as fifty-five species of birds, lizards, and snakes. We finally reach the swimming pool, with its crystal clear water - a great reward after a long and very hot walk.
The eroded mountains also served as a place where the Bara kept their dead before they could bury them in their actual tombs. We start our climb and reach the massif after walking about 20 minutes, where we will have a spectacular view of the huge sandstone mountains with their beautiful colors and strange and battered formations creating many different images like ‘the tortoise’, ‘the masks’ and ‘the crocodiles’. We see small streams of water, and rivers which are marked by lines of brilliant green generally made up of numerous Pandanus Pulcher and the delicate, slim-stemmed, feathery-leaved palm Chrysalidocarpus Isaloensis. Along the way, there may be sifakas, brown lemurs, and ring-tailed lemurs, as well as fifty-five species of birds, lizards, and snakes. We finally reach the swimming pool, with its crystal clear water - a great reward after a long and very hot walk.
Superior Accommodation: Jardin du Roy, Isalo Rock Lodge, or similar (room with en-suite bathroom & air-conditioning)
DAY 9: Isalo to Ifaty (B)
After breakfast, we continue to Tuléar, the terminal of the National Road N° 7. This part of our journey brings us to new scenery among the dry forests of the west and the spiny desert of the south. On the way, we admire the different ‘Mahafaly tombs’ and the ‘Antandroy tombs’. After a short visit to Tuléar, we drive to Ifaty, which lies about 27 km from Tuléar. Due to the bad condition of the road, it will take us about 2½ hours to reach Ifaty, the driest part of the country. Situated in the Deep South, the landscape is dominated by the cactus-like, spiny forest of different Euphorbiaceae and Didieraceae. We will cross the dry and sandy soil where the local people battle to find drinking water. Mangrove trees line the coast alternated by Vezo communities which earn their living from fishing. We will see many small pirogues with men who go out fishing twice a day, while children and women wait on the coast to collect the fish before taking them to Tuléar for sale.
Distance: 265 km
Superior Accommodation: Le Paradisier, Les Dunes D’Ifaty, or similar (rooms with en-suite bathrooms)
Superior Accommodation: Le Paradisier, Les Dunes D’Ifaty, or similar (rooms with en-suite bathrooms)
DAY 10: Ifaty (B)
Ifaty lies on the beach. It is therefore an ideal place for diving and snorkeling and a popular place for birdwatchers. Here you can also experience the Vezo fishermen's life. Many excursions are possible on this leisure day. Visit the ‘Reserve Domergue’, a communal conservation area where one will see two kinds of baobabs, spiny bush, reptiles like ‘boa Madagascariensis’, geckos, and the ‘Chameleon Parsoni’, which is one of the largest chameleons in the world. You can also take a boat trip to see whales. From July to mid-September, whales come to the cool seas of Madagascar to give birth to their young. It is a spectacular experience, and it is possible to see the whales very close to the boat. Situated in the largest lagoon in the country, Ifaty is also protected by a large coral reef, which makes it an ideal place for diving and snorkeling. In the afternoon we can walk to the village of Mangily to visit a local school and experience the Vezo fishermen's way of life, especially as they return from fishing.
Superior Accommodation: Le Paradisier, Les Dunes D’Ifaty, or similar (rooms with en-suite bathrooms)
DAY 11: Ifaty – Tuléar – Tana (B)
Early in the morning at around 6 am, we transfer to the airport for the flight back to Tana. After check-in at the hotel, you have the afternoon free to explore and do some sightseeing. The capital of Madagascar is also called the ‘City of Thousands’ and it is where the first King started to unify the different kingdoms of the island. Tana was built in three stages: The high city, the first area occupied during the regal period where the old queen's palace is situated; the mid-city, where all the chic boutiques of the capital are found; and then the low city, which is the commercial area of the town. Walk from the high city to see the Rova, the queen's palace, and the house of the first minister during these days, which is now a museum. All of these were built by Frenchman Jean Laborde during the royal period. The mid-city, or the administration area, ends at the Rainiharo tombs and the lower town is situated in the main avenue called ‘L'avenue de l'independence’ dominated by the railway station.
Distance: 20 km
Superior Accommodation: Hotel Carlton, Palissandre Hotel & Spa, or similar (rooms with en-suite bathrooms)
Superior Accommodation: Hotel Carlton, Palissandre Hotel & Spa, or similar (rooms with en-suite bathrooms)
Day 12: Tana (B)
Today is the end of our tour and you will be transferred to the airport for your onward flight.
Group Size: Minimum 4 people / Maximum 10 people
Today is the end of our tour and you will be transferred to the airport for your onward flight.
Group Size: Minimum 4 people / Maximum 10 people
This tour is not recommended between December and March due to the rainy season.
Please note that June and July are dry but cold, especially in the Highlands.
Please note that June and July are dry but cold, especially in the Highlands.
Tour Fare scheduled departure: From € 2,289 per person
If there are less than 4 people, the cost is EUR 3,109.
This tour is also available on a private basis and the price is dependent on the number of people in your group.
Included in the price: Accommodation based on a bed & breakfast basis in a twin shared room, all group transfers and transport mentioned in the program, an English-speaking guide (until day 9), specialist local guides in the national park as per program, all excursions mentioned in the program, all entrance fees.
Not included in the price: All excursions not mentioned in the program, bottled water, soft drinks, alcoholic beverages, laundry, international flights, flight from Tuléar to Tana, visas and travel insurance, all lunches, dinners, and personal items.
Included in the price: Accommodation based on a bed & breakfast basis in a twin shared room, all group transfers and transport mentioned in the program, an English-speaking guide (until day 9), specialist local guides in the national park as per program, all excursions mentioned in the program, all entrance fees.
Not included in the price: All excursions not mentioned in the program, bottled water, soft drinks, alcoholic beverages, laundry, international flights, flight from Tuléar to Tana, visas and travel insurance, all lunches, dinners, and personal items.
*NB! For 2-3 clients a supplement is payable should you require a specialist guide to accompany you throughout the tour (excluding days 9 & 10). Malagasy drivers speak basic English & have general knowledge of the history, culture, and fauna & flora in Madagascar.
** Kindly note the tour price excludes flights. Please note that internal flights should be booked in conjunction with international flights, rates are subject to class, availability, and changes**
*Please note all rates are subject to change according to the rate of exchange fluctuations*
Book this This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. now.