12-Day Magical Madagascar - Small Group, Expertly Guided

• You'll be collected from the airport.
• Accommodation before the tour starts can be arranged for an extra cost.

Antananarivo

On arrival in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, you will be welcomed by your local Madagascar guide to assist you on transferring to your hotel in the city. Spend the rest of the day in Antananarivo at your leisure.

Antananarivo, affectionately called “Tana,” is Madagascar’s buzzing capital. It is the primary arrival and departure hub for most visitors to the island. The city offers excellent opportunities to delve into Madagascar’s history, with attractions like the Queen’s Palace and the Royal Hills of Ambohimanga, which can be explored on a cycling tour.

Main Destination:

Antananarivo (City)

Accommodation:

Radisson Water Front Hotel - Antananarivo

• Mid-range hotel

Meals & Drinks:

• Meals at own expense
• Drinks not included

Andasibe-Mantadia National Park

In the morning we start our journey in Madagascar with a drive to Andasibe National Park through the green and luxuriant vegetation of eastern Madagascar. This brings us to a very humid part of the country with many primary forests and lakes. Along the way we will see villages of the Merina people scattered throughout the rocky mountains. You arrive at Andasibe in the afternoon and check-in to the hotel. In the evening you will set off from the hotel at approximately 19h00 on a night walk to observe nocturnal lemurs and other wildlife. We return to the hotel where we overnight.

Main Destination:

Andasibe-Mantadia National Park

Best Time To Visit August to November (Less rainfall)

High Season July to August and December (The park is busy)

Best Weather April, May, October and November

Wildlife in Andasibe-Mantadia NP

Indri Common

Common
brown lemur Common

Other
chameleons Common

Leaf-tailed geckos Common

Diademed sifaka Occasional

Show more

Red-bellied
lemur Occasional

Grey
bamboo lemur Occasional

Mouse lemurs Occasional

Sportive lemurs Occasional

Parson's
chameleon Occasional

Painted mantella Occasional

Black-and-white
ruffed lemur Rare

Madagascar tree boa Rare

Fossa Very Rare

Accommodation:

Mantadia Lodge - Perinet

• Mid-range lodge located just outside Andasibe-Mantadia NP

Meals & Drinks:

• Breakfast (Lunch & dinner not included)
• Drinks not included

Special Reserve of Andasibe

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 the V.O.I.I.M.A community reserve. This reserve provides a sustainable way of saving the remaining rainforests in the area by creating a livelihood for the local communities through reforestation projects. Here you will also come across a variety of wildlife, ranging from brown lemurs, indri, chameleons, geckos and birds.

Main Destination:

Andasibe-Mantadia National Park

Accommodation:

Mantadia Lodge - Perinet

• Mid-range lodge located just outside Andasibe-Mantadia NP

Meals & Drinks:

• Breakfast (Lunch & dinner not included)
• Drinks not included

Antsirabe

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 ‘lavaka’ 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 recognised as the “capital of aluminium recycling”. Arrival in Antsirabe is around 18h00. ‘The place of salt’ is an elegant city and known as the centre 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 which 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.

Main Destination:

Antsirabe (City)

Accommodation:

Plumeria Hotel - Antsirabe

• Mid-range hotel

Meals & Drinks:

• Breakfast (Lunch & dinner not included)
• Drinks not included

Ranomafana National Park

After breakfast we drive to Ambositra, the center of Madagascar’s wood carving industry. The highlands are characterized by its architecture. The houses are made with ornately carved wooden balconies and shutters with bright colours. Further on we pass the ‘le col de tapia”, a type of tree resistant to bush fires. 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, the Ranomafana National Park.

Main Destination:

Ranomafana National Park

Best Time To Visit August to November (Less rainfall)

High Season July, August and December (The park is busy)

Best Weather April, May, September and November

Wildlife in Ranomafana NP

Golden
bamboo lemur Common

Red-fronted
brown lemur Common

Red-bellied
lemur Common

Greater
bamboo lemur Common

Grey
bamboo lemur Common

Show more

Giraffe-necked
weevil Common

Parson's
chameleon Common

Milne-Edward's
sifaka

Occasional

Rufous
mouse lemur Occasional

Satanic
leaf-tailed gecko Occasional

Painted
mantella Occasional

Spotted
fanaloka Rare

Ring-tailed
mongoose Rare

Fossa Very Rare

Accommodation:

Setam Lodge

• Mid-range lodge located just outside Sahamalaza NP

Meals & Drinks:

• Breakfast (Lunch & dinner not included)
• Drinks not included

Ranomafana National Park

After breakfast we drive to Ambositra, the center of Madagascar’s wood carving industry. The highlands are characterized by its architecture. The houses are made with ornately carved wooden balconies and shutters with bright colours. Further on we pass the ‘le col de tapia”, a type of tree resistant to bush fires. 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, the Ranomafana National Park.

Main Destination:

Ranomafana National Park

Accommodation:

Setam Lodge

• Mid-range lodge located just outside Sahamalaza NP

Meals & Drinks:

• Breakfast (Lunch & dinner not included)
• Drinks not included

Fianarantsoa Town

We leave Ranomafana & visit a local wine farm for wine tasting near Fianarantsoa. The town is the gate to the South, the capital of the Betsileo tribes & centre of the catholic religion. We head southwards to Ambalavao & visit the Anteimoro Paper Factory which is a vestige of the Arabian civilization on the island. Afterwards, we partake in a community-based silk weaving project. Then we pass through the mountain chain of Andringitra, which serves as a transition between the dry south & green highlands with its famous ‘3 hillocks’ & huge ‘Archbishop’s Cape’. Along the way we see a spectacular huge granite dome called 'The Gate' to the south. The ‘Bishop’s Hat’ is another imposing formation & a sacred location for the local people, a place where their ancestors chose a collective suicide rather than to give in to the Merina tribes. We then continue to Ihosy, the capital of the Bara tribes, who are shepherds of Zebu, & further on through the huge Plateaux de Horombe, arriving in Isalo.

Main Destination:

Fianarantsoa (City)

Accommodation:

Isalo Ranch

• Mid-range lodge located just outside Isalo NP

Meals & Drinks:

• Breakfast (Lunch & dinner not included)
• Drinks not included

Isalo National Park

Today, we visit and hike in the Isalo National Park. The park comprises of the entire stretch of the Isalo massif. This huge mountain is spectacular with its eroded sandstone elevations. On arrival we walk about 1½ hour to reach the Natural Pool. Along the way we will see vegetation like Uapaca bojeri, Pachypodium rosulatum or ‘elephant’s foot’ & Aloe isaloensis. The eroded mountains served as a place where the Bara kept their dead before they could bury them in tombs. On the hike we have a spectacular view of the huge sandstone mountains with its beautiful colours & strange battered formations creating many different images. We see rivers which are marked by lines of brilliant green, made up of Pandanus pulcher & the delicate, feathery leaved palm Chrysalidocarpus. Along the way, there may be sifakas, brown lemurs & ring-tailed lemurs, as well as many species of birds, lizards & snakes. We finally reach the swimming pool, with its crystal clear water – a great reward after the hike.

Main Destination:

Isalo National Park

Best Time To Visit May to October (Cooler, sunny days)

High Season July, August and December (The park is busy)

Best Weather June to August

Wildlife in Isalo NP

Ring-tailed
lemur Common

Western
plated lizard Common

Verreaux's sifaka Occasional

Red-fronted
brown lemur Occasional

Oustalet's
chameleon Occasional

Show more

Jewel chameleon Occasional

Stump-tailed
chameleon Occasional

Merrem's
Madagascar swift Occasional

Grey
mouse lemur Rare

Red-tailed
sportive lemur Rare

Painted
burrowing frog Rare

Blue-legged
mantella Rare

Fossa Very Rare

Madagascar
tree boa Very Rare

Accommodation:

Isalo Ranch

• Mid-range lodge located just outside Isalo NP

Meals & Drinks:

• Breakfast (Lunch & dinner not included)
• Drinks not included

Tuléar National Park

After breakfast, we continue to Tuléar, the terminal of the National Road N° seven. 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 of Tuléar we drive to Ifaty, which lies about 27 km from Tuléar. Thanks to the newly tarred road, it will take us about 1 hour 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.

Main Destination:

Toliara (City)

Accommodation:

Le Paradisier - Ifaty

• Mid-range resort

Meals & Drinks:

• Breakfast (Lunch & dinner not included)
• Drinks not included

Reniala Forest and Coastline

Ifaty lies on the beach. It is therefore an ideal place for diving and snorkelling 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 Reniala Forest where you can 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 near to the boat. Situated in the largest lagoon of the country, Ifaty is also protected by a large coral reef, which makes it an ideal place for diving and snorkelling. 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.

Main Destination:

Ifaty (Town & Beach)

Accommodation:

Le Paradisier - Ifaty

• Mid-range resort

Meals & Drinks:

• Breakfast (Lunch & dinner not included)
• Drinks not included

Ifaty - Tulear - Tana

Early in the morning at around 6h00 we transfer to the airport for the flight back to Tana. After check-in at the hotel, you have the afternoon free to explore & to do some sightseeing. The capital city of Madagascar is also known as the ‘City of Thousands’. It is here that the various kingdoms of the island were united & the city was founded. Tana was built in 3 stages: The high city was the first area occupied during the regal period where the old queen’s palace is situated. Then there’s the mid-city, where the chic boutiques of today are found. 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, & the house of the first minister, which are museums today. 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 & the lower town is situated in the main avenue called l 'avenue de l ’independence dominated by the railway station.

Main Destination:

Antananarivo (City)

Accommodation:

Radisson Water Front Hotel - Antananarivo

• Mid-range hotel

Meals & Drinks:

• Breakfast (Lunch & dinner not included)
• Drinks not included

Antananarivo - Airport

Today is the end of our tour to Madagascar and you will be transferred to Antananarivo airport for your onward flight.

Visas
A visa is required to enter the territory of Madagascar and can easily be obtained upon arrival at the airport of Antananarivo with a validity of up to 60 days. Tourists staying for less than one month, can purchase a visa for around 35 €. Paying with the exact amounts or small currency is advised. No photographs are required, however please ensure that passports are valid for at least 6 months after return date.

Travel Insurance
Please note that travel and cancellation insurance is mandatory for every guest. Insurance is solely the responsibility of our guests. Please ensure you arrange your own insurance with protection for the full duration of your journey to cover personal injury, damage and loss of personal items including but not limited to camera equipment and other electronic items, medical expenses, repatriation expenses and loss of luggage.

Main Destination:

Antananarivo (City)

Accommodation:

No accommodation (End of tour)

Meals & Drinks:

• Breakfast (Lunch & dinner not included)
• Drinks not included

• Additional accommodation can be arranged for an extra cost.
• You'll be dropped off at the airport.