12 Day Classic Madagascar

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.

Enjoy breakfast at the hotel this morning before we start our journey with a drive to Andasibe through the green and luxuriant vegetation of eastern Madagascar. Along the way we will see Merina villages spread in the rocky mountains before arriving at Andasibe in the afternoon and check-in to the hotel. This evening experience the forest from a different perspective as we enjoy a night walk. Your guide will point out night active lemurs and other nocturnal animals in their natural habitat.

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. Here you will also come across a variety of wildlife, ranging from brown lemurs, indri, chameleons, geckos and birds. 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.

Return to your hotel where the rest of the evening is at leisure. 

Leave early this morning 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 which is also known for its aluminium founderies where most of the countries utensils are produced in this town. We continue arriving in Antsirabe early in the evening. 

Antsirabe, known as the ‘The place of salt’ is an elegant city and known as the centre of the beer industry and home of the local Star Brewery. Founded by Norwegians in 1856, Antsirabe has many elements that makes it look and feel like a European city in the middle of Africa.

After breakfast we drive to Ambositra, the centre of Madagascar's wood carving industry. The highlands are characterised 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 late this afternoon: Ranomafana National Park.

Check into your hotel where your evening is at leisure.

The approximately 40,000 ha of Parc National de Ranomafana with its rain forest covered hills and abundant wildlife, has long been considered one of Madagascar’s highlights, and is one of the country’s most popular national parks.

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 characterised by numerous small streams which plummet down to the beautiful Namorona River. Here, enjoy long walks in the national park spotting some of the lemurs, chameleons and other animals.

Enjoy an early breakfast before we leave Ranomafana and visit a local wine farm for a wine tasting near Fianarantsoa. 

We then head southwards to Ambalavao and visit the ‘Anteimoro Paper Factory’ which is a vestige of the Arabian civilization on the island. Afterwards, we take time to stop at a community-based silk weaving project run by the women's association "Soalandy" and learn the skillful techniques of this art and meet the women and how the cooperative is making a difference to the local community.

Later, we 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.

We then continue to Ihosy, the capital of the Bara tribes where we arrive at our retreat in the late afternoon/early evening. Positioned high in the Sandstone Mountains, enjoy incredible views from your lodge overlooking the Isalo National Park.

Today, enjoy a hike in the incredible Isalo National Park. The park covers an area of 81,540 ha, comprising of the entire stretch of the Isalo massif. This huge mountain is spectacular with its eroded sandstone elevations. 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 its beautiful colours and its 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, keep your eye out for sifakas, brown lemurs and ring-tailed lemurs, as well as fifty-five species of birds.

Today we continue to Tuléar where 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, 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.

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.

Check into you charming hotel late this afternoon overlooking the magnificent lagoon of Ifaty.

Today is free to enjoy the beautiful beach of Ifaty and the many experiences available to be purchased from the hotel. 

You may choose to partake in a diving or snorkelling excursion, or experience the Vezo fishermen's life. Why not visit the Reniala Forest where you can see two kinds of baobabs, spiny bush, and the ‘chameleon parsoni’, which is one of the largest chameleons in the world. Whale tours are available from July to mid-September where they come to the cool seas of Madagascar to give birth to their young.

Early in the morning we transfer to the airport for the flight back to Antananarivo. After check-in at the hotel, you have the afternoon free to explore the capital on your own. 

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.

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