Madagascar Travel Answers

Hi I would highly recommend Ile St Marie for whale watching. We were there in late June, and the humpbacks had just arrived, so although there is no guarantee, you will probably just catch the end of the season. I would highly recommend La Petite Traversee, a lodge run by a South African on Ile aux Nattes (a tiny island just off the south coast of Ile St Marie, only accessible by pirogue and just over the channel from the airport). We found it to be a wonderful place to stay, and very well priced - Okkie (the owner) also does the whale watching, which is extremely affordable compared to other operations. They also have a guest house in Tana and will handle the transfers, which saves you lots of hassle. He can also organise customised boat-based tours to other destinations along the northeast Madagascar coast if people show an interest (we haven't done one ourselves, but it's high on our list for next time). Have a look at my Ile St Marie page (under Madagascar) for more details on the island, the lodge and other things to do in this magical part of the world. There is also a lot of information on other places to see - I can't recommend the Isalo massif hightly enough, and Andasibe is also a 'must'. Wherever you go in Madagascar, you'll have a wonderful time provided that prepared to be a bit adaptable and step outside your comfort zone: we feel that we have only scratched the surface, and are itching to get back again! Happy plotting! Regards Cathy

Madagascar is a terrific destination, although there are some limitations. Your budget of only one internal flight means you can only visit one place. Most everything interesting, such as lemur sites, national parks, etc., requires a flight to/from Tana, the inland capital, which generates flights that radiate our from it like spokes, but don't connect with each other. I would agree that Ile Saint-Marie fulfills some of your wishes, and combined with the adjacent mainland by boat, there are some interesting forested areas where I've seem many birds and giant chameleons. Boat excursions from here are available, but fair warning -- the seas can become unpredictably rough from time-to-time, and this is the rainier coastline, so have time to wait out any foul weather.

Excellent advice Marianne! The weather wasn't great when we were on Ile St Marie, but it didn't stop us having a brilliant time. The problem is that it has no protection from storms rolling in from the Indian Ocean. In your planning, be sure to make time to enjoy what Tana has to offer. As Marianne points out, chances are that you'll have to return there a couple of times to travel down the next 'spoke', and I think that it's a fascinating - and underrated - place. It's also worth checking to see if you can catch the little Viko Viko train to either Andasibe or Antsirabe from Tana, which I would love to have done - it only runs a couple of times a month, but would be a brilliant thing to do, and worth considering planning your trip around (probably also less hard on your chassis than the taxi brousse!)

Hello Catherine and Marianne, Thank you very much for the tips! Catherine, that is some wonderful information you have there on your travel site :) Well, we will probably try following itinerary: Tana - fly to Sainte Marie - Ile aux Nattes - then somehow try to drive from St. Marie straight to Andasibe (don't know how we'll manage that, though)- visit Perinet/Antadia - Antsirabe - Miandrivazo - river trip - Morondava - fly from Morondava to Tulear - Ifaty - Isalo - Ambalavao - Ranomafana - Antsirabe - Tana - back to Brussels :( So, we'll use two domestic flights. But... we only have 24 days, so i don't know if this plan is realistic, actually! Grtz, Katia

Hi Katia I think that you may have to pare back your 'wish list' a bit: anyone who's had the privilege of travelling to Madagascar will tell you that it always takes much longer to get anywhere then you think/hope it will! There is a ferry from Ile St Marie to the mainland, but if the weather isn't good, it may well be cancelled, which could play havoc with a tight schedule. Also, last I heard (I think from ATLC?), the road inland from Tamatave was a bit of a mess. Maybe post a specific query to see if anyone has travelled that route recently? Otherwise you have no option but to do a return flight to/from Ile St Marie. I think that trying to fit in a trip to the West as well as everything else on your schedule may be a trifle ambitious. We looked at doing this leg, but couldn't find an affordable and time-efficient way of fitting this in. I fear that you will be pushed to fit the rest in (without going to the West), especially if you're not doing much flying and are relying on public transport. I would also suggest that if you want to save time, you could consider giving Tulear/Ifaty a miss - they're nice if you're in the area, but if, for example, you turned back from Isalo, you'd save yourself a good deal of time. If I were you, I'd trim down your schedule and concentrate on spending a little more time in fewer places. Madagascar is not a place to be rushed, and it would be a shame if your memory of it were dominated by a sense of 'if only I'd had more time' in [insert name of place]... Most people who've been to Madagascar seem to end up going back anyway, so why not 'do' a few areas at leisure so that you really get to appreciate them, and use it as a reconnaissance mission for your return visit to see the rest? Glad that my pages were of use/interest - pls feel free to rate them using the 'thumbs up/down' icon at the base of the tips so that they become more visible (and thus, more useful) to other travellers! One last query. How much would you lose if you were to cancel your Air France flight and book intead on Air Mad? It's probably worth finding out, because I the cancellation fee is small, you might find that you could save more than that by being able to take advantage of Air Mad's discounted internal flights. Just an idea, but the best decisions are those you take when you have the maximum information at your disposal! Happy plotting, and feel free to come back to me should you have any further queries. Regards Cathy

I've been there with my wife, last year between sept10 and oct04. A very nice destination, congrats on your choice, you won't be disappointed. We've missed the whales because we got to Ile Sainte Marie/Ile Aux nattes at the end of September but we've seen so many exotic things that the whales is the last thing to think of :) . Anyway, if the first thing you do is go see the wales, you will catch them! Here's a video my wife uploaded on youtube, with some of our holiday pictures: youtube.com/watch?v=8Fo95NIB... If you need any advise, just ask.

I've read more of the answers so here are some more hints: We only used cars and boats to travel in madagascar. No internal flights. We got there with Air France, from Paris to Tana. We only booked our first night at a hotel, and they send us a driver for us at the airport, after the security checkout (which was very very long, and yes we had a visa already), we saw the driver waiting for us with a board, with our names on it. We had to change some money (euros->ariari), it was like 2600Ar for 1 EUR. We did that in the airport, not the best place with so many eyes on you, but it's not that bad either. Coming from east europe, we're somehow prepared to what can go wrong in these places. There is also an ATM in the airport, regarding ATM not all take MASTERCARD (only BNI bank does) but all of them take Visa. There is an extraction limit of 300.000Ariari or 400.000Ariari depending on the bank. Out of the airport, beggers assaulted us, to give them money for taking the luggage carrier back. Best to ignore them, but you can give them a few euro-coins if you really want. Going to the hotel took a while, like 30 mins, and we where stopped by 2 or 3 police patrols, armed heavily with kalashnikovs. Not very good for a first impression. Next day we wanted to arrange for a taxi brousse to go for Morondava, but we made an effort and we hired a driver instead. He had a mini van which was perfect , although the road was so bad, it put a lot of stress on the car. I can give you the driver's number or email, we is a wonderful guy! We even let valuable things in the car, and there were no issues. Or there were times when we ventured deep in the forest during night time (when going to Kirindy, after we've seen the baobabs at sunset). Unfortunately we didn't go to Tsingy and I regret it! The car was unsuitable, we would have needed a 4x4 (100Eur/day). Going to Morondava took 2 days. Our driver, Hasina, advised us not to travel during night, and indeed you will see this yourself, the WEST of Madagascar is VERY, very poor. Little rain makes life even harder for those people, so some of them do bad things. We had no incidents. We passed through Antsirabe, and stopped for the night in Miandrivazo (means looking for the girlfriend). Next day we got to Morondava and we've seen the Mozambic channel for the first time. In morondava you really need to go to La Jamaica, and drink that Coco Punch. It's a must. If you get to sleep to Cheval du Mer, tell the Owners Radu&Meda says hello. They are such nice people (they are french) we still talk to them by email. Back to Tana took another 2 days. Before we did that we went from Morondava to the baobabs, then Kirindy (great walks in the forest during the night), lots of animals, nice experience sleeping in a wooden little house. For the East, you don't need a big car, the roads are better. Only the West (the trip to Morondava) has this requirement, but even there the roads are very good up until 50-60Km before morondava, where the road is almost unusable. So for the east, the costs in hiring a smaller car are smaller. Our driver Hasina, offered us a lower price accordingly, even if he used his mini van. Such a nice person! Because of this, we saved a day, where we didn't have to look for another driver. From Tana we went to Perinet, and stayed at Feon'ny'ala. We've also seen Vakon. There we've seen the Indri in the Andasibe and Mantadia parks. Incredible experience, with the rain forests, BTW after we've passed to the East, living Tana behind, the weather changed a lot. The climate is with more rain, incredible difference from a coast to another. So Perinet was great, from there we went to Mahambo, and we stayed at La Pirogue, where we took the best bungalow near the water. Beautiful Gardens, flowers, nice water, all you wated from a relaxing holiday. A bit more expensive but totally worth it. BTW, the prices change a lot, the WEST is very cheap, but they get bigger in the EAST, while the Ile Sainte Marie is almost a ripoff. From there we went to Soanierana Ivongo and took the Ferry to Ile Sainte MArie with the Cap Sainte Marie "Company". The Ferry is actually a boat-bus, not very big. Try not to stay in the first line, as it gets poorly ventilated, and there will be a lot of movement on the waves. Also don't go if its storm (normally they should cancel the boat trip in bad weather conditions). Try not to be late in the port, as you might loose your ride and the tickets are not refundable. Once we got on Ile Sainte Marie, a driver from La Crique was expecting us. We went there, they have a very nice garden, good bungalows, but there are very many sea urchins in the water, so it's very beautiful to watch, but dangerous. I put my swim glasses and took out 3 urchins at only 2m from the shore, in the water. Also use sea-shoes. Besides their beach, there is no other place to go swiming , since the waters in that part of the island are very swampy. I didn;t like that. But instead, we took a guide ( Gabriel, a malgasy man) for a walk in the East of IleSainte MArie (it's only 7km) to see the Mangrove. This was totally worth it! Not only we've seen cameleons, orchidees, the sweet plant like honey I ate a lot of that, it was everywhere near the road, cinnamon, peper, coffe, all the exotic plants where everywhere, but we got to the Paradis D'amphany in the East of Sainte Marie and from there we took a pirogue to cross the Lake of Amphany and we got to this incredible remote place, where it was only us, the white sand beach, and the true indian ocean. A very remote place, and a very pleasent memory for us. Back to La Crique we were disspaointed to see that they tried to make us take their expensive driver, instead of finding alternate solutions . There's this guy Joseph, that lied about the taxi brousse going from south to north of Ile sainte marie, and their expensive food , not even cooked well, try to avoid that as much as possible. La Crique is not really worth it, they made a very bad impression (probably their ancestors were pirates, so this is why they have this attitude :) ). avoid, but go see the mangrove and the beach over the lake. from La crique we wnet to the North, a difficult ride with a taxi we asked from the Ambodifotatra, and we stayed at the La cocoterie Robert. Great guy, but watch out for his wife :)). There you'll find the best beach in all Madagascar, perfect water, perfect sand, incredible rustique bungalows, but very big, and clean and confy, such a remote place that you will never forget. It is very hard to get there, but there's this reward. There you can see the natural pools, great place to bath and eat Langusta. From north we took a taxi brousse to the South, were with a pirogue we've crossed the water to Ile Aux NAttes. This was my favorite place. We stayed at Chez Sica (totally recomanded), all was good there: the people, the bungalows were huge and with a very nice design (comparable to La Pirogue in Mahambo) ,prices were fair, food was available close at La Robinsonade, right on the shore. There you can walk arround the island, bath a lot, and see the wales. Here are some videos with what we've seen: Beaches: youtube.com/watch?v=8Fo95NIB... Lemurs: youtube.com/watch?v=5YthDZ8t... youtube.com/watch?v=kgLm_CAf... youtube.com/watch?v=vwmrYDl1... La pirogue: youtube.com/watch?v=R8ohQ0mO... Morondava: youtube.com/watch?v=0unaK74k... Here you can see our driver as well: youtube.com/watch?v=VZLEShSc... We're eating sugarcane for the first time :) So hope this helps, if you have any specific questions, you can PM my wife on youtube. Those videos are in her account. Happy holiday, you lucky travelers! :)

Hi Excellent feedback on your trip, and wonderful advice for us to consider when (and not if!) we return to visit Madagascar again. It would be wonderful if you could take some time to turn sections of this response into travel tips on the relevant Madasgacar pages, as there is some great information here which would be very relevant for people planning their trips! Regards Cathy

WOW people thank you so much for all the feedback, that's just great! :) I guess i'll have to reconsider a few things... I actually did consider cancelling the Air France flight, and i do have a cancellation insurance, however, you can only seem to use this if you are sick or injured! I wonder if there aren't people or offices in Mada, who can book your domestic flights a little cheaper...

Hi Katia If you contact the booking agency for La Petite Traversee (madexperience), they do the internal flight arrangements for clients whose packages they offer, so perhaps they might be able to help out? The lady's name is Jolene, and I found her very helpful (she's Okkie's 'other half', but is based in South Africa). You're right - cancellation insurance doesn't cover just deciding not to take the flight, but sometimes the penalty is only a small % of the flight cost (but of course, this may depend on the sort of ticket you have. Or another alternative is to book a flight through to Ile St Marie: for a lot of African destinations, the cost of booking through to another destination (other than the point of arrival) in country can sometimes be relatively little. For example, in South Africa, the cost of booking a flight from Europe through to Cape Town is only a small amount more than a flight from Europe to Johannesburg (even though you change planes in Johannesburg and then fly to Cape Town), and much cheaper than booking a flight to Johannesburg and then paying for the internal flight to Cape Town separately. Regards Cathy