Round Trip
Eastern Madagascar. Rainforest, the Pangalanes and the Highlands
Trip Duration
15 days
Travel Type
Tailor-made private tour
Price per Person
From 3’010 CHF
Included
15 days of private travel between the east coast, the waterways of the Pangalanes and the volcanic landscapes of the highlands.
In the morning, the calls of the indri carry through the rainforest of Andasibe. With your guide, you search among the dense foliage for lemurs and the forest’s smaller inhabitants. A boat trip on the Canal des Pangalanes takes you through lagoons to the Palmarium reserve, where you set out in the evening in search of the nocturnal aye-aye. The journey continues into the highlands: to the springs of Analavory, Lac Itasy and the Tritriva crater lake near Antsirabe.
You travel privately with personal support from MadaPlus TRAVEL, your own driver on the road sections and local guides in the reserves. Four bases with at least two nights at each allow time for observation; a domestic flight connects the start of the journey with the east coast. Throughout the journey, you travel in your own group: as a pair, with friends or with your family.
You are met in person at Ivato International Airport and accompanied to your hotel. After the night flight the day stays calm: you arrive, breathe the cool highland air of the capital and let the journey begin.
Overnight at the Hotel San Cristobal Boutique Hotel.
In around forty-five minutes the domestic flight takes you from the highlands to the east coast. The contrast could hardly be greater: instead of rice terraces and brick villages, there is humid warmth, avenues of travellers’ palms and the scent of cloves. Depending on the flight time, you explore Tamatave in the afternoon, the country’s largest port city, with the Bazar Be and the long harbour pier.
Overnight at the Calypso Hotel & SPA.
In the morning you board at the river port. The Canal des Pangalanes is a lagoon system stretching six hundred kilometres along the coast without a single kilometre of road. For three and a half hours you glide south past fishing villages, dugout canoes and water hyacinths. At the end, Akanin’ny Nofy awaits, the “nest of dreams”, where your bungalow stands directly on Lac Ampitabe.
Three nights at the Hôtel Le Palmarium.
In the morning a local guide leads you through the private Palmarium Reserve. Indri, diademed sifakas, crowned lemurs and brown lemurs live here freely and are used to people. In between, a remarkable collection of pitcher plants and palms of the east coast.
After dark, a boat takes you to a small island in the lake. This is where the aye-aye lives, Madagascar’s rarest mammal: nocturnal, steeped in legend and virtually never seen in the wild. Here the chances are good, though as everywhere in nature a sighting cannot be guaranteed.
In the morning you visit Andranokoditra, a fishing village on the narrow strip of land between the lagoon and the open sea. At this point only a few hundred metres separate the still fresh water from the Indian Ocean. The afternoon is yours: observe lemurs, swim, do nothing.
In the morning the boat journey crosses Lac Rasoabe to Manambato, where your vehicle is waiting. Via Brickaville the road climbs into the mountains, and with every metre of altitude the air grows cooler and the forest denser. In the evening, a first night walk along the park road.
Three nights at the Relais de Mantadia.
An early start into the Analamazaotra Reserve. Shortly after sunrise the indri begin to call: a plaintive, almost human song that carries for kilometres through the rainforest. The largest living lemur can therefore often be heard long before it is seen.
In the afternoon you visit the lemur island of the Vakôna Forest Lodge. In the evening you head into the darkness once more: mouse lemurs, chameleons, tree frogs and leaf-tailed geckos.
In the morning you visit the private park of the Vakôna Forest Lodge and then a local distillery. Afterwards a guide takes you through the VOIIMA Community Forest, a forest managed by the village community itself and supported by its entrance fees.
If you would prefer a quieter day, we adapt the programme: time in the village, at the orchid station or at your accommodation.
On the drive back to the highlands you stop at the private Peyrieras Reserve near Marozevo. Chameleons of all sizes, geckos, frogs and butterflies can be observed and photographed here at close range. The afternoon in the capital is free.
Overnight at the San Cristobal Boutique Hôtel.
The RN1 leads west, through rice fields, brickworks and villages of red brick. At Lac Itasy a landscape opens up that few travellers know: more than a hundred extinct volcanic cones and, among them, the country’s third-largest lake.
Two nights at the Hôtel Farihy.
In the morning you visit the cold springs of Analavory, known as geysers, which rise from orange-red sinter cones. Then comes the Chute de la Lily waterfall, which drops in several stages into a wooded valley. To finish, a viewpoint over the lake and its volcanic cones.
Around Ampefy lie further volcanic lakes and typical highland villages. If you like, you explore them on foot – a walk shows far more of this landscape than the vehicle does.
The route via Faratsiho climbs to over eighteen hundred metres, partly on unpaved track, through open grassland, villages and farmed valleys. It is one of the finest highland drives in the country and is almost never used by tour groups. The condition of the road sets the pace; here the journey is part of the experience. In the afternoon you reach Antsirabe, the spa town of the Norwegian missionaries.
Two nights at the Couleur Café.
Forty kilometres outside the town lies Lac Tritriva, a deep green crater lake in an extinct volcano around which several legends have grown; your guide tells them along the way.
The afternoon belongs to craftsmanship: workshops for zebu horn, gemstones and embroidery, plus a workshop where sweets are made by hand. In between, the town by pousse-pousse, the colourful rickshaw for which Antsirabe is famous.
The return journey on the RN7 passes through the classic highlands: rice terraces, two-storey brick houses, markets at the roadside. In the afternoon you climb up into the upper town to the Rova royal palace, from where the whole city can be seen.
Overnight at La Varangue, a few minutes’ walk below.
Depending on your departure time, the morning remains for final purchases: vanilla, spices, raffia, woodcraft. We then take you to Ivato Airport.
Veloma – until we meet again in Madagascar.
Your accommodation
Extend your trip: after this tour, you can add beach days on Nosy Be, island life on Sainte Marie or an adventure along the west coast. See the extensions
The tour is tailored individually to your wishes. The personally prepared itinerary and the written offer from MadaPlus TRAVEL are binding for the price and scope of services.
International flights, visa, tips and personal expenses are not included.
Adequate travel insurance is mandatory for trips with MadaPlus TRAVEL. It must cover cancellation and trip interruption, medical expenses abroad, medical assistance and medically necessary repatriation.
We are pleased to offer you personalized and flexible assistance:
