MADAGASCAR TRAVEL INFORMATION

People: Malagassy are usually very friendly people. Most of them are mainly interested in you because they can make some money from us Fazas and the requests for tips are numerous. Culturally there are some interesting aspects, but clothing is not one of them. By the way: Malagassy are very handsome people.Score: 8

Landscape/Nature: very divers and very beautiful. The Spiny Forests in the southeast are unique. The mountains of Isalo and Ambavalao are stunning. The Tsingy of Bemarah and Ankarana are bizar. The rain forests of Ranomafana and Montagne d‘Ambre are spectacular. Score: 10

Transport/Infratructure: De main roads on the island have improved a lot. The main touristic route Tana-Tulear has turned into a fine road. Be aware of motion sickness though because many many turns en route! Other roads however are bad to really bad. However, Air Mauritius does have a good number of national flights available with which you can bridge the worst or longest parts. If you book your intercontinental flight from Europe, you receive a 40% discount on all national flights. Score: 6

Wildlife/Animals: THE place to be. Just read the travel report of have a look at the pictures. Score: 10

Food: not al that good. Most of the time its a variety of zebu. At the coast the seafood is good though. Score: 6

Climate: both my travels to Madagascar took place in November. High season is over by then and the first rains fall, which means the place is not packed with other tourists and the rains are very much bearable. January and february though are cyclone season so avoid those months, unless you like some serious winds. The climate differsery much from one part to the other: dry and hot to damp to quite cold in winter. We just loved it all. Score: 8

Culture: all tribes do have interesting ancestor beliefs and traditions, and some them even take out the dead from their graves once a year and walk around with them for a day or 2. But as far as clothing and music is concerned there isn‘t much. The people are very friendly, but Madagascar is a prime nature destination and not a culture one. Score: 5

Hygiene:  Madagascar is a developing country and as such not one of the cleanest. Many travellers do end up with a stomach bug. So be careful and wash your hands. Score: 5

Costs of Travelling: affordable, but not cheap. Of course you can go the die-hard backpacking way which makes things a lot cheaper, but it‘s not Asia. Score: 6

Safety/Stability: no problem at all. Of course you have to be careful in Tana, but doesn‘t that count for every capital in the world? Score: 9

Excitement/Adventure/Challenge: very good. Enough to see, to experience, to do. Scuba diving canoeing, rafting, trekking, moutaineering etc etc. Top of the bill. Score: 10

Overall score: 8.35

With this score Madagascar WILL enter our top 10 of countries of the world to travel.

Travel Guide Book: Bradt Guide Madagascar. The first time we used a Bradt guide and according to many travellers it is the bible of Madagascar. Well, we were quite disappointed. We sometimes did find big mistakes and even nonsense; at Bradt they use a lot of input of fellow travellers but who checks this input? Furthermore, travellers do differ a lot from eachother. The book is filled with quotes from other travellers which starts to annoy after a while. It almost seems they don‘t want to take the responsibility for the content of the book.

Accommodation: below we give our personal impression of the accommodation we chose in Madagascar.

Antananarivo: Hotel Logis was new, good spacious rooms but no meals (we even had trouble organising some sort of breakfast), fine location in the city centre. The other hotel we had, Hotel Ivato, is a very standard hotel (with a good kitchen though) but has a convenient location 5 minutes from the airport

Morondava: Hotel Chez Maggie was supposed to be THE accommodation of Morondova. Well, with a very limited choice in Morondova this title has been earned a bit too easy I guess. Chez Maggie is a kind of “upmarket“ backpacker (does such a thing exist?) with a fine (seafood) kitchen. Owner Gary is very friendly but why did he put so many rooms on such a small property? The 2 new rondavels are by far the best rooms, and those are also the ones you always see on flyers and advertisements.

Ifaty: Hotel de la Plage has a good location, directly at the beach. However, the seaweed, crabs, sea-urchins and other critters are not really inviting to go for a swim and there is no pool. But a rondavel directly at the beach and sea is beautiful. Their kitchen is good.

Isalo: Hotel Toile d Isalo is basic but the owner/manager is very helpful. Their rooms are basic but good enough for a couple of nights. The kitchen only serves zebu.

Ambalavao: Hotel Bougainville is located on the property of the paper making factory, which is a nice extra. The rooms are fine but no character. The restaurant is good.

Ranomafana: Hotel Manja has simple rooms with a nice view, but it is quite a climb to get to your room. The restaurant is not special, but otherwise fine.

Antsirabe: Hotel des Thermes was supposed to be one of the best hotels we would stay. It is an old French colonial building with a stiff character. But gee, what a place it was. Very stiff, no atmosphere, arrogant. The highlight was the pool, but even without staying there you can use it with some extra payment. Skip this hotel!

Andasibe: Vakona Lodge was another supposedly very good hotel. The problem of course is that we do run an upmarket lodge ourselves so we are always curious to see another lodge who pretends to be the same. And Vakona is NOT upmarket. The location is very beautiful at the edge of Mantadia NP, it is a bit of a resort type lodge and it has a fine reserve where you can see lemurs close-up. But what Vakona forgets is that its guests coem to enjoy nature and silence: to wake up with the first sounds of birds. But no, we woke up at 6AM because of noisy staff members who continued to make noise until 8PM. And besides that there were several things of which we said: no, Vakona is not top, it is average but is has an arrogant attitude as it is the best-of-the-best. Vakona, come off your holy mountain.

Diego Suarez/Joffreville: Nature Lodge was the absolute highlight of all the accommodation we have had in Madagascar. Very nice location, helpful staff, very friendly owner, fine service, good kitchen. Especially the atmosphere and attention to detail appealed to us.

Ankarana: there is no real accommodation here other than wooden huts which will undoubtedly go down by each cyclone. In other words die-hard backpacken and we liked it.

Nosy Be: Hotel de la Plage was just not it. Situated on a hill with a beautiful view of beach and sea i the distance. Both however were not to be enjoyed very much (the beach is muddy, the sea not clear and with sharp rocks) so we automatically stayed much at the hotel. And unfortunately it hasn‘t much more to offer than the pool. The owners were uneasy or sometimes even arrogant towards guests so after 5 nights we were quite happy to leave. By the way, the owners do speak some english but just seem not to trouble themselves trying to do so.

Agent: the 2008 travels was organised by Tsara Travel from The Netherlands; the itinerary we composed ourselves and also the flights we arranged ourselves. Tsara used her own local Mora Travel in Tana and they organised everything well. Good car, fine drivers, all organised well. So nothing to complain about or it must be that we never ever heard from them again after we got back home.