Welcome to Madagascar! Firstly, we welcome you at the airport and then private transfer to the Belvedere Hotel. Once we arrive, you will be greeted by friendly and caring staff. While your bags are unloaded from the minibus, we could sip a typical drink while admiring the view of the city from the terraces of the Hotel!

After that, dinner briefing with the guide that will accompany you throughout the tour. We do this to best organise your days schedule and answer questions about each stop.

PS: Keep in mind that airline flights are not included in the package, so you can decide from which airport you leave, at what time and with the airline you prefer… This is to give you maximum freedom of choice!

We leave in the morning in an easterly direction, toward the Indian Ocean. Just after leaving Antananarivo, forests and rice fields follow one another in a panorama typical of the highlands of Madagascar.

After just a hundred kilometers, the first stop is at ferme Peyrieras. At this time, accompanied by a local guide, you can learn about the very interesting fauna of the humid forests of the east of the island. For example some of them are: very rare chameleons, geckos of different shapes, crocodiles and butterflies. In addition, this is the place where you will be able to see up close and hold in your hand species of animals that are rare and often difficult to see in the wild. The ideal place for your photos to the small animals of Madagascar!

After lunch we continue on our road to the lemur island of Vakona. That is a place of reintroduction of species that were in captivity. We take small canoes to reach the island. Once there, the first curious lemurs will join us in search of bananas. As they are not yet wild, they have no problem coming on our shoulders and being touched. Without a doubt the thrill of discovering their lightness, of touching their palms so similar to ours is a unique experience.

At dusk we will do a walk in the forest to discover the rich nightlife. At this time we can see lemurs of the microcephalus family, the world’s smallest primates, frogs, geckos and lots of chameleons.

To end the day, for dinner and overnight we’ll stay in comfortable bungalows at Mantadia Lodge. That is a nice hotel nestled in the Andasibe forest with a beautiful patio close to the forest so you can also observe the animals while sipping a drink!

Awakened by the screams of Indri, the world’s largest lemurs, who live close to our hotel, we begin a day of wet forest discovery.

In the morning we will have a 3 to 4-hour flat circuit with excellent trails in the Analamazoatra Special Reserve to observe Indri and other lemur species from a few meters away.

Instead, in the afternoon we will be exploring another part of Andasibe Park, visiting a reserve cared by the local community; after that we will go directly to help projects for the villagers themselves.

Dinner and overnight stay at the Mantadia Lodge hotel as the previous day.

During this day we will travel to the town of Antsirabe. In order to arrive there, we have a six-hour drive back to the highlands. While in the road we drive among hills and beautiful rice fields. We will also pause often to admire the industriousness of the highland people and the rural life surrounding the route.

Once arrived, in the afternoon, we visit the colonial city of Antsirabe, its historic center, markets, and artisans.

In this case, for the night we stay and we have dinner at the Royal Palace Hotel.

Now we move on to the region’s historic capital, Betafo, a meeting point between the people of the west coast and the highlands.

Here we will admire the large terraced rice fields built more than a century ago. We will also be part of savor moments of bucolic life, sharing moments of work in the fields and the daily life of the villages.

After that, we visit the volcanic lakes, the region’s tourist attraction. Keep in mind that here, hide ancient legends and taboos are still valid.

That is a day dedicated to the highlands, the Merina people and their calm pace of life.

After a delicious breakfast we will begin the journey again. Just outside the city we arrive at the foot of the Ibity massif. That is one of the highest mountains in all of Madagascar on whose slopes flows the Manandona River, creating a spectacular patchwork of rice paddies and cultivated vegetable gardens.

We’ll reach the town of Ambositra, a center of multiethnic exchange where we can admire the woodwork of the Zafimaniry artisans. They have been elected a UNESCO World Heritage Site for their art and the history they bring with them.

Then we have lunch at a quaint local restaurant with costumed singing and dancing enlivening our meal.

Later in the afternoon, we enter more and more on the green and tropical part of Madagascar. We will arrive in the characteristic town of Sahambavy, which is dedicated to tea growing. Once arrived, we watch the sunset amidst these rolling hills all cultivated. To end the day in the best way, we sleep in a dreamy place: the Lac hotel, in characteristic bungalows on stilts.

In the beginning we take a walk, accompanied by a friendly local guide, among the villages of Betsileo farmers. Here, surrounded by lots of smiling children, we enter villages bordering the river to observe the Madagascar countryside’s life. Glimpses of the slow life of the fields, zebu and ducks, men at work in the rice fields. That is a medieval yet contemporary world that will captivate the attentive traveler.

At the end of the walk we enter Anja Park. That is a forest that contains one of the most important communities of catta lemurs, the cute ring-tailed lemurs. In this small valley wedged between imposing rock massifs that dominate the landscape, hundreds of these lemurs have found refuge and you will be able to observe them truly up close.

Once the hike is over, we then leave Ambalavao and enter the deep south, characterized by wide plains and savannas.

While on the road, Far West views lead us to Madagascar’s most visited park: the Isalo Park.

Once arrived, we stay in a splendid hotel completely integrated into the nature and built entirely of rock. It’s name is: the Relais de la Reine.

Ultimately, overnight stay and dinner at the hotel.

In light of the beauty of Isalo Park,  we trekking all day through the gorges and canyons. Beautiful natural pools and waterfalls suddenly appear among the rocks where you can swim!

To emphasize, the landscape is reminiscent of Colorado with savannas and mountains eroded by the natural elements.

Again, overnight and dinner at the Relais de la Reine hotel.

We leave early in the morning to reach, after a few kilometers, the small town of Ilakaka. That is  corner of the contemporary Wild West that in a very few years has risen starting from zero, driven by the economy of the world’s largest sapphire mine. We visit the men at work in the immense chasms dug by hand, the drilling tens of meters underground that serve as soundings to discover new deposits, the markets where the rough is traded, and the bustling town that has grown up all around this treasure.

Leaving Ilakaka, we will see the first giant baobabs, the plants that most represent Madagascar. Meanwhile we head into the semi-desert south.

Then we reach the coast of the Mozambique Channel and we cross the Tropic of Capricorn. Here the coastal track awaits us, a difficult but beautiful track of sand and breathtaking views. We will coast along the emerald sea for about 60 kilometers before arriving in Ambatomilo.

Once arrived, a small hotel with a few bungalows overlooking the most beautiful sea on the island will be our location for 5 days.

During the days you will spend at the sea you can choose from dozens of different excursions and activities. From snorkeling at the reef and around the coastal islets to dive the wrecks of ships that sank in the area centuries ago. Otherwise you can take the zebu wagon and go into the thorny forest to see baobabs or really primitive populations, or the humpback whales from June to September that just outside the reef perform their dances and jumps!

We come to the end of such an intense journey! Surely the moment of saying goodbye will leave everyone with a little bitterness in their mouths. However, we will send you home with lasting memories, in the hope of seeing you again in the future for a new adventure with MyMadagascar!