Category: Madagascar

Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park protects the largest forest of limestone pinnacles on earth, a field of razor-edged grey needles rising up to around 100 metres above western Madagascar. Visitors cross it on harnesses and fixed cables, with circuits running…

Madagascar has 5,000 km of coastline and almost nobody on it. Nosy Be holds the most developed resorts and the widest choice of island excursions, Île Sainte-Marie is quieter and cheaper with whales from July to September, and Île aux…

Marojejy National Park is where you go to see the silky sifaka, a white lemur numbering fewer than two thousand animals and found in only two forests on earth. Reaching it means a multi-day trek between three mountain camps, with…

The Red Tsingy, or Tsingy Rouge, is a canyon of crimson spires cut by the Irodo River in northern Madagascar, formed from iron-rich laterite rather than the grey limestone of Bemaraha and Ankarana. Visits take half a day from Diego…

Tsingy de Namoroka National Park holds limestone pinnacles to rival Bemaraha, the longest cave system in Africa, and fewer than five hundred visitors a year. Circuits run from easy forest walks to multi-day treks with scrambling and rope bridges. The…

Madagascar uses the Ariary, a closed currency you cannot obtain before arriving and should spend or exchange before leaving. Cards work at larger hotels in the main cities and almost nowhere else, so cash is what runs a trip here.…

Masoala National Park is the largest protected area in Madagascar, a stretch of coastal rainforest where the trees run down to coral reefs and the only way in is by boat. Visitors come for the red ruffed lemur, the aye-ayes…

Madagascar holds over 400 reptile species with more than nine in ten found nowhere else, and none of the snakes is dangerous to humans. The headline groups are the leaf-tailed geckos, whose camouflage is the best in the natural world,…

The Tsiribihina river descent runs two or three days by pirogue from Miandrivazo down to Belo sur Tsiribihina, camping on sandbanks and passing villages reachable no other way. It is flat water rather than whitewater, and the appeal is the…

Madagascar carries a high malaria risk across the whole country except Antananarivo, so prophylaxis is standard advice for nearly every visitor. Yellow fever vaccination is required only if you arrive from or transit a country where the virus is present.…