Madagascar: Andasibe, the RN7, Isalo and Ifaty

Arrive in Antananarivo

Ivato International Airport to your hotel in central Antananarivo

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Antananarivo
• Environ 1 h de route

Soir

In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a briefing on the two weeks ahead: what the RN7 is like, what to wear on the night walks, and how the long road days are broken up. Then we sit down together to a welcome dinner of Malagasy dishes such as romazava, the national beef and greens stew, at a local restaurant.

Compris

• Pick-up at Ivato International Airport (TNR)
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Welcome dinner

Activités en option

• If you land early, ask us about a guided visit to the Rova, the royal compound on the city's highest hill (price confirmed at booking)

East to the rainforest at Andasibe

Antananarivo on the RN2 to Marozevo, then Andasibe

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Andasibe
• Environ 4 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal on the road, at Moramanga or near Andasibe, and we reach our lodge by mid-afternoon, about four hours of driving in all. Rest and settle in.

Soir

At dusk we walk into the Mitsinjo community reserve with a local guide and head torches: mouse lemurs, sleeping chameleons on the branch tips, tree frogs and, with luck, a woolly lemur. Dinner is at the lodge.

Compris

• Peyrieras reserve at Marozevo with a local guide
• Sit-down lunch on the way
• Night walk in the Mitsinjo community reserve with a local guide
• Dinner at the lodge

The indri of Analamazaotra

A day in and around Andasibe

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Andasibe
• Environ 30 min de route

Matin

The indri, the largest living lemur, sings most in the early morning, and its wailing call carries for kilometres across the valley. So we are at the gate of Analamazaotra, the indri reserve of Andasibe-Mantadia National Park, when it opens, and walk in with a park guide while the families are calling. Indri live in small family groups high in the canopy; your guide knows their territories, and most mornings we find at least one group close enough to watch. The same forest holds diademed sifakas, common brown lemurs, the bamboo lemur and the blue coua, plus orchids that flower in October and November.

Après-midi

We are back at the lodge for lunch, and the afternoon is yours: sleep, read on the veranda or walk to the village of Andasibe and its old railway station.

Soir

At dusk we take a second night walk, this time with the V.O.I.M.M.A. community association, in a different patch of forest.

Compris

• Guided walk in the Analamazaotra reserve of Andasibe-Mantadia National Park, park entry and local guide included
• Lunch and dinner at the lodge
• Night walk with the V.O.I.M.M.A. community association

Activités en option

• Half-day in Mantadia, the wilder northern part of the park, about 20 km up a rough track (not in the trip price; quoted at booking)

The long road to Antsirabe

Andasibe back through Antananarivo, then south on the RN7 via Ambatolampy to Antsirabe

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Antsirabe
• Environ 7 h de route

Après-midi

We leave at 8 am, cross the edge of Tana before the afternoon traffic and join the RN7, the national road that will carry us south for the next week. At Ambatolampy, about 70 km on, we stop for a sit-down lunch and a visit to one of the foundries where families cast cooking pots from recycled aluminium in sand moulds, by hand, over open fires. The afternoon road climbs across the highlands past Antanifotsy, with rice terraces, red-brick farmhouses and the tombs of Merina families beside the fields. We reach Antsirabe, a spa town of the colonial era at about 1,500 m, in the late afternoon.

Soir

The evening is free: try a ride in one of the town's brightly painted pousse-pousses.

Compris

• Sit-down lunch in Ambatolampy
• Visit to an aluminium pot foundry in Ambatolampy

Activités en option

• Pousse-pousse ride around Antsirabe in the evening (paid locally)

Ambositra's woodcarvers, then down into the rainforest

Antsirabe to Ambositra, then the RN7 to Alakamisy Ambohimaha and the RN45 east to Ranomafana

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Ranomafana
• Environ 7 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal in town. In the afternoon we continue south on the RN7 through pine plantations and terraced valleys to Alakamisy Ambohimaha, then turn east onto the RN45, the better of the two roads to the park, and drop off the plateau into the rainforest of the Namorona valley.

Soir

We reach Ranomafana, a small village named for its hot springs, at about 5 pm, in time for a shower before dinner at the lodge.

Compris

• Woodcarving and marquetry workshop visit in Ambositra
• Sit-down lunch in Ambositra
• Dinner at the lodge in Ranomafana

Ranomafana National Park

A day in Ranomafana National Park and the village

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du soir
• Nuit : Ranomafana
• Environ 30 min de route

Après-midi

Lunch is yours in the village, and the afternoon is free: soak in the village's thermal pool, fed by the hot springs, or rest at the lodge.

Soir

At dusk we walk the road along the park edge with a guide for mouse lemurs, frogs and leaf-tailed geckos.

Compris

• Guided walk in Ranomafana National Park, park entry and local guide included
• Entry to the thermal pool in Ranomafana village
• Night walk along the park edge with a local guide
• Dinner at the lodge

Activités en option

• Visit to Centre ValBio, the research station at the park edge, when it can host visitors (price confirmed at booking)

Fianarantsoa's old town and Ambalavao paper

Ranomafana to Fianarantsoa, then the RN7 south to Ambalavao

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Ambalavao
• Environ 3 h de route

Matin

We climb back out of the rainforest after breakfast and reach Fianarantsoa, the main town of the southern highlands, by mid-morning. Your guide walks you up through the old upper town, the Haute-Ville, with its cobbled lanes, 19th-century churches and wooden balconies, for the view over the lake and the lower town.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal in Fianarantsoa. In the afternoon we drive an hour south through vineyards and granite hills to Ambalavao, a market town with steep tiled roofs. Here we visit a workshop making Antemoro paper, a craft brought to Madagascar by Arab traders centuries ago: pulp from the bark of the avoha tree is spread on cloth frames and pressed with fresh flowers, then dried in the sun.

Soir

The rest of the afternoon and the evening are free in Ambalavao.

Compris

• Walk through the Haute-Ville of Fianarantsoa with your guide
• Sit-down lunch in Fianarantsoa
• Antemoro paper workshop in Ambalavao

Activités en option

• Silk weaving workshop in Ambalavao (paid locally)

Ring-tailed lemurs at Anja, then across the Horombe to Isalo

Ambalavao to the Anja Community Reserve, then the RN7 via Ihosy to Ranohira

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Ranohira
• Environ 4.5 h de route

Matin

We leave by late morning, about 230 km and 4.5 hours of driving in all today, and cross the Horombe Plateau, a vast empty grassland where the highlands give way to the south.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down stop in Ihosy, which breaks the drive before the last 80 km or so.

Soir

We reach Ranohira, at the foot of the Isalo massif, by mid-afternoon, in time to rest before dinner.

Compris

• Guided walk in the Anja Community Reserve, entry and village guide included
• Sit-down lunch in Ihosy
• Dinner at the hotel in Ranohira

The canyons of Isalo

A day in Isalo National Park from Ranohira, with sunset at La Fenetre

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Ranohira
• Environ 1 h de route

Après-midi

Back in Ranohira for a sit-down lunch, we rest through the heat of the middle of the day. In the late afternoon we take a short shaded walk in the Namaza valley, where ring-tailed lemurs, Verreaux's sifakas and brown lemurs gather near the stream. To end the day we drive south to La Fenetre de l'Isalo, a natural window in the rock, where the sun sets through the gap.

Soir

The evening is free.

Compris

• Guided walk to the Piscine Naturelle in Isalo National Park, park entry and local guide included
• Sit-down lunch in Ranohira
• Namaza valley walk in the late afternoon
• Sunset at La Fenetre de l'Isalo

Zombitse forest and down to the Mozambique Channel

Ranohira via Ilakaka, Zombitse-Vohibasia National Park and Sakaraha to Toliara, then north to Ifaty

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Ifaty
• Environ 5.5 h de route

Après-midi

The last long drive, about 270 km and 5.5 to 6 hours: the RN7 is the only road from the canyons to the coast, so we split it with a forest walk and lunch. We leave at 8 am and pass through Ilakaka, a sapphire-rush town of tin-roofed gem dealers that grew from almost nothing in the late 1990s. About an hour and a half from Ranohira we stop at Zombitse-Vohibasia National Park, a dry deciduous forest and an island of trees in the grassland, for a 1.5 hour walk with a park guide: Verreaux's sifakas, Hubbard's sportive lemurs asleep in tree holes, and Appert's tetraka, a bird found nowhere else. Lunch is a sit-down stop at Sakaraha. The afternoon road runs past baobabs and the painted, zebu-horned tombs of the southwest down to Toliara on the coast, then 25 km north to Ifaty, a string of fishing villages on a lagoon sheltered by a barrier reef.

Soir

We arrive in the late afternoon; dinner is at the hotel.

Compris

• Guided walk in Zombitse-Vohibasia National Park, park entry and local guide included
• Sit-down lunch at Sakaraha
• Dinner at the hotel in Ifaty

Spiny forest at dawn, then the lagoon

Ifaty, the Reniala reserve and the beach

• Petit-déjeuner
• Nuit : Ifaty

Matin

Birds in the spiny forest are most active in the first hours after sunrise, so after an early breakfast we walk into the Reniala reserve at about 7 am, a few minutes from the beach. This is the strange dry forest of the southwest: octopus trees and other spiny plants found only in Madagascar, and old baobabs, some many centuries old, with bottle-shaped and twisted trunks. A local guide leads the botanical trail and looks for the long-tailed ground roller, the subdesert mesite and the running coua, all southwestern specialities. We are back at the hotel by late morning, and the rest of the day is yours. Swim in the lagoon, walk the beach to watch the Vezo fishermen sail their outrigger pirogues in through the gap in the reef, or join an optional snorkelling trip on the reef.

Soir

Lunch and dinner are yours, at the hotel or in Mangily village.

Compris

• Guided early-morning walk in the Reniala spiny forest reserve, entry included

Activités en option

• Snorkelling on the Ifaty reef by pirogue or boat (paid locally)
• Whale watching, roughly July to September (paid locally)

Fly from Toliara to Antananarivo

Ifaty to Toliara airport, then a domestic flight to Antananarivo

• Petit-déjeuner
• Nuit : Antananarivo
• Environ 45 min de route

Matin

A morning on the beach or a last swim, depending on the flight time, which the national carrier sets and often changes; departure dates are set around the current timetable, and your guide confirms the time the day before. We drive about 45 minutes south to Toliara airport for the flight of under two hours back to Antananarivo, over the dry southwest and the central highlands you crossed by road. From Ivato it is a short transfer to our hotel in the centre of Tana, and the rest of the day is free. If you have energy, walk down to Lake Anosy, where the jacarandas flower purple in October and November, or browse the Digue craft market near the airport road for raffia, embroidery and carved wood.

Soir

Dinner is yours tonight. If the flight slips by a day, Ambohimanga is shortened or dropped and the farewell dinner is held on the evening we reach Antananarivo.

Compris

• Transfer to Toliara airport
• Domestic flight from Toliara to Antananarivo
• Transfer from Ivato airport to the hotel

Ambohimanga and a last evening in Tana

Antananarivo to the Royal Hill of Ambohimanga and back

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Antananarivo
• Environ 2 h de route

Matin

This morning we drive about an hour north of the city to Ambohimanga, the royal hill from which the Merina king Andrianampoinimerina began uniting the highlands in the late 18th century. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and still a sacred place for many Malagasy.

Soir

A local guide takes us through the old stone gateways, one with a great stone disc that was rolled across it each night, into the royal compound: the king's wooden house, simple and dark, the later summer palace of the queens with its European furniture, and the sacred trees and tombs. From the top you look back over rice paddies and villages to Tana on its hills. Lunch is a sit-down meal near the hill. The afternoon is free in the city to rest or shop, and in the evening the group gathers for a farewell dinner. If the flight slips by a day, Ambohimanga is shortened or dropped and the farewell dinner is held on the evening we reach Antananarivo.

Compris

• Royal Hill of Ambohimanga with a local guide, entry included
• Sit-down lunch near Ambohimanga
• Farewell dinner in Antananarivo

Depart from Antananarivo

Your hotel to Ivato International Airport

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 1 h de route

Matin

The trip ends after breakfast.

Soir

Your guide checks your flight times the evening before and books the airport transfer to Ivato, about 15 km north of the centre, which can take up to an hour in traffic, so we leave at least three and a half hours before an international departure. If your flight is in the evening, the hotel holds your bags and you have the day for a last walk in the Haute-Ville, up to the Rova for the view, or a coffee and pastry in one of the cafes of Analakely. Many international flights leave Tana in the afternoon or late evening, so there is no need to fly home the moment the trip ends. If you would like to stay longer, ask us about extra nights in Antananarivo, and we will quote them with your booking.

Compris

• Drop-off at Ivato International Airport (TNR)