Madagascar: the Avenue of the Baobabs and the Tsingy de Bemaraha

1. Day 1: Arrive in Antananarivo

   Ivato International Airport to your hotel in central Antananarivo

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Antananarivo
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Ivato International Airport (TNR), about 15 km north of central Antananarivo, where a driver meets you in the arrivals hall. The drive into town can take up to an hour in traffic, past rice paddies, brick kilns and the red hills the capital is built over. Plan to land by about 4 pm to join the evening briefing; the exact latest arrival is confirmed with your final itinerary. Our hotel is central, so if you arrive early you can walk to the Analakely market steps or up towards the Haute-Ville, where old brick houses and churches look over Lake Anosy. In the evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group to go through the week: how the 4x4 days work, what to wear on the Tsingy circuits, why we carry cash in ariary, and what the lodges in the west are like. Then we sit down to a welcome dinner of Malagasy dishes: romazava, a beef and greens broth, zebu brochettes, and rice, which comes with almost every meal here.

   Included

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

   Free time: Free until the evening briefing

2. Day 2: Fly west to Morondava, sunset at the baobabs

   Antananarivo to Morondava by air, then the Avenue of the Baobabs

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Morondava
   Day 2 details

   After breakfast we drive to Ivato for the domestic flight west to Morondava, about an hour in the air over the highlands and down to the dry west coast. Flight times change with the timetable, so the morning is kept loose. In Morondava we meet our 4x4 drivers, who stay with us until day 8, and sit down to lunch near the sea, where fish and prawns from the Mozambique Channel are the local food. The afternoon is free to rest out of the heat or walk the beach. About two hours before sunset we drive roughly 20 km north on the sandy RN8 to the Avenue of the Baobabs, a line of about two dozen Grandidier's baobabs, the tallest of Madagascar's species and several hundred years old, now a protected natural monument. We walk the avenue as the light turns gold and the trunks go red, and stay until the trees are silhouettes. Back in Morondava, dinner is your choice.

   Included

   • Domestic flight from Antananarivo to Morondava
   • Sit-down lunch in Morondava
   • Sunset at the Avenue of the Baobabs

   Free time: Afternoon free in Morondava; dinner on your own

   Activity: Easy walking on sand at the avenue.

   

3. Day 3: North to Bekopaka over two rivers

   Morondava to the Avenue of the Baobabs at sunrise, Belo-sur-Tsiribihina, then Bekopaka

   • Drive about 9 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Bekopaka
   Day 3 details

   This is the longest day of the trip, and there is no shorter way: no paved road and no scheduled flight reach Bekopaka, so we drive about 200 km of sand and dirt track, roughly eight to ten hours with stops, and stay three nights at the far end so you do it only once in each direction. We leave before dawn to pass the Avenue of the Baobabs at sunrise, with the light on the other side of the trees from last night. The track runs north through dry forest and villages to Belo-sur-Tsiribihina, where the 4x4s drive onto a flat vehicle ferry across the wide, red Tsiribihina. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Belo. The afternoon is the roughest stretch, slow and bumpy, broken by village stops and leg stretches. The last crossing is the short ferry over the Manambolo River into Bekopaka, the village at the gate of Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park, which we reach in the late afternoon. Dinner is at the lodge.

   Included

   • Sunrise at the Avenue of the Baobabs
   • 4x4 track north with local drivers
   • Vehicle ferries across the Tsiribihina at Belo and the Manambolo at Bekopaka
   • Sit-down lunch in Belo-sur-Tsiribihina
   • Dinner at the lodge

   Activity: Over the 4 hour driving cap because there is no other way to the Tsingy; broken by the sunrise stop, the two ferries, lunch in Belo and village stops, and followed by three nights in Bekopaka.

   

4. Day 4: The Petit Tsingy and the Manambolo gorge

   Bekopaka: the Petit Tsingy, then by pirogue into the Manambolo gorge

   • By boat
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Bekopaka
   Day 4 details

   A slower start after yesterday. The Petit Tsingy sits on the edge of Bekopaka, so we walk in with a national park guide at about 8 am, while the limestone is still cool. Tsingy de Bemaraha was listed by UNESCO in 1990 for these grey limestone blades, cut by rain into a maze of pinnacles, crevices and narrow corridors. The circuit uses ladders, steps and walkways to reach lookouts over the pinnacles, about two to three hours on foot. Lunch is back at the lodge, followed by a rest through the heat. In the late afternoon we board pirogues, wooden dugout canoes paddled by local boatmen, on the Manambolo River and float into its gorge, where cliffs rise straight out of the water. We stop at a cave hung with stalactites and pass cliff tombs of the Vazimba, whom the Sakalava regard as the island's first people; your guide explains the fady, the local taboos, that go with them. We are back on the bank before dark.

   Included

   • Petit Tsingy circuit with a national park guide, park entry included
   • Sit-down lunch at the lodge
   • Pirogue trip into the Manambolo gorge, with a cave and the Vazimba tombs
   • Dinner at the lodge

   Easier option: Walk the first part of the Petit Tsingy circuit to the lower lookout and return, then join the pirogue in the afternoon.

   More active option: Take the longer Petit Tsingy circuit the park guides offer, with more ladders and crevices.

   Free time: Free from lunch to the late afternoon

   Activity: About 2 to 3 hours on sharp limestone with ladders and steps. Closed shoes with grip are essential.

5. Day 5: The Grand Tsingy

   Bekopaka to the Grand Tsingy and back

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Bekopaka
   Day 5 details

   The day the trip is built around. We leave at about 6:30 am by 4x4 for the Grand Tsingy entrance, roughly 17 km north of Bekopaka and an hour on the track, so we start walking before the heat. Here the pinnacles are much taller, and the main circuit is a via ferrata: you wear a harness and clip on to fixed steel cables as you climb ladders, squeeze through narrow crevices and cross a suspension bridge strung over a drop between the blades. The park guide and your See Sight Tours guide check every harness, and the group moves at the pace of the slowest person. From the top platforms the grey forest of rock runs to the horizon, with dry forest in the gaps where Decken's sifakas and red-fronted brown lemurs sometimes feed. The circuit takes about four hours. We are back at the lodge for a late sit-down lunch, and the rest of the afternoon is free: swim, read, or sit by the river at dusk.

   Included

   • Grand Tsingy via ferrata circuit with a national park guide, harness and park entry included
   • Sit-down lunch at the lodge
   • Dinner at the lodge

   Easier option: Skip the via ferrata: walk a shorter forest and cave section at the Grand Tsingy with a park guide, or stay at the lodge for a quiet day.

   More active option: Ask the park guide for the longest Grand Tsingy circuit open that day.

   Free time: Afternoon free at the lodge

   Activity: About 4 hours with a harness on fixed cables, ladders, tight crevices and a suspension bridge over a drop. Not for anyone with serious vertigo.

   

6. Day 6: South to Kirindy Forest

   Bekopaka to Belo-sur-Tsiribihina, then Kirindy Forest

   • Drive about 6.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Kirindy
   Day 6 details

   Another long road day, about 150 km and six to seven hours, broken by the river crossings and a sit-down lunch. It is the same track we came in on, as there is no other, but it is shorter than going all the way back to Morondava, because Kirindy Forest sits just off the track south of Belo. We leave Bekopaka after an early breakfast, cross the Manambolo by ferry and bump south through the villages to Belo-sur-Tsiribihina for lunch and the Tsiribihina ferry. In the mid afternoon we turn off into Kirindy, a dry deciduous forest of baobabs and tall hardwoods managed for research and conservation, and the best place in Madagascar to look for the fossa, the island's largest predator. We settle into the lodge, and after dinner a local guide takes us on a first short night walk by torchlight for mouse lemurs, geckos and sleeping chameleons. If the road has worn you out, skip it: there is a longer walk tomorrow night.

   Included

   • Vehicle ferries across the Manambolo and the Tsiribihina
   • Sit-down lunch in Belo-sur-Tsiribihina
   • Short night walk in Kirindy with a local guide
   • Dinner at the lodge

   Easier option: Skip tonight's short night walk and rest; the main night walk is tomorrow.

   Activity: Over the 4 hour driving cap because the track back from the Tsingy is the only road; broken by two ferries and lunch in Belo, and we end at Kirindy rather than Morondava to keep it shorter.

   

7. Day 7: A full day in Kirindy

   Kirindy Forest, from the morning walk to the night walk

   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Kirindy
   Day 7 details

   No driving today. We walk the forest trails with a local guide from about 7 am, when the animals are moving and the air is still cool. Verreaux's sifakas, red-fronted brown lemurs and narrow-striped mongooses are often seen, and fossas sometimes walk through the camp area itself, especially from September to November, their breeding season. We cannot promise one, and your guide will tell you honestly how the season is going. Lunch is at the lodge, and the middle of the day is free while the forest goes quiet in the heat. After an early dinner we head out on the main night walk. Kirindy is home to Madame Berthe's mouse lemur, one of the smallest primates in the world, and to the giant jumping rat, which lives only in this part of western Madagascar and comes out after dark. Torch beams also pick out fork-marked lemurs, nightjars, geckos and chameleons on the branches.

   Included

   • Morning forest walk in Kirindy with a local guide, reserve entry included
   • Sit-down lunch at the lodge
   • Main night walk in Kirindy
   • Dinner at the lodge

   Easier option: Walk only the first hour of the morning trail near the camp, where the fossas are often seen.

   More active option: Add a second, longer morning loop deeper into the forest with the guide.

   Free time: Middle of the day free at the lodge

   Activity: Flat forest trails, about 2 to 3 hours in the morning and 1.5 to 2 hours at night. Bring a head torch.

   

8. Day 8: Baobabs by daylight and the flight back

   Kirindy to the Avenue of the Baobabs and Morondava, then by air to Antananarivo

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Antananarivo
   Day 8 details

   A last early walk at Kirindy for anyone who wants it, then we drive about 65 km, two to three hours, back towards Morondava. On the way we stop at the Baobab Amoureux, two baobabs twisted around each other, and one last time at the Avenue of the Baobabs in full daylight, so you see the trunks, the rice paddies and the villages around them as well as the silhouettes you photographed on the first evening. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Morondava, then we say goodbye to our 4x4 drivers at the airport for the afternoon flight back to Antananarivo. The timetable decides the exact times, and if the flight moves we rearrange the day around it. In the evening we gather for a farewell dinner in Antananarivo, with your guide and the group, to go over the week and the photos from the Tsingy.

   Included

   • Optional early walk in Kirindy
   • The Baobab Amoureux and the Avenue of the Baobabs by daylight
   • Sit-down lunch in Morondava
   • Domestic flight from Morondava to Antananarivo
   • Farewell dinner in Antananarivo

9. Day 9: Antananarivo's upper town and home

   Antananarivo Haute-Ville, then Ivato International Airport

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 9 details

   A free morning in the capital. If you want to see more, your guide walks you up through the Haute-Ville, the old upper town of steep lanes, brick houses and churches, to the viewpoints over Lake Anosy and the city, and to the Rova, the hilltop palace compound of the Merina kings and queens, where it is open on the day. The walk takes about two to three hours and is back at the hotel by late morning. The morning also works as a buffer: if yesterday's flight slipped, we use it to bring you back from Morondava, which is why we ask you to book your flight home for the afternoon. After checkout a driver takes you to Ivato International Airport, about 15 km away and up to an hour in traffic. Book a flight leaving after about 2 pm; for an earlier flight we take you straight to the airport after breakfast.

   Included

   • Haute-Ville walk with your guide, including the Rova where open
   • Drop-off at Ivato International Airport (TNR)

   Easier option: Skip the walk and rest at the hotel until your transfer.

   Free time: Morning free if you skip the walk

   Activity: Book a flight home leaving after about 2 pm.

Wildlife and weather: The dry season is hot by day on the west coast, over 30 C by October, with cool nights in Antananarivo from June to August. Fossas are seen most often from September to November, their breeding season.

• Antananarivo1 night
• Morondava1 night
• Bekopaka3 nights
• Kirindy2 nights
• Antananarivo1 night