Up on arrival in the capital we pick you up at the airport and bring you to a comfortable hotel in the city center.

Accommodation:

• Mid-Range Accommodation: Hotel Chalet des Roses

After a good night’s rest and a sturdy breakfast, you leave in our 4-wheel drive on a 3 to 4 hours trip to Andasibe in the east of the country. The Andasibe – Mantadia NP (better known as Périnet) is home to the biggest of all lemurs, the Indri indri. That evening a walk is planned to give you the opportunity to see nocturnal animals, such as mouse lemurs, chameleons, geckos and tree frogs, in action

Guide: Included for the day

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation:

• Mid-Range Accommodation: Vakona Forest Lodge

A professional guide leads you through the park all morning. You will surely see the Indri indri and there’s also a good chance of spotting bamboo lemurs, brown lemurs and the biggest of all chameleons: The Parson’s chameleon. After lunch you can visit a shelter for lemurs located on an island on the hotel grounds, where you get a good chance to photograph some of the animals spotted earlier in the wild. You’ll see the brown lemur and the black and white ruffed lemur as well as the dancing sifaka. At the other side of the estate there’s a former crocodile farm. In the lake there are still dozens of these prehistoric monsters around.

Guide: Included for the day

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation:

• Mid-Range Accommodation: Vakona Forest Lodge

A six-hour drive (with stops of course) along the Route National 7 will take you to Antsirabe. It is the capital of the pousse pousse, a type of brightly colored rickshaw operating solely on manpower. This charming town has some beautiful historical colonial buildings, which make it the perfect place for a stopover on your way to the south. You’ll stay at the beautifully located Résidence Madalief, a very comfortable guesthouse that is part of a Dutch NGO that helps orphans in Madagascar.

Meals: Breakfast, Dinner

Accommodation:

• Mid-Range Accommodation: Residence Madalief

After breakfast, you will drive to a crater lake 20 kilometres away. After you have explored this, you can jump on our mountain bikes to make a beautiful guided bike ride through the authentic hinterland. This tour will stay with you for a long time because of the casual encounters with the rural residents who are happy to pose in front of your camera. There is still plenty of time to visit the charming town of Antsirabe in the afternoon.

Guide: Included for the day

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation:

• Mid-Range Accommodation: Residence Madalief

On the way to Miandrivazo you will stop in Betafo, a typical village of the Merina people of Madagascar. The architecture of Betafo consists of arcades and wrought iron decorations with brick buildings dating back to colonization. The rice fields of the area are characteristic for the irrigation technique typical of the central highlands and have been nominated as a World Heritage Site.

Guide: Included for the day

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation:

• Mid-Range Accommodation: Princesse Tsiribihina

Today you continue towards the west until you almost reach the town of Morondava. Just before the Mozambique Channel looms, you turn north on a dirt road. This leads you through the famous Baobabs Alley to the Kirindy park. Along the way you will have no choice but to stop regularly because of the beautiful views over the river and the first baobabs. The main reason to come to Kirindy is to spot the fossa. Kirindy is the only park in the country where there is a real chance of seeing this nocturnal predator. In addition, at least 5 different lemur species roam the bush. You will explore this park doing both nocturnal and diurnal visits.

Guide: Included for the day

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation:

• Mid-Range Accommodation: Relais Du Kirindy

After the guided morning walk in Kirindy, you continue your adventure through the bush of western Madagascar. By midday, you will arrive in the dusty trading town of Belo sur Tsiribihina. After lunch, you continue towards Bekopaka, the gateway of the Tsingy of Bemaraha.

Guide: Included for the day

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation:

• Mid-Range Accommodation: Orchidée du Bemaraha

Millions of years ago, the northwest and western sides of the island were pushed out of the sea. After years of being subject to weather and wind, the limestone massif that was pushed up has eroded into a Karst formation. This razor-sharp sea of rocks is called in the local language: Tsingy. You start the day with a guide boat trip below the Tsingy and visit some caves under the limestone massif. Then you set out to explore the Little Tsingy of Bemaraha accompanied by a guide.

Guide: Included for the day

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation:

• Mid-Range Accommodation: Orchidée du Bemaraha

Today you will spend the whole day exploring the Great Tsingy of Bemaraha.

Guide: Included for the day

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation:

• Mid-Range Accommodation: Orchidée du Bemaraha

Morondava is a cozy coastal town where a peninsula is wedged between the Mozambique Channel and a mangrove area. It is best known for the nearby Baobabs Alley. Your driver will definitely recommend you to be there by sunset. Unforgettable images guaranteed. You spend two nights here in a very nice hotel on the beach.

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation:

• Mid-Range Accommodation: Le Renala

Today a trip by pirogue is on the program. With this traditional dugout canoe, you will explore the mangrove forests around Morondava and visit a fishing village south of the town.

Guide: Included for the day

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation:

• Mid-Range Accommodation: Le Renala

Today you embark on the west Madagascar overland adventure. Whimsical baobabs, thorny forests, salt lakes, flamingos, emerald green waters, snow-white dunes. This route is beautiful, but can be rough. The dirt road between Andavadoaka and Tulear is pure soft beach sand. Undoubtedly, the car will get stuck at some point. The driver has to be skilled. Sometimes a certain speed has to be maintained to get through. But it really is a succession of the most beautiful beaches and coves ever seen. The area is not yet developed. There are some hotels here and there. Less than 10% of visitors to our island travel that route. After breakfast, you will depart for an approximately five hours, highly adventurous drive through the bush to Manja. Manja is a crossroads town; a trading place in the bush. It's small, bustling, active, colorful. People from nearby and further villages come here to the market, school, clinic and the like. There is only one hotel worthy of the name and that is the simple, yet efficient, hotel Kanto.

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation:

• Mid-Range Accommodation: Hotel Kanto

The adventure through the bush of western Madagascar continues. After breakfast, you cruise for a few hours through a savanna (not unlike the ones in East Africa) until you reach a wide river that you cross by ferry. After that you turn west to eventually reach Andavadoaka via the coastal town of Morombe. Emerald green waters lined by snow-white dunes is what you can expect.

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation:

• Mid-Range Accommodation: Hotel Manga Lodge

Today you set out to explore the hinterland of Andavadoaka. The strangest baobabs in the country grow around the salt lakes with flamingos.

Guide: Included for the day

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation:

• Mid-Range Accommodation: Hotel Manga Lodge

After breakfast, you continue your way south along the coast to the next paradise: Ambatomilo. A very laid back coastal village with very attractive accommodation on a beautiful beach.

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation:

• Mid-Range Accommodation: Shangri-la Lodge

A day in which a lot is possible, but nothing is necessary. Snorkeling on the reefs or adrenaline kicks under a kite surf. You can also visit the Mikea people, the only hunter-gatherer tribe on the island.

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation:

• Mid-Range Accommodation: Shangri-la Lodge

Once back on the main road, you turn north towards Ranohira, the town at the gate of the Isalo National Park You will sleep twice in Ranohira staying in a very comfortable ranch.

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation:

• Mid-Range Accommodation: ISALO RANCH

Experts agree, Isalo is the most impressive park in the south of this beautiful island. Today you will spend all day exploring this park with its waterfalls, natural swimming pools and adventurous canyons. In the midst of this wilderness, you’ll enjoy a beautiful BBQ lunch surrounded by playing ring-tailed and red fronted brown lemurs.

Guide: Included for the day

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

Accommodation:

• Mid-Range Accommodation: ISALO RANCH

Madagascar is divided in two by a high mountain ridge. The center of this is the Andringitra mountain range. The east side of it is very green and wet under the influence of the Indian Ocean, the west side dry and warm due to the winds coming from Africa. You spend two nights in an unimaginably beautifully situated camp.

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation:

• Mid-Range Accommodation: Tsara Camp

Accompanied by a local guide, you set out to explore this mountain range. Easy, moderate and tough walks can be taken. Especially the beautiful views will stay with you for a long time.

Guide: Included for the day

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation:

• Mid-Range Accommodation: Tsara Camp

On the way to the town of Ambalavao you stop to visit the small park d'Anja. A short trip will quickly bring you to a colony of ring-tailed lemurs, perhaps the most famous of all lemurs. It’s highly enjoyable to ramble around in the streets of this picturesque fairy tale town. You can also visit a local project where women make paper the traditional way. One night in the beautifully located Betsileo Country Lodge.

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation:

• Mid-Range Accommodation: BETSILEO COUNTRY LODGE

After breakfast, you will be heading for Ranomafana National Park where you’ll arrive 5 hours later. This evening or the next you’ll get the chance to go spot nocturnal animals in the wild. You’ll stay two nights in a very comfortable hotel in the town center.

Guide: Included for the day

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation:

• Mid-Range Accommodation: Centrest Hotel Restaurant

The Ranomafana NP became world famous in the eighties when a new kind of lemur was discovered there: the golden bamboo lemur. A professional guide will lead you through the park in search of this unique animal and other kinds of lemurs. In the afternoon it’s time to enjoy a relaxing bath in the natural hot springs of a nearby spa.

Guide: Included for the day

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation:

• Mid-Range Accommodation: Centrest Hotel Restaurant

A six-hour drive (with stops of course) along the Route National 7 will take you back to Antsirabe. You’ll stay at the Résidence Madalief which you know from 2 weeks ago.

Meals: Breakfast, Dinner

Accommodation:

• Mid-Range Accommodation: Residence Madalief

A 4-hour drive brings you back to the capital Antananarivo where you check in for the day in Chalet des Roses. The city can be explored in the afternoon. Lots of activity on Independence Avenue and the surrounding markets. With a taxi you can easily get to the highest point of the city where the palaces of the last queen and that of her prime minister are worth a visit.

Meals: Breakfast

Accommodation:

• Mid-Range Accommodation: Hotel Chalet des Roses

Today you will be drop-off at the airport. Have a nice flight back home!

Meals: Breakfast