Hi! I made a post here a few weeks ago about when's the best time to study abroad here. I'm from the US, and the program I want to do can either go from September-December or February-May. So for those of you that have lived/live in Madagascar, which of these time periods would be the most ideal to go, like for living conditions and wildlife/nature viewing?

For reference, I would be going to Tana.

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I'm curious to know if there are any communities, groups, or forums in Madagascar where people discuss UFOs and UAPs. Whether it's in-person gatherings, online chats, or even casual meetups, I'd love to connect with others interested in this topic.

If you know of any spaces, whether in English, Malagasy, or French, please share! Also, feel free to drop any interesting local stories or sightings—I'd love to learn more about the perspectives on this subject from our island.

Thanks in advance!

The name Telma, was there for a long time, if we change something normally we try to renew the services so I imagine that many people are waiting for what this name will bring as a change in terms of services and service costs and everything that goes with it.

The question that arises more is where the change comes from? What prompted this change?

Photo just for reference. Merci!

I'm writing this post after I noticed on another post that some people are getting mad at being called Madagascan and not Malagasy. People really go far and beyond to give arguments on why it should be Malagasy and I'm pretty much sure it's from the same train of "Malagasy fa tsy Malgache". I'm pretty much sure these are the same people who are mad at the LGBT movement and mock those who insist on being identified with different/unusual gender pronouns.

Doesn't "I identify as a male" follow the exact same psychological construct as "Malagasy fa tsy Malgache"? Both are attempts at escaping from a social construct that one think as bad and/or inappropriate for one's personal sense emancipation. So if we have to respect the latter, shouldn't we also, at least, respect the former?

This is not a question, but a rhetorical argument.

I’m in the US and I was wondering if this is an ethical brand. I went on a trip to Antananarivo for a month last winter and developed a taste for the best chocolate in the world (chocolate from Madagascar). I was wondering if this is a real bean to bar brand and if they engage in ethical sourcing of the chocolate.

What is the cheapest/best way to get from antananavario to noisy be ? Thanks in advance

And what is safe now and what isn't?

I am looking for a friend who can help me in madagascar as I am planning to visit there as a tourist. I am a traveller and explorer who loves to visit different countries and learn more about their culture and traditions. I can pay them as well for being guide for me there. If anyone is interested please message me in the DM.

I’m 25f from Australia, and I would absolutely love to get to know someone from Madagascar!! 🇲🇬 💜

I'm a solo traveller wondering which island to stay at. Nosy Iranja, Nosy Komba and Nosy Sakatia all look great but I'm trying to narrow down which island to stay at. I enjoy snorkelling, beautiful beaches and relative quietness.

Anyone in Morundava wanting to share a taxi to go for sunrise to the baobab alley? Then we go to kirindy and we end the day for sunset at the baobab alley ! M26 froma canada :)

Hello, I'm currently planning a trip to Madagascar. After some research, I was interested in going to Majunga, that seems like a very nice scenery and lots of things to see.
But I'm planning to go from 24 december to 05 january.
It seems that will be in the rain season. How rainy is it? Would it still be possible to enjoy a day at the beach or is it raining non-stop?

I've read the south of the country is less susceptible to the rainy season, is it true? Is there nice places to see down there?

Thank you in advance for your advices!

So obviously I wanna go to Antananarivo because it's the capital but which other places should I go too which towns , cities villages and natural beauties should I see and visit . Either for history, culture, natural beauty or food .

What would be my best way too get too Madagascar my closest airport is Newcastle second is either Leeds Bradford, teesside of Edinburgh

Are Madagascans OK with brits (just asking on all the subs I'm posting on cuase we aren't liked in some places )

On my last stay, I had a great Airbnb. The only problem was the aircon did not operate when the power was out and they were relying on backup power. After a few days without power, everything including the fan and refrigerator went out. Needless to say, as an American, I was very uncomfortable.

I found that the hotel Ylang Ylang had very modern solar power and the aircon worked fine even when the main power was down. The main drawbacks were price and the fact that the whole place locked up around 2am. Are there any alternative hotels or Airbnbs in the area that have similar power that is not dependent on the main power… hopefully at a better price point?

So.. I woke up with a notification from Google Playstore mentioning the Mvola app was disabled due to security concerns. I've searched the Playstore and it's gone. Another epic fail of the Telma IT guys kkkk.. ?

We recently returned from an unforgettable trip to Madagascar with Rija Tours in October, traveling through the north and exploring several national parks, including Diego Suarez. From start to finish, the experience with Rija Tours was outstanding. The organization was exceptional—everything was well-planned and thoughtfully tailored to match our specific interests and travel goals. The team truly put effort into creating a smooth and enriching journey.

Our guides, Tony and Nau, were fantastic! Both were incredibly knowledgeable about the local culture, flora, and fauna, and their expertise really brought the experience to life. They took us to amazing food spots and made sure our accommodation was comfortable, unique, and always well-suited to our surroundings. We felt very well taken care of throughout the entire trip.

Overall, we highly recommend Rija Tours to anyone looking to experience Madagascar in an authentic, well-organized, and deeply personalized way. It was a memorable adventure, thanks to their dedication and attention to detail. Thank you, Rija Tours!

Hello, everyone! I’m planning a hike to Maromokotra, and I’d love to hear from anyone who’s already been there. I’m looking for any advice or insights on the following:

• Trail conditions: How challenging is the hike?
• Weather and best season: What's the best time of year to go? Any weather patterns to watch out for?
• Guide recommendations: Is it possible to go solo, or is hiring a guide necessary? If so, any guides you'd recommend?
• Camping spots and accommodations:

Are there safe spots to camp along the trail ?

Any other tips for a first-timer would also be appreciated-gear recommendations, safety tips, or things you wish you'd known before going. Thanks in advance for your help!

Basically the tittle

The last update I see online is the president riding it. Is it actually open to the public at the moment?

I'm currently in Tana, and yesterday my flight to Toliara (Tulear) was cancelled.

I was expecting something to be sorted out fairly quickly (eg fly a day late) but there is no clarity about when flying domestically will be possible, which is pretty frustrating.

This seems to be a pretty widespread disruption.

Does anyone know the cause?

I've heard different things but nothing I feel entirely sure about.

Hey everyone, my partner and I are just wrapping up 5 weeks traveling around the country and I wanted to write down a bit of what I have experienced and learned in case it is of any use to people who browse this sub, especially as I have found it can be a bit difficult to find sources of lots of information.

I would like to preface this writing with acknowledgment that I have only a limited perception and amount of time in the place and so I believe I am still rife with ignorance and there is a ton more for me to learn about the country and the people so please forgive any misgivings or shortcomings from me.

I also would like to describe briefly the type of traveler I am to give some context to my experiences. I am a 34 year old American man and my partner is 38 and Australian. We operate on a mid to low range budget and while we did not stay in or eat at the cheapest places we could find often we elected to do things as cost-effectively as possible. Our interests were primarily in seeing animals and natural places and for me I placed a good amount of focus on getting to know the people, culture, and language as best as I could in the time we had.

Travel:

Getting around Madagascar is possibly the greatest adventure the country has to offer, as there are many modes of movement and the roads present a great challenge in accessing the many interesting and often unsuspecting places we have found. In my experience Soatrans is the best option for comfortable, long range travel by public means. Cotisse is good as well and their schedule and availability can be found on their website online. You can pay online as well but it requires signing up with Orange money, otherwise tickets must be purchase in advance (usually at least a day) from the station or a ticket booth. Cotisse has a booth available out front of the Hotel Tripolitsa, just next to the Analakely plaza. The vans are fairly similar between the two companies and in general are made for the fairly small Malagasy people, if you really want to be comfortable you can book multiple seats in a row but we only did this twice and while it was nice it is not necessary. In my opinion the best seats are the passenger side seat along with the driver or the two seats directly behind him. Additionally I recommend to avoid the overnight trips as you will miss a lot of the scenery and likely not get any sleep anyway. I believe there are others of these major companies but I only traveled by the two and they typically only run between major destination cities.

My apologies to the private driver industry of Madagascar but I personally do not recommend hiring a private driver unless you have a large budget or someplace you really specifically would like to see, such as Tsingy. They are much more comfortable but extremely expensive and often the negotiation process to get a good price can leave a bit of a bad taste. We took them twice and it is certainly more convenient and timely and allowed us to get easier access to a couple very cool places and experiences but that all can be achieved at a much lower cost with public transports.

Taxi-brousse is the primary option for getting around smaller locales, these can be very packed and less comfortable and stop more frequently but will really be your only mode of transport once you branch out from the main cities. On some of the longer ones we experienced two to three flat tires per trip but the driver handles them fairly quickly and it can give you a much needed bathroom break or a moment to appreciate a liminal landscape. These transports are very interesting and will bring you in close contact with the local people and experience of Madagascar. I grew to enjoy them though they are definitely not for travelers less interested in roughing it.

Flights are by far the fastest way to get around the country but they are also very expensive and do not run every day. The only flight we took was to return from Ile St Marie as it was a difference of flying for one hour or taking several days to make it across the landscape and as we had already seen that section we elected to come back more quickly. It cost around 115 Euro per person and that is one of the cheaper flights I saw in my searching.

We never rented our own car and, while I am confident in my driving abilities, after seeing the roads, especially some of the obscure routes that can hardly be called a road, I prefer not to have to deal with it myself. These are also expensive but will afford you total control over your schedule and stops. Great for taking pictures.

People:

Malgasy people are wonderful, in my esteem. They will stare at you all day but if you look back and nod or smile or greet them they will almost invariably respond in kind. If you need help they will usually help you, but you should expect to give some sort of tip (500-1000AR) if they lead you where you are trying to go. I speak a decent little amount of French which was extremely useful but I also put a lot of effort into learning all the Malagasy I could and it is a very rewarding effort. Even though by the end of this trip I have only just begun to be able to form some basic sentences, they generally have been really receptive and frequently delighted by the fact that I can say anything at all. I will write some words and phrases that have served me well at the end of this.

It is important to note that you can and probably will want to negotiate for basically everything here. Prices are almost never set and while I think it is acceptable that we as tourists can pay a bit more for things, you won’t want to always be getting hit for the huge prices they think it is ok to offer us. Even hotel sometimes will allow you to haggle, though I probably wouldn’t do it at a restaurant.

Food:

Rice, rice, rice. The diet here is pretty basic but I found that the simplicity and regularity was really good for my body. And if you learn where and what to eat it can be extremely cost-effective. If you like spicy food they have a really terrific hot red or green pepper sauce that has a lot of kick but for me was absolutely awesome. I never had any problems with street food but I have lived in countries where that type of eating is prevalent and so I am also wary about eating anything that seems old, strange, or generally dubious. Sambos are like miniature samosas and often a good safe bet. I found that I preferred the food in the east and on the coasts but overall it is not hugely varied.

Places/Experiences:

Here especially I wish to caution that this is written from my own tastes. I very much enjoyed my time in Madagascar and wish I had another 3-6 months to explore but I will say: the cities here are pretty awful. Tana in particular is woeful. All the poverty, social problems, and failures of the government to help its people are immediately obvious. There is a great deal of character in the twisting streets and alleyways and dilapidated buildings but at the same time it comes with dinginess and dirt and as an obvious foreigner you will regularly be accosted by urchins and single mothers and all sorts of people with their hands out who will sometimes follow you for blocks and blocks plaintively begging. We sympathize a great deal and give out money and food every day but there is only so much one or two people can afford to do. I don’t promote ignoring or dehumanizing them but even after you have expressed that you have nothing to give they will persist. I have even found that giving them too large an amount of money can lead to fights among them. It is very saddening but we can only do what we can. I enjoyed getting to know the chaos of the place and learning to navigate the streets but I can’t say I have too much to recommend about how to spend your time in the capital. Even as far as hotels go I have stayed in 5 or 6 different ones and never found one I really liked. Serenity was fairly nice but they have some chained up dogs and a parrot in a terribly small cage and in the night dogs barked constantly and made it difficult to sleep. If you have a large budget Citizen can be great for a recharge and nice accommodations but it is too expensive for us. Tokotelo is the main restaurant I recommend, especially because the owner and his wife are extremely lovely and he has traveled a lot of the country and can give you very good information about things you might be looking to do.

For our first large expedition out from Tana we headed east, by Cotisse, passing by Andisibe and arriving within 10 hours to Tamatave (or Toamasina). I also found this place to be rather awful. It is quite large and we stayed in one of the worst hotels of our entire trip and pretty much left the next day. I would not say that I know much about it and so it is absolutely possible that I missed what gems it has to offer.

From there we arrived to Foulepointe, one of the first places to catch a ferry to Nosy Boraha (Ile St. Marie). Things began to finally feel better here, as it was our first stop outside of larger cities. I can recommend Hotel Lagon, which has a pretty property, reasonable prices, and good food. The town is small but has some beaches and an old Malagasy fort that is nice to visit for a short afternoon. I posted a story here weeks back about losing one of our bags on the taxi-brousse and a day’s worth of adventure that took me up to Fenerivo, through Mahambo. You can catch the ferry from these two places as well but I don’t know much about them.

The ferry departed at 3am, you must get your tickets in advance and leave to board it around 12 or 1am. From Foulepointe it took something like 8 hours and was an interesting if dirty experience. This lands you in the main town of Ambifototra, a little port bustling with tuk-tuks and tourists. A good number of whom appear to be sex tourists. Not a fan of them myself but you get to judge that on your own. We immediately headed south to the crossing for Ile aux Nattes, where we spent about 9 days and was probably the highlight of our trip. There are many small bungalows available for inexpensive stays but my recommendation, if you have a bit of money, is to stay at Sambatra. It is a lovely oasis run by a South African immigrant and his family. There is always a divide of skin color in terms of economy but from my experience I think they are doing a good job of providing to the people who work for them and being good to the place. They have a wonderful swimming beach and really good food and drinks but it is fairly expensive for Madagascar. We also stayed at Aurora Lodge which is good for wifi and very beautiful but their food, while delicious, is even more expensive and their drinks are not very strong. They do have an extremely lovely hostess name Kantu who speaks several languages and is very smart and accommodating. All of the staff are friendly but she in particular was easy for us to get to know. Fafana is a restaurant not far from there that has good food and a fun owner who emigrated from Reunion. He will make you try his rum at the end of your meal, some of which we liked.

After a beautiful, restful stay on Ile aux Nattes we headed to the north end of Ile St Marie to experience the natural sacred pools there. Le Bon Endroit is a good, very reasonably priced place to stay not far from there. You can rent a motorbike or take a tuk-tuk to reach the pools. This is a local park and as such a guide is required. They offer a short and a long hike and we took the long hike but I would say that it really just offers a bit of a viewpoint and you can do with just the short version most likely. Ile St Marie is really a large place and so we barely scratched the surface of what you can do and see there. I certainly think it is worth exploring but probably Ile aux Nattes is the nicest place to spend time once you have made the trip there.

We flew back to Tana and spent a couple days regrouping before beginning our second major expedition, heading south to see Isalo National Park and the west to follow the coast north to Morondava and the baobabs and return finally east to Tana and our departure.

The first leg was Tana to Fianaransoa, 12 hours by Soatrans. We arrived at night and planned to stay one full day to shake off the travel cramps before continuing onward. We stopped at Chez Julianne et Patrick, a fairly humble place with only a couple rooms. We were a bit skeptical on arrival but I can say with certainty we got the best sleep of our trip here and I would definitely recommend it. Their shower and bathroom leave much to be desired but the beds were extremely comfortable and their breakfast, though pricey, is luxurious with a lot of excellent fruit. A friend of theirs came in the morning to talk to us about things to do in town and offered to set up our taxi-brousse tickets for the next day. We decided to take a day trip to Ranomafana (literally “water hot”) the rainforest national park about 2.5 hours east of the city. The taxi there starts at 200,000AR and, even if they tell you otherwise, you can haggle to get one for 150-175,000AR. The trip there is really beautiful and you will see some great waterfalls and trees from the road. I would say that we found it overall to be a bit expensive and that the short hike we took through the rainforest was in and of itself not spectacular but there is some really phenomenal wildlife to be seen there, including lemurs, giant snails, frogs, and leaf-tailed geckos (honestly incredible just seeing that one) and so if you are interested then go early and take a longer hike. I made friends with our driver and paid the Malagasy fee of 2,000AR to bring him into the park and on the hike with us instead of leaving him in the parking lot while we went. A little way after the park is the village of Ranomafana where there is a small, developed hot spring pool to swim in. I think it was 5000AR a person to get in and then they make you wear a shower cap which they sell at the gate for 1500AR or you can buy them from vendors on the way for 1000AR. We are cheap so we bought one and shared it. The pool is so so but especially if you stay at Chez Julianne and Patrick you can take a really nice hot shower once you are there and the village of Ranomafana itself is maybe the most beautiful one we saw on our whole trip. If you are strapped for time I think all of this can be skipped but once you decide to go it is something you can be glad you did.

The next day we took a taxi-brousse 7 hours across changing landscapes to arrive at Ranohira, the small, outpost town located outside of Isalo. Of not I would suggest that if you have time you may consider stopping in Ambalavao. We only saw it from the road but there are some extremely interesting looking mountain rock formations along this route and we would have liked to go explore them. As soon as you exit the transport in Ranohira you will be accosted by guides looking to take you into Isalo. It is on the whole quite expensive but if you have some money you should do the 2-day camping trip hike. Isalo is our favorite of the main parks that we visited, it is enormous, expansive, full of great wildlife and plants, with several idyllic places to stop and swim in the heat of the canyons. You can advise your guide that you want to avoid the other big groups of tourists as much as possible and, though we could only afford the single day visit, we really dragged our feet here to make the most of it. Our guide wasn’t thrilled about this by the end of the day but I tipped him some to make up for it and we are very glad we went here. I can recommend to stay at Chez Alice here. They are reasonably priced and have a wonderful view of the sunset over Isalo. If you have time as well I would suggest to hire a taxi and go maybe 10 miles west of the town where there are really beautiful rock formations and cool things to take pictures of. We only saw this the next morning when we left.

The day after our Isalo excursion was another 7 hours west to Tulear (or Toliara). This was only a stop over for us but we stayed at Chez Alain which is strangely terrific. Their prices are already good but they also have an economy room that costs only 35,000AR and is better than many we stayed at in other places. There is a nice swimming pool and the place itself is a bit of an oasis from the city, which I did not particularly like. We were attempting to reach Andavadoaka, which appears to be a totally magical and extremely difficult to reach village on the west coast, north of Tulear. I spent a morning haggling with drivers and ended up paying too much and leaving too late and in the end we only made it to Morombe. Of note however, in my searching I discovered an option to take a sailing pirogue up the coast for 4 days to Morondava, which would include a stop on the second night in Andavadoaka. If we had a bit more time to consider this is certainly the option we should have taken. The price they quoted me was 800,000AR but I was unable to talk to the actual captain of the boat and negotiate. For reference, the drivers were trying to charge me something like 2,000,000 for three days to go to Andava and then Manja (the transfer point for Morondava along this route). That being said, by taking the roads we took to reach Morombe (a village two hours north of Andava) we saw the most spectacular baobabs of our trip, genuinely much, much better than what you can see at Avenure of the Baobabs. Seriously. I have little to note about Morombe, where we stayed the night before turning back the next day to head toward Manja. This section can be planned much more well than what I managed.

We arrived in Manja a bit disappointed in the expense it took us to reach there and irritated at our driver for reneging on the contract that we had made without giving us any price reduction. I expected Manja to be a hot and boring overnight while we waited for our taxi-brousse but I ended up having one of the best village experiences of our trip here. There is only one hotel for you to end up at and after lunch I started kicking around a soccer ball with the local kids and speaking my handful of Malagasy phrases to entertain them. After a sudden downpour, the kids and I went over to the nearest playing field and had a big game of soccer, which brought out a number of local peoples to apparently enjoy watching the spectacle of my joining in. Seemingly all of the kids wanted to be on my team and after an hour or so of the game they told me we should leave. I met back up with my partner and we took a sunset walk through town, interacting with lots of the village people and generally getting the vibe that I had endeared myself to them somewhat by playing with the kids. It was a very social evening and one of the first times we spent the night outside talking and hanging out with people. I think I would have liked to stay in the town for several days but we got up early and left.

The road from Manja to Morondava was the roughest and most intrepid we took on our whole trip. It winds through brush and deep pools, crosses a river, and passes many obscure villages. That was an adventure in and of itself but after 8 or so hours we arrived in Morondava. Again, I do not find the cities of Madagascar particularly appealing. The people are still nice but they perhaps eye you up a bit more harshly with something of a sharking appraisal for what they can hustle you for. We headed straight for a hotel on the beach, after asking our tuk tuk driver for what we wanted. The first night we stayed at a place called Bougainvillea, which was nice and well-located but unfortunately there seem to be some issues with water being cut in the city and we were unable to shower after being coated with dust and sweat from the day’s travel. We negotiated for a discount and left in the morning for a different hotel, Baobab Cafe, which is quite expensive but a much needed moment of comfort and self-care.

The day at Baobab I met two tourists in town who asked if we wanted to join them to see Tsingy, one of the really unique places to visit in Madagascar. We decided to team up with them and did some negotiating around town before taking off early the next day. This was a long and rough ride, 10 hours each way, with some very interested river crossings on large platform ferries and you pass through the Avenue of the Baobabs shortly after departing. It is hot and sweaty and bouncy and a real adventure. And expensive. We arrived after sunset and spent the night at a decent but somewhat pricey hotel.

As far as my experience of Tsingy I will say it is very cool and there is awesome wildlife all around, great lemurs and mongoose and tons of cool lizards and birds but the hike is surprisingly short—our friends paid for the 6 hour tour and we paid for the 4 hour tour and they were back before us. I must say that for the cost and the time I am not sure it is worth it to visit Tsingy. If you are not worried about these things and would really like to go, it is certainly a beautiful and unique place but it is really expensive and exhausting to do so. Additionally, because Morondava is a big hub for visiting the coast and the baobabs I will say that Avenue of the Baobabs is far from the most beautiful place to see these incredible trees and I think there are much better beaches to go to with a more peaceful vibe in smaller places.

We left two days later via Soatrans on a 16-hour trip back to Antananarivo. That was particularly hectic on our bodies but we went straight to a hotel to crash and recover.

Some phrases I learned, here especially please excuse errors and ignorance:

(Note: “o” is usually pronounced “u”, “ao” is pronounced “ow”, “be” is pronounced “bay”)

Salama (salam/salamu/salamy and with kids “saly”) - hello

Ina vao vao - literally “what news” but basically “what’s up”

Tsy ty vao vao - “no news” the basic response to ina vao vao

Misotra/misotra betsika - thank you/thank you very much

Veluma - goodbye

Asafady - excuse me/please (general term of politeness)

Iza no anaranao - what is your name

Anaraku __ - my name is

Lafo be - too much (good for haggling price)

Otin - how much (the actual spelling it crazy but they say it like “Oh-chin”)

Aiza ny kaboneh - where is the bathroom (aiza means where, ny means is)

Rano - water

Sakafo - food

Mila __ - I need/want (Mila sakafo, mila rano)

Afaka mazhou __ ve asafady - can I please have __ (afaka mazhou sakafo ve asafady, with “ve” being a particle that signifies questions)

Tsy miteny Malagasy - I don’t speak Malagasy (“tsy” is a negation particle added onto the beginning of things, i.e. “tsy mila rano”)

Be resa ka be - talkative/too much talk (this will make Malagasy people laugh basically anytime you say it but it is also a little negative in connotation)

Tsangy tsangy - joking/kidding (a good follow up to “be resa ka be”

Kely kely - a little bit

Additionally you should learnt to count from 1-10

Irai, rua, telo, efatra, demi, enina, fito, valo, sivy, folo

And learn 100, 1,000, 10,000, and 100,000 if you can

Zato, arivo, alina, hetsy

And that Malagasy people say numbers in reverse order, 1500 is demin zato ariv (500, 1000). They also will sometimes drop the last vowel of a word which I don’t always understand why but it has some kind of rhythmic property.

Anyway, this is my write up, I have really enjoyed learning about and exploring this place and would love to continue someday. I hope it has not come off to pretentious or ignorant, I just wanted to put down what I have learned as much for myself as anyone else who might find it useful. I doubt any of the people I met during my time here are redditors but I would like also to thank the people of this country who have made it such an interesting and memorable experience and if anyone has any questions or corrections to anything I have written please feel free to comment or let me know. Thank you!