Travel guide Madagascar
The best time to go à Madagascar
July
August
October
November
Practical information for travel à Madagascar
Advertising
Get your travel guide: MADAGASCAR
13.95 €
Edition 2023/2024
Buy the guide on fnac.com
Download a free extract
Advertising
What to see what to do à Madagascar?
Where to go à Madagascar?
The most beautiful tourist sites
Other à Madagascar destinations
Départements
Zone touristique
Petit Futé's best addresses à Madagascar
Discover the most beautiful addresses selected by the authors of Petit Futé.
Advertising
Advertising
Featured articles de Madagascar
Le célèbre Ash Dykes visite Madagascar une seconde fois
Updated on 22/09/2025 Travel advice
Athlète britannique de l'extrême, Ash Dykes est très connu pour ses innombrables aventures ainsi que pour son roman intitulé " Mission possible ". Il est la première personne à avoir marché en...
Le chantier de l'aéroport International d'Ivato Madagascar avance à grand pas
Updated on 22/09/2025 Travel advice
Après une visite de chantier organisé par le gestionnaire de l'aéroport le 08 novembre, les constats sont positifs concernant les travaux du nouveau terminal. Dès le mois de janvier 2018, les installations...
Madagascar : l'écotourisme souligné par 50'inside
Updated on 22/09/2025 Travel advice
Lundi 3 février, sur TF1 l'émission "50'inside" mettait en lumière l'île de Madagascar pour le plus grand plaisir des yeux. Patchworks de couleurs, nature exubérante, charme et luxe des hébergements,...
How to travel à Madagascar
How to go alone
The adventurer will be able to travel alone by taxi-brousse on most of the island. The trips are however very long, bumpy and in a total promiscuity. They are however the perfect opportunity to make beautiful meetings and to observe the daily life of the Malagasy. It is however advised for certain zones to have recourse to a car with driver for reasons of safety or practicability of the road. Always report your movements.
How to go on a tour
Many travelers propose excursions in Madagascar, either thematic (hiking, river descents, animals, culture) or by geographical zones (Tana and its surroundings, Diego and the northern tip, from Tana to Tulear by the RN7). Impossible to see everything in one time, unless you stay 6 months, and then again.
How to get around
Globally, all trips are possible in Madagascar, you just have to be patient. The Malagasy roads being poorly maintained, dangerous and the signage non-existent, very few agencies will accept to rent you a car without a driver. Often your driver will also be your guide and will allow a real exchange with the inhabitants. This is the most popular way to travel in the country. Luxury" bush cabs are available throughout the country and are a good compromise between time and cost.
Advertising
Advertising
Organize your trip with our partners à Madagascar
Transportation
Book your plane tickets
Car Rental
Accommodation & stays
Find a hotel
Holiday rental
Find your campsite
Tailor-made trip
Services / On site
Activities & visits
Activate your VPN
Request your visa
Travel insurance
Book your next trip with Kayak
Travel à Madagascar
Ideas for holidays and week-end breaks à Madagascar
Madagascar is the size of France and Benelux combined, however its road network is so deteriorated that distances are sometimes (often) misleading. Here we have put together some of the many ideas for trips to Madagascar. The best thing would be to be able to stay for a long time on the Big Island - given the 11 or 12 hours flight time from Europe, let's dream that travelers could spend at least 3 weeks there, if not 4 or 5... or that they could come several times! Whatever your choice or your possibilities, the following ideas of stays are to be personalized and adapted to the desires of each one, and why not to combine them. Don't hesitate to talk about it with the agency you will undoubtedly leave with, or to take the time to study the following pages to offer you a unique trip... Madagascar is worth it!
Services
Find a hotel with Booking.com
Rent a car with Bsp-auto
Create a blog and travel journal
Find an agency with Quotatrip
Find unique holiday offers with our partners
Discover Madagascar
Madagascar is a unique country, an unprecedented encounter between Asia and Africa. In many ways, a discovery of the Big Island amazes, questions, and also calls into question. Mada never leaves you indifferent. The following files are an invitation to dive into the journey before the trip. From the superb Route Nationale 7, the first tourist road of the country to the great thematic files, on geography, nature, history, climate, population, religion or current issues..., it is a real snapshot of Madagascar that is proposed here. A way to give you the first keys of your trip, the first subtitles of your immersion in the original language. The Big Island is getting ready to reveal some of its thousand and one faces, and one thing is sure, you will only want to get to know it better and without any doubt come back and come back again!
The 12 keywords à Madagascar
Whales
The humpback whales sail along the Malagasy coast from July to October. Sainte-Marie is the most popular destination to observe these cetaceans, but it is possible to admire them almost everywhere: in Nosy Be, Tuléar, Fort Dauphin, Sambava... The whale shark, the largest fish in the world, is present in Madagascar during the last three months of the year.
Deforestation
A real drama is taking place: about 200,000 hectares of forest are lost per year. If nothing is done to stop this massive cutting, the majority of the tropical forest will have disappeared by 2040. Madagascar could become a red desert. NGOs are trying to politicize the debate, but the fight is arduous and the prospects are not very encouraging.
God
The religious spirit of the Malagasy is difficult to approach for a Cartesian mind. The people of the Big Island believe in an all-powerful God, creator of the world, who bears the name of Zanahary on the coasts, Andrianahary (Lord creator) or Andriamanitra (perfumed Lord) in the interior. The Divine seems to be little concerned by the affairs of men.
Fady
Fady means what is taboo, sacred or illegal, what one cannot do, what one cannot say, what one cannot eat. These codes that regulate Malagasy social life, both material and spiritual, are still followed today. The fady were once innumerable, and, if they are partly abandoned, many of them remain.
Markets
The colorful markets are held in the heart of the cities, usually in the morning, before the heat is unbearable. In the biggest cities of the island, the market day is either Tuesday or Thursday. The Malagasy economy being still a subsistence economy, everyone sells his production and is ready to negotiate with the customer.
Crossbreeding
Madagascar is a striking example of crossbreeding: Asian smile, cinnamon or darker eyes, African nose, European bearing, Indian elegance, fine or frizzy hair... The Malagasy have an astonishing singularity, born of a plurality of origins. The Big Island is a baroque and colorful country, which evokes the five continents in one country.
Poverty
In spite of rich natural resources, Mada has one of the highest poverty rates in the world, we are talking about extreme poverty. If the encounters you will make will always be rich, this dramatic fact must remain in your mind: 81% of the population lives under the poverty line... and thus many of your interlocutors too!
Precious stones
The Malagasy soil fascinates geologists and lovers of minerals and precious stones. The craze for sapphire, for example, explains the sudden rise of "mushroom cities" in the middle of the desert. But sapphire is not everything: Mada is rich in emerald, ruby, garnet, seaweed, tourmaline, amethyst, citrine... and even green diamonds!
Post-colonization
Mada was colonized by the French for nearly 70 years. In the 1970s, a Malagachization of society took place. The governments of the 1980s and 1990s had to open the country up to foreign influences again. A perverse neo-colonialism infiltrates everywhere in society, even in tourism. Let's remain conscious.
Rice
Mada is the country in the world where the inhabitants ingest the most rice per year (between 130 and 150 kg per inhabitant). A Malagasy eats rice three times a day: it is not only consumed at three meals, including breakfast, but the cooking water is also drunk. Even if the cuisine differs in each region, it is always based on rice.
Taxi-brousse
Essential transport in Mada, bush cabs, often minibuses, travel the roads of the country, whatever their condition... Often equipped with 12 to 15 seats, they welcome 20 to 30 passengers. Tetris" atmosphere, and almost the equivalent of the weight is attached on the roof. It rocks, it shakes: an experience reserved for the most adventurous!
Zebu
Omnipresent in Mada, the zebu is the source of all wealth. Characterized by a big fat hump on the withers and long majestic horns, it is at the same time a working tool when it is in the fields, a means of transport when it is accompanied by a cart, a savings account and the promise of a delicious meal!
You are from here, if...
You keep your patience in all circumstances. Malagasy people are hospitable by nature, and the mora mora (quiet!) attitude is raised to an art of living. Keep to yourself any sign of impatience, which will not solve anything.
You know how to greet in different languages. One does not greet in the same way in Tana as in Fort Dauphin. In the Central Highlands, we say "Manao ahoana"; in Sakalava country, "Salama"; in Nosy Be, "M'Bola Tsara"; in the South, "Akory Anareo"; in the East, "Akory Lahaly"; and in the Southern Highlands, in Betsileo country, "Tsara Madyna"
You respect the local fady... Talk about it with your guides and contacts on the spot, they vary from one region to another.
You never point at anyone( respectedfady if ever there was one!). To point to something with the hand, Malagasy people put their middle finger curled up in their closed fist. Pointing the finger in any direction could mean that one is pointing at an invisible spirit..
Advertising