Madagascar

⚠️ Entry rules and local regulations change without notice. Before booking, check entry requirements and local rules — visas, access, nature reserves, visitor quotas — with the official authorities.

Madagascar, the fourth-largest island in the world (587,000 km²), is nicknamed 'the eighth wonder of the world' for its extraordinary biodiversity: 90% of its animal and plant species are endemic. Lemurs, spectacularly coloured chameleons, the giant baobabs of the Avenue of Morondava and the UNESCO-listed tsingy of Bemaraha make up a natural setting unlike anywhere else on Earth. Nosy Be, an island off the north-west coast, is the main seaside destination, with its heavenly beaches and exceptional seabeds.

A continent that drifted away

Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world — 587,000 km², bigger than France — and it split from Africa and then from India so long ago that most of what lives on it lives nowhere else: around ninety per cent of its wildlife is endemic, from the hundred-odd species of lemur to the baobabs, the chameleons and the spiny forest of the south. It is a place biologists talk about the way others talk about the Galápagos.

Its people are as singular as its animals. The Malagasy came first from Borneo, across the whole Indian Ocean, around two thousand years ago, then from East Africa; the language is Austronesian, the highland rice terraces look like Southeast Asia, and the coasts are Swahili and Arab in feeling. The island was a French colony from 1896 to 1960, and French is still the second language of education and business. It is also one of the poorest countries in the world, which shapes every practical aspect of a visit.

The classic itineraries run along the RN7 south-west from Antananarivo through the highlands to the Isalo massif and the coast at Tuléar; west to the Avenue of the Baobabs at Morondava and the Tsingy de Bemaraha, a limestone forest of knife-edge pinnacles; east to the rainforest of Andasibe and its indri, the largest lemur; or north to Nosy Be and the islands, the beach end of the country.

April to November — the dry season

The dry season runs from April to November and is the time to travel: roads are passable, the highlands are cool (as low as 5 °C at night in July), the coasts warm, and the lemurs are active. September and October are the sweet spot, with the jacarandas in bloom in the capital and the humpback whales off Sainte-Marie from July to September. The rainy season, December to March, is also cyclone season: the east coast can be cut off, unpaved roads become impassable and many lodges close. Avoid it unless you are going only to the north-west.

Visa, distances and patience

⚠️ A visa is required for all visitors: an e-visa applied for online before departure (around €35 for 30 days) or a visa on arrival at Ivato airport. A passport valid six months beyond the stay is needed, and yellow-fever vaccination if arriving from an affected country. Malaria prophylaxis is recommended for the coasts and the lowlands. Direct flights from Paris take about eleven hours; the national carrier and Air France serve Antananarivo.

Distances are the real constraint. Roads are poor outside the main axes, and 200 kilometres can take a day; domestic flights are expensive and often rescheduled. Plan fewer places and more time, hire a car with a driver (self-drive is not practical), and build a day's slack before any international connection. The currency is the ariary, cash is king outside the capital, and bargaining is normal. Eat romazava, the national beef-and-greens stew, the zebu steaks, the vanilla and the lychees in season. Security: petty crime is real in Antananarivo after dark — take taxis, not walks.

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