8 days tour Madagascar discovery

Itinerary : Antananarivo – Antsirabe – Ranomafana – Ranohira – Tuléar

Discover the south of the red island with our Madagascar holiday packages. Start your journey along Route Nationale 7, where you’ll pass through typical highland villages surrounded by vegetable gardens and rice terraces. Later, you’ll reach the drier zone with its rock formations, particularly the Isalo massif, to end with the arid climate of the south and the thorny bush vegetation. Visits include various local craft workshops, and you’ll meet several ethnic groups along the way and learn more about their different customs.

Day1

Paris – Antananarivo

Arrival in Antananarivo . Meet with our representative, then transfer to your hotel. Overnight in hotel.

Day 2

Antananarivo – Antsirabe (170km-5hrs) – Ambositra ( 90km-3hrs)

Breakfast at the hotel. Then drive southward to Antsirabe through the typical landscape of the highland. Stop in Ambatolampy at 80 km from Tana. Famous for its aluminium foundries, which work with simplest tools. People collect all kinds of aluminium residues and melt them down in their workshops. Continue on to Antsirabe through beautiful landscape of ricefields, villages…quick city tour of the town of Antsirabe , visit some workshop to see Malagasy daily life, precisous stones and jewellers, thumbnail and embroidery workshop, horn transformation, workshop specialises in creation of miniature objects(cars, rickshaw, bicycles etc) made from recycled materials.
After lunch continue our drive to south. Still in the Highlands. One thing which marks the Highlands is its architecture. Almost all houses are made from brick, with ornately carved wooden balconies and shutters with nice colours. Arrive in Ambositra, a city known for its wood carving and the town is mainly well known on Zafimanirywood carving. This art is classified as world intangible heritage by UNESCO. Zafimaniry art expresses itself through daily life objects as well as construction parts (doors, windows)
visiting zafimaniry village. Overnight in hotel.

Day 3

Ambositra – Ranomafana ( 200km – 05hrs )

After breakfast drive Ranomafana national park.
The landscape changes into a lush green one, with a tropical forest on the both sides; The national Park consists of a series of steep hills from which numerous small streams run into the river Namorona, which tumbles down the valley in a series of waterfalls and rapids
Visit the village, visit the thermal swimming pool, nightwalk to sport nocturnal lemurs and chameleons. Overnight in hotel.

Day 4

Ranomafana – Fianarantsoa -Ambalavao ( 110km-3hrs)

Morning visit of Ranomafana national for spotting birds and lemurs. Two rarest species of bamboo lemurs might be spotted during the visit :the greater bamboo lemur Hapalemur simus and the golden bamboo lemur Hapalemur aureus. Of course amazing fauna and flora . In the afternoon, drive to Ambalavao and overnight in hotel.

Day 5

Ambalavao – Tsaranoro Valley

Morning visit of Anja park , a community managed reserve home of a plenty lemur Catta or ring-tailed lemur. Continue our drive to Tsaranoro Valley to Camp Catta in this corner of paradise (local village, very beautiful landscape ….) Overnight in hotel.

Day 6

Tsaranoro Valley

Many visits you can choose locally depending on your physical condition..Overnight in hotel.

Day 7

Tsaranoro Valley – Ranohira

After breakfast, continue the national road 7 to Ranohira through other kind of landscape. The drive brings you to Ihosy the capital of Bara tribes, along the mountain chain of Andringitra, which serves as a transition between green highland and the dry south. The landscape is more and more grandiose. Huge Granite blocks are marking the spacious and empty plains. It is the “Gate of the South” which marks the end of the Highlands and the beginning of the south. Pass through “plateau de Horombe” a vast savanna with red soil, empty like a “no-man’s land”. From time to time we can see herds of zebus, accompanied by armed Bara men. Overnight in hotel.

Day 7

Ranohira Isalo

Day spent in Isalo national park. Hiking along canyons reaching natural pools where you can enjoy swimming. You can meet lemurs , birds and chameleons. Overnight in hotel.

Day 8

Ranohira – Toliara 240km/5hrs

Breakfast. Last long drive passing through Zombitse forest, baobabs trees, local villages and colourful tombs to the capital of the vezo fishing tribe. Overnight in hotel.