Advice for North Madagascar

Dear fellow travellers,
My partner and myself will travel to Madagascar end of August for 4 weeks and I am a bit confused on some part of our trip:
4 days trekking in Marojejy-Parc

I look for a tour guide or agency who could organise a 4 day trip to Marojejy Parc. I have 1 offer, but it is extremly overpriced. Main office of parc Marojejy can not help
2) Maroantsetra:
Nosy Mangabe (day trip)
Masoala, by boat to Tampolo Lodge

I have an offer from Tampolo Lodge, for the boat trip Maroantsetra to Tampolo Lodge and back, they chage 150 € per person.
Bungalow 80€ p.p. per day.
Is there another good Lodge in Masoala with offer of a boat transfer? I am very glad for any answer

You should keep in mind that the average mark-up used by tour operators and agencies in Madagascar is around 90 to 100 per cent above the price that you would pay if you sorted things out yourself. If you want to pay that to have someone do things for you that you can easily do yourself, then well and good, but I would advise you to just go to the park office in Marojejy, tell them what you want and then do it.

I’m not surprised that the park office didn’t help – the reception at all NPs in Madagascar (but one) that I’ve visited – which is now most of them – simply expect visitors to turn up and say what they want to do. They then assign a guide and off you go – even a four-day trek can be set up at very short notice.

Are you sure that you’ve understood everything that Tampolodge said to you? The price of €150 (400 000 ariary) for a return boat trip from Maroantsetra to Tampolo is what I would expect to pay per boat, not per person.

If Tampolodge are quoting you a per person rate for a bungalow, then that is surely for full board. One way of reducing it would be to say that you want only two meals per day instead of three (which may mean going hungry – you can’t buy food down there!) or that you want only a one or two course lunch and dinner instead of the standard three courses.

I’m also a little puzzled, as I would have expected the lodge to quote you for a complete package including boat transfer with a stay on Nosy Mangabe, accommodation and meals at Tampolo plus the services of a guide for your park visits and probably park entry fees, rather than give you separate prices in this way.

There are two other lodges you could try. Arollodge is in the neighbouring village of Ambodiforaha and Forest Lodge is also at Tampolo. Forest Lodge is decidedly upmarket, but if you’re going to pay a lot, then booking them through their website is a much better idea than getting an operator or agency to do it for you.

Unfortunately, although visiting Masoala is a highlight of any visit to Madagascar, it is also probably one of the most expensive things to do – the jumping off points for standard visits (Tampolo/Ambodiforaha) are a long boat trip from Maroantsetra, there isn’t much competition between boat operators, and fuel in Madagascar is almost at European levels, so prices are high.

Also recently both Tampolodge and Arollodge seem to have been making a conscious attempt to target a more affluent market sector and prices (and accommodation standards) have risen accordingly. Again, don’t do this through an operator or agency but directly through the lodges themselves. For Tampolodge and Arollodge at least, you can also set up a package with the aid of a park guide when you arrive in Maroantsetra, if you’re prepared to wait.

Hi Marogisa, thank you for your long and precise answer, I appreciate it very much. I take your advice to go directly to the Marojejy Park, as we go first to Andapa. I only have to find out where the office of Marojejy Park is, in Andapa or in Simbava? I had many offers, but all of them are overpriced, I think 200%, so I give up in organising that trip.

Masoala NP is the same story. Tampololodge takes 150 Euro per person, not per boat! I checked again with them, this means 300 Euro only for the boat, crazy. Then price on bungalow /fullboard rose 40% from 2011. Their targets must be people with no budget. I am very much disappointed how they treat people.
I think it does not make sense to wait until Maroantsetra, the lodges make their prices, there are enough European people to pay extraorbitant prices.

Im am wondering how much you know about Madagascar, how many times have you been to Madagascar? I was once, in 1996, but only in the south.
By the way, do you have any idea about CanalPangalanes, from Manjari to Ambohitsara and back. I have most details as where to stay, but the boat transfer cost at least 200 Euro (2 pers.) I did not find any other address than travel agencies who offer this kind of boat transfer

Since you ask, I’ve spent a minimum of two months every year in Madagascar for the past several years, mainly based in one place, but also taking the opportunity to travel widely.

I would certainly consider waiting until Maroantsetra and seeing what kind of a package you can put together there with the help of your park guide.

For example, the main boat owner apart from the lodge owners is a guy called Adrien. His rates from Maroantsetra to Tampolo/Ambodiforaha start at 400 000 ariary. Unfortunately, I can’t remember whether that is for one or two people (I think two), and I don’t have his complete scale of charges in my head, but they continue on a sliding system according to the number of people in the group in such a way that while the overall amount that he gets increases with each passenger, the amount the passengers pay per person decreases (fictitious example, purely to illustrate what I mean: if two people pay 400 000 ariary, that’s 200 000 per person. Three people pay 450 000 ariary or 150 000 per person and so on).

There’s also a “layover” fee of 30 000 ariary for every night the boat spends down on the peninsula waiting.

Adrien’s boats are slower (three hours instead of 1.5 to 2 hours) and less comfortable than the lodge boats. You can find him at the Vivanette restaurant and bar down by the harbour, or just discuss it with your park guide who you can engage at the park office in town.

The kind of market that Masoala wants to target is pretty much a hot topic there at the moment, and I agree with you that it would be a great shame if budget travellers and backpackers were squeezed out.

I can’t give you much help on the Pangalanes, as I’ve never taken a trip on them, but for what it’s worth, if I wanted to do what you intend I’d approach it in the way I always do in Madagascar, that is I’d simply make my way to Mananjary either by taxi brousse or hire car and set things up there. Why not try that? You can’t lose, and you may win quite a bit.

Apart from a couple of my favourite hotels that I know are very popular, I never book anything in advance in Madagascar – and I’ve never had any problem setting up what I want to do at a moment’s notice. Talk to the people who actually do the work for you – they usually have excellent organising skills.

Hi Marogisa,
Thanks again for your reply. Meantime I made arrangement with Arol Lodge. Tempololodge are overpriced, they ask 300 Euro for the boat Maroansetra-Tampolodge and back. also the price for the bungalow riced from 2011 around 30%. I wrote them e-mail and told I will make notice in thorntree. Answer: If you want to blackmail us, go ohead. 'We make the prices as we want'. Such arrogant owner/people. I hope somebody else will read this message and do not go to Tampolodge. It is only for agencies from Europ who pay this high prices.

Hi,
I would like to respond to the person who wrote above:
you can not decide the policy that a company must have and the target at which to aim.
I dont think that you and your husband are working for free, and therefore I can not accept your advice to target people without budget, it would be stupid.
Our prices rise following the rising cost of living in Madagascar and in Masoala particulary . During the last year we made major changes both in the lodge that in boats and engins
You were treated well as we used to do with our potential clients, no more and no less. Find out all about the real situation in Masoala before judging things and people who do not know.
Thank you very much this forum for giving me the opportunity to clarify any misunderstandings
Tampolodgeteam 
Ps: this was the real reponse by mail:
Dear Ms. Xxxxxxxx

Each email that is mailed to potential clients is carefully viewed by the Director of Tampolodge.
These are our prices which are cheaper than others on the market.
I do not think I ever discussed about your work and how you play it and then limited to accepting or not the offering that are proposed.

If you will have a lodge in Masoala you can sell your products at the prices you want.
That said, if you want to use the forum of the popular Lonely Planet as a form of blackmail, go ahead. If you want I can send the price list to be published.

Find out all about how things work in Masoala before judging the work and the prices of others.
Regards

Giuseppe La Marca
Director of Tampolodge

Edited by: Tampolodgeteam