Our trip in Madagascar

Hi all. We just came back from Mada and here's our observations, hoping they will help other travelers.

WHO WE ARE:
- Richard, from Quebec City, Canada, 34 y.o.
- my girlfriend Isabelle, from Lille, France, 36 y.o.

THE LP ON MADA
+ it doesn't have heaps of info, which leave room for adventure. I put this in the positive category, because I find it sad to see travelers keeping their nose in the LP and never wander out.

• smaller book means less info, so the price should be lower as well... Then again, I kind of understand why LP doesn't put much effort in their book for Mada since most (i'd say 85%) travelers there are French, thus using the Guide du routard. In other words, they must not sell alot of LP for Mada.
• obviously, the writers were not on a budget. Example 1: you can read ''easiest is to take a taxi... '' in more than one places in the book. Perhaps, but its VERY expensive. Taking the public transports (taxi be) is 20 times cheaper and part of the fun. Example 2: the daily budget on page 12 says 60 euros per day. That's a little more than what we spent for the TWO of us (!!).
• the book says ''when bargaining, cut the price in half and work from there''. Wrong. I'd say cut the price in 4 and work from there. Example : I bought my hat 8000 ar. Starting price was 25 000 ar.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
- Not knowing French will make things difficult, especially outside Tana and on the west coast. We had a hard time communicating and we both speak fluent French, so imagine.
- go with VISA, not Mastercard.
- NEVER pay everything up front when booking something. Pay half now, and the rest at the end.

TANA
- the telephone number published in the LP for hotel st-germain is wrong. The good number is 033 25 882 61. We recommend the hotel (well located, not so expensive).
- Sakamanga is THE cool hotel and restaurant in town, and everyone knows it, so book a rooom/table ahead. Totally worth it.

ANTIRABE
- its worth renting a scooter at Rando VTT (its on the map) and do the lakes tour. it cost 20 000 ar for a bike, and 40 000 ar for the scooter, so if you are 2, you get the scooter for the price of 2 bikes, and it makes the ride much more fun :-)
- The pousse-pousse tour. Interesting, but what they say about getting better prices straight from the artists is a lie OR bargain much harder. Example: a set of spoons (made out of zebu horn) straight from the maker was 12 000 ar. Same product in a market in Tana: 5 500 ar.

TSIRIBIN RIVER - TSINGY
- we organised the entire trip with COCO, a very good guide. You can contact him at Chez Billy. He says he's a naturalist, but we doubt that. Still, we recommend him because everything went well, he's good fun without trying to do too much, and his cooking is amazing!

MORONDAVA
- we rented a pirogue to go down the west coast from Morondava to Salary. We dealt with captaing FELIX, recommended by Coco, our hotel (Trecicogne, good place) and other tourists. We WOULD NOT RECOMMEND FELIX. For the first 5 days, it was fantastic, but then he abandonned us in Morombé!!! (Never pay everything up front....)

««« PIROGUES »»»
The sea pirogue is much more comfy than the river pirogue, and for both, here's a great advise: BUY AN UMBRELLA. This will give you shade and make the ride much better.

ANDAVADOAKA
- IMPORTANT: there is no diving there! All diving clubs are closed.

TULEAR
- we met a French guy settle there that does B&B. His place is wonderfull, but a little out of town, so he offers to pick you up. He has 2 playfull lemurs in is backyard. HE SPEAKS ENGLISH! Ask me for his email.

THE RN7
- Isalo and all other parks are worth seeing, but are pricey. We combined Taxi brousse and rides in cars/4x4 leaving empty. Pic Bobby was amazing.

AMBALAVAO
We loved Ambalavao; stayed at some place called 'tiensparis'. Good place. We organised our trip to Pic Bobby from there and dealt with Adrien (he's in the book, page 66) but only because he was cheaper. Still, his service was not the best and would have gone with J.C. instead (his office is at the taxi brousse station, can't miss it.) We followed a couple who went with J.C. and everything seemed a little better. A German living there told me ''Adrien used to be a fantastic guide and I did business with him for years, but now that his name is in the LP and Routard, he thinks he's god and now there's better out there.''

Voilà! Hope these info will help out others.

All the best

Richard and Isabelle

Edited by: vieuxsacados

Oh and gather info about the train linking Fianar and Manakara. It was broken when we were there, i.e. in Oct 2012.

Thanks for report. Did you trek to the top of Pic Bobby and if so how hard did you find it? What was wrong with Adrien?

Yes, we climbed all the way on top of pic bobby. its a 3 day trek.
day 1: climb to ''base camp''.
day 2: wake up at 2am, climb in the dark (bring a flashlight) and get on top in time for sunrise. back to camp, breakfast, then 4-5 hours to the next camp ground.
day 3: 5-6 hours to the nearest village to get public transport back.

The climb itself was difficult for us. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give it a 7, and my girlfriend a 8. Freezing cold at the top, too (this was in oct.).

Adrien's services were OK, and he was the cheapest, so he remains a good option. But those traveling with J.B. (I believe I wrote J.C.... will correct that later) had better food, better tents, and their guide was more professionnal (briefings, seemed to care). The guide Adrien gave us, Roger, cared more about his cell phone than us.

Edited by: vieuxsacados

Edited by: vieuxsacados

Thanks I climbed to the top in October and am interested in how other people rate it. We did climb during the day so it was not as cold. I took my own tent which had two days use in eight weeks in Madagascar and hired a 4x4 with my driver who speaks good English helping with communication. Those steps are hell and I wonder why on earth the Malagasy made such large steps rather than a more zig zag route.

LOL indeed! those steps were something.

oh and for others, when I say 'use VISA, not Mastercard' this include debit cards (plus vs cirrus)

Thanks for all your comments, I'm sure they would be very useful for people planning a trip. One thing I would mention though is that I only had a Mastercard and had no problem drawing out cash in the larger towns. Not that I needed much as I also had some dollars in cash and most things I already paid up front for as I booked with a local tour guide.

All the best

Jo

Hi there,

Indeed, both Mastercard and Visa are accepted as far as credit card goes. I meant the debit card associated with them.

Mastercard = cirrus, and cirrus doesn't work in many places
Visa = Plus, which work everywhere.

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Informative report. Agree on your findings with the guide books in general - even here in the forum: most travellers are in the middle to up=market range with a budget of 60 Eu/pax and much above. I did 3 trips to Mada and spend average about 100.000 MGA/day.
I did not save on food or accomodation. But - I never hired a guide, I never hired a driver or 4WD, I used public transport as much as possible. Even a taxi brousse can be ok if you slip 5000 MGA into the palm of the driver to let you sit in front alone.

But now my question: could you please eloaborate more on the boat trip from Morondova to Tulear? I'm interested to to that on my next trip.

Hi, can you provide th Email for the B&B in Tulear? Thanks