Afrinkong
Nature & LandscapesSix Ecosystems on One Island
Rainforest east, highlands centre, spiny forest south, dry deciduous west, and reef all round.
Photo Max Kladitin / Pexels
MADAGASCAR · Tourism
An Island That Evolved Alone
Separated from Africa 160 million years ago, with ninety per cent of its wildlife found nowhere else — lemurs, baobabs, the spiny forest of the south, and rainforest along the eastern escarpment.
IslandsRegion
27Tourism experiences
An island that evolved aloneKnown for
01
Featured destinations
Where the country actually takes you.
Nature & Landscapes
The Highlands and Maromokotro
The central highlands run to two thousand metres; Maromokotro reaches 2,876 in the Tsaratanana.
The Eastern Escarpment
Short, steep rivers off the escarpment, and waterfalls through the rainforest at Andasibe.
Lakes & RiversThe Tsiribihina
Three days downriver by pirogue through country with no road in it.
Nosy Be and the East Coast
Reef, whale sharks and humpbacks off Nosy Be, and long empty sand on the east coast.
Photo RAVI LAGES / Pexels
Rainforest and Spiny Forest
Andasibe and Ranomafana in the east, and the spiny forest of the south which is like nowhere.
02
Wildlife & safari
What lives here, and how you see it without disturbing it.
Wildlife
A Hundred Kinds of Lemur
A hundred and seven species and subspecies of lemur, every one of them endemic.
Photo Ann-Marie Hardy / Pexels
Not a Safari Island
No lions and no elephant — the wildlife here is small, nocturnal, and worth the torchlight.
Photo Egor Kamelev / Pexels
Eco TourismThe Reason to Come Carefully
Deforestation is the country's crisis, and the parks that work are the ones the villages run.
Photo Denis Ngai / Pexels
03
Culture & heritage
The part of a country you cannot photograph from a vehicle.
Culture
Malagasy, and Eighteen Peoples
One language across the island, of Austronesian origin, and eighteen distinct peoples speaking it.
Traditional PeopleFamadihana and the Ancestors
The ancestors are present here in a way that shapes the calendar and the architecture.
Romazava and Rice
Rice three times a day, and romazava — beef and greens — with it.
Hira Gasy and Donia
Hira gasy troupes in the highlands, and the Donia festival on Nosy Be in June.
Photo Skylight Views / Pexels
Traditional Arts & CraftsSilk, Raffia and Zafimaniry
Wild silk lambas, raffia work, and the Zafimaniry woodcarving of the south-east.
Photo Moussa Idrissi / Pexels
Historic SitesThe Rova and the Royal Hills
Ambohimanga, the royal hill of the Merina kings above Antananarivo.
HeritagePirates and Kingdoms
Île Sainte-Marie's pirate cemetery, and the Merina kingdom that unified the island.
04
Cities & everyday life
Where people actually live between the landmarks.
CitiesAntananarivo
A capital built up twelve hills, with stairs instead of streets in half of it.
Photo Isaac Naph / Pexels
Highland Brick
Two-storey red brick with a wooden balcony, and nothing else in Africa looks like it.
Photo Şahin Doğdu / Pexels
The Zebu Market
Zebu cattle are wealth here, and the markets that trade them are the real calendar.
Photo Roger Brown / Pexels
Slow, and Worth It
Roads are slow and distances are long — but the children will hold a chameleon.
Photo Edouard MIHIGO / Pexels
05
Adventure & outdoors
For travellers who would rather walk it than watch it.
Adventure
The RN7 and the Tsingy
The road south through the highlands, and the limestone tsingy you cross on via ferrata.
Photo HONG SON / Pexels
Trek, Paddle, Dive
Rainforest trekking, the Tsiribihina by pirogue, and reef diving off Nosy Be.
Photo Chen EdisoN / Pexels
Luxury TravelSmall Lodges
Owner-run lodges at the park gates, and beach places on Nosy Be with a dozen rooms.
06
Travel inspiration
The frames people come home with.
Photography / Scenic ViewsBaobabs at Six
The avenue at Morondava for twenty minutes at either end of the day, and nothing else like it.
Hidden GemsMasoala
The largest protected rainforest in the country, reached by boat, with whales in the bay.
Photo Pixabay / Pexels
Why Visit This Country
Nowhere Else
Lemurs, baobabs, tsingy, spiny forest — none of it exists anywhere else on earth.
Nowhere Else
Lemurs, baobabs, tsingy, spiny forest — none of it exists anywhere else on earth.
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