Madagascar Luxury Tour Review: Andasibe, Wildlife, Local Cuisine, 1-Week Trip

Andre did a great job of organizing our trip. He listened to our needs and adjusted the itinerary to accommodate our desire to be more inland/forest-oriented than beach-oriented. All the guides were excellent, as were the hotel accommodations. The guides were always on time and clear about expectations.

We didn't know what to expect in Madagascar. We were surprised by the abject poverty and the general backwardness of the culture, which has been exacerbated by corrupt leadership and the legacy of foreign colonization (in this case, France) that siphoned out the resources and left the people mired in their impoverished state. Our trip started in Uganda, which is considered a third-world country, but compared to Madagascar, it seems like a fully developed place.

We probably enjoyed the camp near Ifotaka the most due to the accommodations, the daily walks in lemur country, the food (the chef was amazing), and the staff, who were very cordial and helpful. We enjoyed our stay in Andasibe, but did not see nearly as much wildlife as we had hoped. The hotel in Tana was a unique and wonderful experience, and the other hotel in Tana was also very nice.

One point that should be made to anyone traveling to Madagascar is that the trip can be grueling if you're trying to see as much of the country as possible in a relatively short period of time and don't want to just hang out at the beach. The flights within the country are on prop planes and some of the road journeys, like the three-hour drive from Fort Dauphin to the river country or the five-hour drive from Tana to Andasibe can be very long and on treacherous, hole-filled roads that would be considered impassable in the US. These journeys can be exhausting.