Tips for Madagascar based on my recent trip :)

Question

Hey guys I was in Madagascar from the 21st of Jan until the 29th of Jan and I thought i´d include a few tips from what I experienced whilst there.

- You will learn the importance of "mura mura" - taking your time whilst in Madagascar.

- Traffic in Tana is really horrendous so make sure you factor that in when deciding to do things in the capital.

- Travelling from city to city in Madagascar takes ages, remember this is the 4th largest island on the planet.

If you don't want to rent a car (which can be expensive), you can travel via taxi brousse OR you can travel more comfortably with "Cotisse". This is basically like a taxi brousse but they leave on time and each ticket comes with a seat, moreover the Cotisse buses have Wi-FI. Note that they only do certain route, like Tana to Tamatave for example.

-Since journeys are so long, you normally stop at "hotelys" - places where you can eat and some of the ones I saw offered both Malagasy and international(French) food

- If a hotel says they have internet, they do but most probably not in the rooms. Also internet can be slow.

- Andasibe national park costs around 45,000 Ariary for foreigners and 2,000 for natives. You also have to hire a guide which costs an extra 2,000.

-Traders in many places, especially Tamatave quotes prices in Franc first and not Ariary. Franc is worth 5x more than the Ariary. So when request the price of goods, make sure to confirm that its in Franc or Ariary.

-In Tamatave, the pousse pousse normally costs 1,000 Ariary. If they charge more than that then you should be suspicious (unless its a really long route)

-I don't know how it is\was like for other tourists but seeing old French men with young Malagasy girls was quite an uncomfortable common sight.

There are indeed visa fees for all:

- Short stays ( up to 30 days ) ; cruise travellers will benefit from multiple entries: 80 000 MGA ( 25 Euros or 28 US Dollars ).

- For stays lasting 30 to 60 days: 100 000 MGA ( 32 Euros or 35 US Dollars ).

- For stays lasting 60 to 90 days: 140 000 MGA ( 25 Euros or 28 US Dollars ).

(You can only pay in cash and with these currencies: Ariary, Euros, US Dollars).

I cant think of anything else now but I hope these tips help and I'm available to answer any questions although there are some excellent experts who would do a much better job!

Zoky B · Accepted Answer

Thank you for your trip report, it was a very good read. I hope more people who visit Madagascar also step up as you did to give us the news from ground zero. I think you did an excellent job and better than the experts who got the visa price wrong, and franc issue wrong and they only seem to repeat what can be found in any guide book. Also the issue you brought up about old men and young girls is an important note as to one of the problems that plague Madagascar and sexual tourism. These important issues also will not be brought to light in this forum so as to blind-side the tourist.

I also found it interesting about having WIFI on specialty "taxi brousse" . I have never heard this before and wondered what was the cost of taking a Cotisse bus and did the WIFI work all along the route?

What did you think of the hotelys, and what foods did you eat if you can remember some of the names of the Malagasy dishes and those prices? I found most hotelys only have spoons which vasaha find weird to not have a fork to use with their meal but I find that now a spoon seems to make more sense in most cases.

Thanks for a great report and I hope you can report more details about your trip and if you have a blog to put me on that contact list.

Thanks again

Tola A · Answer

Hey Zoky,

Yeah it was disappointing that there was no clear answer on the visa issue but I hope that this clears it up! When people talk about the visa issue, they should consider that for Malagasy people they almost always need visas to enter any country.

The Franc issue is very important and people need to know this beforehand otherwise they will get screwed over. Sometimes traders do this on purpose but other times its because they are so used to using Franc - the Ariary is a recent change.

Regarding the Pousse Pousse, when we went from the Cotisse station to the hotel the guy charged us 1,000, then when we got to the hotel and i gave him 2,000 he asked for 5,000. We assumed he meant 5,000 Francs but he meant 5,000 Ariary. So my friend (who is Malagasy) had an argument with him and we ended up not paying him anything.

But the rest of the time I used the Pousse Pousse I paid 1,000 Ariary and again this is to go pretty much everywhere.

Be aware that if you catch a Pousse Pousse as you leave an expat establishment, they will charge more.

Taking a Cotisse bus, I paid 20,000 Ariary from Tana to Tamatave and they leave on time and only admit as many people as they have seats for (normally around 11 people..). The WIFI is good and every Cotisse bus is equipped with a WIFI router. They also have a TV with movies (they showed the latest Mission Impossible movie) - note that everything is in French\Malagasy.

The Cotisse station in Tana has a small ticket office and a restaurant as well.

The bus takes 8 hours and only stops if there is someone who booked prior to the bus leaving, this means that it is a lot faster than a normal taxi brousse.

Regarding Malagasy food, I had a lot but I don't remember their names :D I just remember having a lot of rice! lol Malagasy food = rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner :D

The hotelys are nice and cheap. For Malagasy food you're looking at around 3-5,000 Ariary and for international around 4-7,000 Ariary.

I agree i was a bit like..where is the fork? But its fine..its rice :D haha it makes sense because many Malagasy dishes involve rice in some sort of broth.

Sexual tourism is a massive thing there, especially in Tamatave. I went to some expat places where you had French guys openly negotiating with Malagasy girls.

Also one time I saw an 80+ French guy trying to talk to school children (who had just finished school) on the road. These guys are dogs...

HAving said that its a gorgeous country!

AnamariaMada · Answer

Hy.

Great tips for those who didn't traveled to Madagascar before.

We are planning to go in April and we world like to have some time at the beach,see the lemurs and some baobab trees without any plane trip because we will have a 22 hours trip in order to reach Antananarivo (these hours will be more than enought ). Do you have some suggestions about an area where to stay?

Thanks in advance

Tola A · Answer

Hey AnamariaMada.

First thing is that Madagascar is massive. It may be benefical for you to fly domestically if you dont have many days in the country.

But I guess that you can find all of that in Morondava :)

Fearless802748 · Answer

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