Things not to miss

#01 Fianarantsoa Dropdown content

Fianar’s hilltop old town is one of the Madagascar’s most picturesque, with narrow lanes and views across the modern city and its rice fields.

© Pierre-Yves Babelon/Shutterstock

#02 Parc National d’Andasibe-Mantadia Dropdown content

Wonderful lemur-watching, including troops of habituated indris, plus night walks and decent hotels, just a three-hour drive from Antananarivo Dropdown content.

© worldclassphoto/Shutterstock

#03 Île Sainte Marie Dropdown content

This beautifully unspoiled island is quieter than Nosy Be Dropdown content, with the jewel of Île aux Nattes Dropdown content at its southern tip. Leave time to get back to the big island: it’s easy to get stranded by the weather.

© Charles-Henry THOQUENNE/Shutterstock

#04 Réserve Spéciale de Nosy Mangabe Dropdown content

Heaven on a plate for beach-bum natural history buffs, with leaf-tailed geckos camouflaged obligingly on every other branch and a beach to make grown men cry.

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#05 Parc National de Masoala Dropdown content

The real-life version of your local rainforest experience, complete with tumbling streams, buttress-rooted forest giants and thousands of life forms. Take a waterproof.

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#06 Nosy Be Dropdown content

Madagascar’s most developed concentration of tourist resorts is low-key by global standards. Get away from the beach hotels and out to the offshore reefs or up to the hilly interior.

© Roel Slootweg/Shutterstock

#07 Allée des Baobabs Dropdown contentand Kirindy Private Reserve Dropdown content

Worth the special journey for the towering “tree-elephants” and the exhilarating nocturnal animal life of Kirindy, including fossas.

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#08 Tsingy de Bemaraha Dropdown content

Hard to get to, but worth every ounce of effort for the extraordinary expanses of weirdly eroded limestone pinnacles, cut through by winding rivers.

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#09 Parc National d’Isalo Dropdown content

A park of big landscapes, lush canyons and wide horizons in the dry savannah, with easy access, good hotels and camping.

© Dennis van de Water/Shutterstock

#10 Sainte Luce Reserve Dropdown content

Moist coastal forest and creeks, home to lemurs and chameleons, with glorious beaches and onshore whale-watching, as well as some excellent guides.

© Pierre-Yves Babelon/Shutterstock

Travel advice for Madagascar

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