Madagascar travel tips

Is Madagascar safe?

1 guide, each rated 1 to 5 with the reason — and two lists per place, where you are comfortable and where to pay attention. Nowhere is called dangerous; the specific thing is what helps.

2.0 average across 1 guide · Stay alert
Madagascar, Madagascar

Madagascar Stay alert

One of the poorest countries on earth, and the crime that affects visitors is opportunist rather than violent. Do not walk in Antananarivo after dark, and do not carry a phone visibly anywhere. The roads are the real danger: long, bad, and not to be driven at night. Malaria is present across the whole island.

Comfortable: Andasibe · Nosy Be · Île Sainte-Marie · Antsirabe

  • Antananarivo — on foot after dark anywhere, and the market areas by day with a phone out
  • The RN7 and every other road at night, which is the single biggest risk in the country
  • Swimming in fresh water, for bilharzia, and in the sea at Nosy Be beaches with no flags
  • Malaria, which is present across the whole island all year

The ratings are this site's own, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in; they are not an index. Read the general advice in travel safety tips.

The guides in Madagascar

People walking the dirt road between the giant trunks of the Avenue of the Baobabs at sunset, MadagascarMadagascarMadagascarAn island that broke away eighty-eight million years ago, and where nine in ten species live nowhere else