Madagascar
Madagascar
An island that broke away eighty-eight million years ago, and where nine in ten species live nowhere else
Photo by Noah Grossenbacher on Unsplash
Photos by Yasmine Arfaoui, Dmitrii Zhodzishskii, Clovis MARTIN and Guillermo Suarez on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Madagascar
April to October (dry); September and October for lemurs and whales
Climate month by month
The next sixteen days in Nosy BeOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 300mm in Jan
Where it is
18.88°S, 47.51°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Weeks of it- Stand under the baobabs at Morondava as the sun goes
- Hear the indri sing at Andasibe at dawn
- Walk the tsingy on suspension bridges above the blades
- Watch humpbacks off Île Sainte-Marie in July and August
- Dive or snorkel at Nosy Be
Madagascar travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Madagascar
Good valueA cash country. Euros change best, dollars second, and almost nothing outside the capital and the resorts takes a card. The largest note is 20,000 ariary, so a week of spending is a brick of paper — bring a bag for it.
ATMs & cards
BNI, BFV and BOA machines work in Antananarivo, Nosy Be and the larger towns, with a low per-withdrawal limit and a fee each time. Outside those, there is nothing — draw before you leave a city.
Avoid these
- assuming there is a machine outside a city, because there is not
Use these instead
- BNI
- BFV-SG
- BOA
The largest note is 20,000 ariary, worth about four euros, so a week of cash is a brick of paper. Limits are low and the fee is per withdrawal. Draw before leaving Antananarivo or Nosy Be.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Madagascar
Stay alertOne 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.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (8 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- 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
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Madagascar visa rules
Visa on arrivalup to 30 daysEUR 35, cash, at the airport
Issued on arrival at Ivato and Nosy Be for stays up to 30 days, and there is a separate 10 euro entry fee on top. Bring euros in cash — the card machine at the counter is regularly out of order.
Other passports
e-Visa requiredup to 30 daysEUR 35
How to get it: The e-visa at evisamada.gov.mg saves the queue but not the payment, which is still made at the airport. Carry the 35 euros and the 10 euro fee in cash regardless.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Madagascar
Evacuation likelyRequired to enter
- Yellow fever certificate, but only if you are arriving from a country where yellow fever is present
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Hepatitis A
- Typhoid
- Tetanus up to date
- Rabies — strongly advised, because post-exposure treatment is hard to find here
- Malaria prophylaxis for the whole island
Getting treated
Poor, and this is the thing to plan around. Antananarivo has two or three private clinics that can stabilise; everything else is a flight to Réunion or South Africa. Evacuation insurance is not optional here, and a policy that covers a medical flight is what you are buying.
Malaria is present across the entire island all year, including the coast and the parks. Plague occurs in seasonal outbreaks on the plateau and is treatable if caught early. Do not drink the tap water, do not swim in fresh water, and take the rabies course before you come rather than looking for it after a bite.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
GoodRice three times a day, with romazava (a beef and greens stew) or ravitoto (pounded cassava leaves with pork). On the coast the seafood is extraordinary and costs almost nothing. The vanilla is the best in the world and is worth carrying home.
Nightlife
Live music in the capital, rum in the beach towns, and very little in between — and almost nothing anywhere after dark for a visitor on foot.
- Antaninarenina — the hotel bars and live-music venues in the capital
- Ambatoloaka — the beach bar strip on Nosy Be
- Île Sainte-Marie — a beach, a rum, and no plan
Closing: 02:00 in Antananarivo, midnight elsewhere.
A beer in a bar: MGA 6,000–15,000
Rhum arrangé — rum steeped with vanilla, ginger or lychee — is the local drink and every bar makes its own.
Getting around
Car needed- YangoWorks here
- UberNot here
- BoltNot here
Yango Antananarivo
- From the airport
- Ivato airport to the centre 60,000–100,000 Ar
- Against a taxi
- Cheaper than the cream-coloured taxis, which are negotiated and elderly.
Outside the capital there is no app. A driver for the day, or the taxi-brousse, is the country’s transport.
Time zone and your working day
Indian/Antananarivo — 7 hours ahead of you
1 hour of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — 09:00–10:00 your time, 16:00–17:00 theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 02:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 02:00–10:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Madagascar
Ookla publishes no mobile median for Madagascar, so there is no figure here for what a phone gets.
What these numbers mean
Home broadband — Basic. Email, browsing and one video call if nothing else is running. Broadband here runs at 22% of the global median of 130 Mbps.
These are medians for the whole of Madagascar — Ookla does not break it down any further. The capital and the resort strips will beat the number and the remoter corners will fall below it.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Madagascar, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Where to base yourself
Nothing here is a day trip from the capital. The island is the size of France with roads that are worse than the map suggests, so a trip is two or three of these and the flights between them.
Nosy Be
A resort island off the north-west coast, and the only part of Madagascar with real beach infrastructure.
The one place you can land, be on a beach in twenty minutes, and dive or do nothing for a week without a driver. It is also the least Malagasy place in the country, which is the trade.
1h30 by air from Antananarivo to Fascene (NOS); there is no sane overland route.
Whale sharks pass October to December. Cyclone risk January to March.
Île Sainte-Marie
A long thin island off the east coast, with one road and a pirate cemetery.
Humpbacks calve in the channel and are watched from small boats a few hundred metres offshore — closer than almost anywhere else on earth.
1h by air from Antananarivo, or a drive to Soanierana-Ivongo and a ferry that is genuinely rough.
The whales are there July to September, and that is the only reason to plan around it.
Andasibe
Rainforest three hours east of the capital, around the Analamazaotra and Mantadia reserves.
The indri lives here and nowhere else, and its call carries three kilometres. It is the one wildlife stop reachable by road from Antananarivo, so it fits on any trip.
3h by road east of Antananarivo on the RN2 — the best road in the country, which still means 3h.
The indri call at dawn year-round; October and November are the driest and the busiest.
Morondava
A west-coast town, and the base for the Avenue of the Baobabs twenty minutes north of it.
The baobabs at sunset are the photograph that made people come to Madagascar, and you have to sleep nearby to be there for it.
1h by air from Antananarivo, or two hard days by road.
April to November. The road in is often impassable January to March.
Ranohira and Isalo
A sandstone massif in the south-west, cut into canyons with natural pools.
The best walking in Madagascar, and the natural stop on the RN7 overland route between the capital and the coast — which is the trip most first visitors take.
On the RN7, roughly two days by road south of Antananarivo, or a flight to Toliara and 4h back north.
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Malagasy
- HelloManao ahoanama-now OWN
- PleaseAzafadya-za-FAD
- Thank youMisaotrami-SOW-tra
- Yes / NoEny / TsiaEH-nee / TSEE
5 more phrases
- Excuse meAzafadya-za-FAD
- How much is it?Ohatrinona?oh-a-TRIN
- DeliciousMatsiroma-TSEE-roo
- SlowlyMora moraMOOR-a MOOR-a
- GoodbyeVelomave-LOOM
An Austronesian language, closest relatives in Borneo rather than in Africa, which is the first clue to where the island was settled from. French is the second language and English is limited outside the tourist trade.
Religion
Christian, layered over ancestral belief
About half Christian and almost everybody also holds to the ancestors. Famadihana, the turning of the bones, is a family reburial ceremony and is not a spectacle for visitors. Fady — local taboos about places, days, foods and directions — vary village to village and are followed by everyone, including your guide.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Ask about fady before you go anywhere with a guide — the local taboos differ village to village and are taken seriously
- Greet people before asking anything; the greeting is the transaction
- Ask before photographing anybody, and accept no for an answer
- Use both hands, or the right, when giving or receiving
Don't
- Do not point at a tomb, or at anything, with a straight finger — use a bent knuckle
- Do not discuss or photograph famadihana, the turning of the bones, uninvited
- Do not assume a fady is superstition to be argued with; it is the local law and your guide is bound by it
- Do not hand out sweets or money to children, which is a well-meant thing that has caused real damage
Where to stay in Madagascar
No Holistay rentals in Madagascar yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Madagascar on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Ivato, Antananarivo TNR
45 minfrom the airport· 10 km as the crow flies
45 min into the capital, and everything else is a domestic flight.
Also worth pricing: Fascene, Nosy Be NOS — direct charters from Europe in season.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
