Madagascar Hotel Based Self Drive Adventure
The Avenue of the Baobabs opens the drive, then Tsingy de Bemaraha’s otherworldly limestone pinnacles before tracking the indri, Madagascar’s largest lemur species – twenty-nine nights across the island’s national parks.
Email this journey
Madagascar Hotel Based Self Drive Adventure
Tell us your trip details and we'll put together a complimentary Stradora Expedition Pack for the journey.
29 nights through Madagascar
Twenty-nine nights across Madagascar, self-driven with two escort vehicles and a local guide, staying in hotels rather than camping.
A month is what Madagascar takes. The island is the size of France with a fraction of the sealed road, and the distances between the parks are long enough that two support vehicles and a guide are not an indulgence.
Antananarivo opens it, with its French colonial architecture and the royal hill of Ambohimanga above the city. The Avenue of the Baobabs follows in the Menabe, where the trees stand in a line along a dirt road and are several centuries old, then Morondava on the coast and Tsingy de Bemaraha, a world heritage site of limestone pinnacles eroded into blades. Andasibe-Mantadia comes next in primary rainforest, home to the indri, the largest surviving lemur, whose call carries for miles. Isalo and its canyons follow, then Ranomafana for the golden bamboo lemur, Kirindy for the fossa, the island’s largest carnivore, and the spiny forest at Ifaty.
Bed and breakfast accommodation, dinner on the first and last nights, the 4×4 and its fuel for most of the trip, two escort vehicles with drivers, an English-speaking local guide, a coach for the final leg, the park entrance and guide fees, a boat transfer, the airport transfers and an escort from the operator are all included; international flights, most lunches and dinners, a refundable vehicle deposit, insurance, visas and tips are not. No wildlife sighting can be promised, and the lemurs least of all, since several of these species are both rare and nocturnal. The dry season from April to November is the window, since the cyclone season between January and March closes roads. Thirty days is a long trip and the escort arrangement is what makes driving it yourself realistic.
Images selected by Stradora to represent the journey.
What's included
- Accommodation on a bed and breakfast basis
- dinner on the first and last night
- 4x4 rental (days 2-25)
- fuel
- two 4WD assistance/escort vehicles with drivers (days 3-25)
- an English-speaking local guide
- a bus and driver from Tana to Manambato and return (days 26-30)
- park and reserve entrance and guidance fees as per the itinerary
- a boat transfer
- all Tana airport/hotel transfers
- a Self Drive Adventures escort.
Not included
- International flights
- optional activities
- most lunches/dinners (budget EUR12-15 each
- approx. EUR900 total pp)
- a vehicle guarantee of EUR740 cash per 4x4 (refunded if undamaged)
- travel insurance
- visas and vaccinations
- local tips (budget approx. EUR160pp).
Ready to drive it?
29 days, from £8,038pp