Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Search out chameleons on a night walk in
Parc National de Ranomafana
(
Click here
)
Stroll through the eerie main street of
Ambalavao
(
Click here
)
Commune with ring-tailed lemurs in
Réserve d'Anja
(
Click here
)
Scale Madagascar's second-highest mountain, Pic Boby, in spectacular
Parc
National d'Andringitra
(
Click here
)
Sit by the village well in the paradisiacal
Tsaranoro Valley
(
Click here
)
Ride the colourful
FCE railway
(
Click here
)
from Fianarantsoa to Mana-
kara
Paddle a pirogue down the
Canal des Pangalanes
(
Click here
)
Getting There & Around
Perhaps the most common itinerary in Madagascar is to head down the RN7 to Tuléar (To-
liara) from Tana, sampling everything along the way, then fly back to Tana. Nearly all of
Central Madagascar's towns and attractions lie near this two-lane highway, one of the few
well-maintained roads in the country. Many people take a detour on the colourful FCE rail-
way, continue on to the coast via Isalo, worship sun and reef a bit, then fly back to Tana.
Taxis-brousses(bushtaxis)regularlyplytheroadbetweenthecapitalandthecoast.Butun-
less you have lots of time and a streak of masochism, you will likely forgo that alternative
in favour of renting a car and (mandatory) driver. Locally owned cars can be hired in Tana,
Tuléar and Fianarantsoa, and sometimes in the smaller cities in between (ask at hotels or
the bus station). But in our opinion, you can do no better than
Christophe
( 032 64 822
45, 034 46 191 65; jtophy@gmail.com), the driver carefully selected for our own research
trip throughout Central and South Madagascar. Along with a Land Rover, you will get an
enthusiastic introduction to Malagasy music.
Antsirabe
POP 215,000
Madagascar's third-largest city, Antsirabe
(An-sra-bay)
assaults the senses with throngs of
colourful
pousse-pousse
filling the dusty streets and a sprawling, vibrant market that can
swallow you for hours. Behind the clamour lies a colonial past that emerges every so often,
a reminder of a very different era.
Known for its thermal springs, the city has a long history as a spa town, first in the form
of Norwegian missionaries, who built a health retreat here in the late 1800s, with cobble-
stone streets that can still be seen, and then French colonists, who turned it into a chic get-
away from nearby Tana. Today, the great monument to its heyday, the Hôtel des Thermes,
has been reopened, but has yet to dust itself off, while Le Trianon has come back in grand
style. For the traveller, the omnipresent
pousse-pousse
makes getting around easy, and there
