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joe birmingham
Madagascar
Solo
the scenery was outstanding ,the people were very friendly, food was good and most of all the dancing lemur
The best parts:
the whole experience was great it was outstanding .Sariaka from ******** did a fabulous job. it was organised very well with the things I had asked for all included. the standard of hotels was very good and the driver and all the the guides were excellent .
The worst parts:
the state of the roads made the traveling between locations long and slow
Patricia
Madagascar
Friends
I have wanted to visit Madagascar for many years, having been born and raised in East Africa. However it was not until I was retired that I could consider the trip. I loved seeing the country and learning about the culture.Walks in the forest seeing the wildlife was also wonderful, and the forest guides chosen by our driver were absolutely great. I also appreciated seeing the range of socio-economic levels in the country, with some areas very much in need of additional aid, such as clean accessable water. All in all it was a memorable and valuable experience.
Re. below - I'd like to upload a few photos - but don't know how. Sorry
The best parts:
This was a wonderful trip. Here are a few reasons:
1. It was well organized, and tailored to our requests.
2. the personnel we worked with were professional, friendly, delightful, and quick to respond to any questions.
3. Our driver, Adafi, was chosen to meet the request for a person familiar with birds. He was very knowledgable, a fine driver, and a very fun on the trip. He had a lovely personality and provided a lot of good information about the country. He also demonstrated a passion for his country and people, especially the less fortunate in the southern part where water is scarce. He was a fine ambassador for the company.
4. Our accomodations were comfortable, safe, and met our request. Most of them far surpassed our expectations, and I thought were outstanding.
5. We loved the way the trip was planned to maximize the national parks as well as seeing the country.
6. For two retired professors it was something we could afford and still met all our requests.
The worst parts:
The only thing that was a bit 'less fun' was the long drives between destinations. However we both realized that this was not something that could be changed --- until the infrastructure and traffic of the country changes.
Evaneos
Thank you for your feed back! See you around the world!
The Weinbergs
Madagascar
Family
Arrived in Tana. Took a flight to Toliara where we met our driver. During the next nine days we traveled north. Visited Reniala baobab reserve, Ifaty, Ranohira, Zombitse national park, Isalo, Ranomafana, Anja, Antsirabe, Ambositra, Andasibe. Returned for one night to Tana and then took a flight to five amazing days in Nosy Be. All in all, a great 16 days in Madagascar.
The best parts:
Fantastic communication with Linah from *** during the planning of our visit. The parks. The kindness and hospitality of the Malagasi people. The island and the beautiful landscape, the amazing wildlife. The faultless organization. The staff at the office, Mirinda, the great driver Gael who took such good care of us & off course Frank in Nusi be.
The beaches, the reefs, the once in a lifetime experience of swimming with the whale sharks.
The worst parts:
Madagascar cuisine leaves a lot to be desired. The infrastructure is not really tourist oriented. The unpleasant *** lodge (which was mitigated by Linah's & Gael's ability to provide an alternative hotel at the same night).
Please note that Hotel *** beach resort in Nosy Be, while being pleasant enough, is really way off the beaten path, and you need to drive 90 minutes for going on any excursions from Ambatoloaka port.
Evaneos
Dear The Weinbergs,
Thank you for your feedback! We are more than happy that you enjoyed your trip to Magadascar and we are looking forward to see you again soon!
Yours sincerely, Your Evaneos Team!
Andry
Madagascar
Couple
We travel from east to west of Madagascar, we start from Antananarivo.
The best part i cam say all becasue we enjoy all envarioment of our trip.
Follow the siggestion of the agency they will bring you always in the best location and famous place of the country
The best parts:
The trip was perfectly organized. Kennedy our Man in Agency was soo kindly and ready to support us for every request. He has passion for his work and he know how trasmit us a good feeling and safty.
******** agency work in Madagascar from many manz years and they know how use your time in Madagascar in the best way without lost nothing.
The driver****** was so amazing 11 days with him and was so nice and let us enjoy all trip with his amazing story and history and legend of Madagascar. He help has and bring every where we ask. Always ready to manage all our request and needed.
The word to use is only one: Amazing.
If yoh want a real visit of Madagascar contact this agency and you will be satisfy 100%
The worst parts:
No wrost part to say all perfetc
Evaneos
Thank you for your feed back! See you around the world!
Gigi
Madagascar
Couple
Forest, animals, rice fields, desert beaches .. almost everything
The best parts:
Madagascar is a huge country and we could visit only a very little part (south-west). The variety of landscape (fisical and human) its really surprising and exceptionally beautiful
The worst parts:
The roads !!! Driving in the south-west means driving on dirty roads with very long time of transfer from one place to another
Evaneos
Dear Gigi,
Thank you for your feedback! We are more than happy that you enjoyed your trip to Madagascar and we are looking forward to see you again soon!
Yours sincerely, Your Evaneos Team!
Grims
Madagascar
Couple
Madagascar was on our bucket list... we love Africa, last year we travelled to Tanzania and Zanzibar,this year we had planned Ethiopia but we changed it to Madagascar, and next December going to Morocco. (It is planned that we contact Evaneos for Papua New Guinea in a couple of years time...)
Linah from Authentic Madagascar Tours planned it with us to the last detail, giving us all necessary info and as I said it was better than we expected.
The best parts:
Absolutely everything was beyond our expectations. We travel quite a lot and have a lot of experience but the tour was meticulously planned and executed. There was not much that could be improved. The best part for us was whenever we enountered the animals in their natural surroundings. Since we come from a densely populated and tiny island state without any kind of wildlife (Malta) this was a priority for us and we were very very satisfied.
The worst parts:
The worst parts had nothing to do with your company as such...
1. we encountered several large groups of loud Italian tourists who had no respect for other tourists or wildlife with their shouting and loud behaviour. On Nosy Be we saw tourists actually picking up hatching turtles and 'helping' them by carrying them to the sea!! Our guide talked to the other guide telling him this should not be done but there was little that could be done
2. In the South of the Island we were very sad to see children begging for water and the authorities should do something about this. We gave them all the water we had in the car but we could do nothing for the rest...
3. It was an experience... the driver helped us all the way to the security check in and was very very helpful but once the porters and hotel staff at Ivato International Airport found us on our own and realized that we were in Business Class they took us over, holding our passports and boarding passes with the excuse to help us (actually in a way they did as we were rushed through the airport) but at a cost as they demanded exorbitant tips which we were dishing out in an attempt to get safely through. Giving tips is ok where a good service is done but this part was literally daylight robbery! (we will not let these things spoil our holidiay, definitely not, in fact it was an experience which we laughed about back home, but it should not be this way). Again this had NOTHING to do with the company organizing the tour.
Evaneos
Thank you for your feed back! See you around the world!
RETG
Madagascar
Couple
We mostly took the RN7 route through Madagascar from east to west, heading from Andasibe through the highlands to Ranomafana, then through the Savannah and Isalo national park to Ifaty and Tulear, and ending our trip in Anakao on the west coast. On our second day, we hiked in Andasibe-Mantadia national park, and a highlight of the entire trip was watching the incredible Indri lemurs and hearing their famous call from right above us in the tree canopy. Hiking in the rainforest was fantastic, and our guide in Andasibe was really enthusiastic - we saw so much wildlife! Throughout our trip we saw about 13 species of lemur, lots of chameleons, gheckos, frogs, orchids, incredible plants etc. The highlands were beautiful and we met so many wonderful people on our trip, and we would've loved to stay and hike in Isalo national park for much longer than 1 day! It was also great to end our trip with a relaxing couple of days on the white sand beaches of Anakao, and the *** (spiny forest) near Ifaty was great to see lots of baobab trees. Take a minute to look up too - nowhere else in the world have I seen a night sky like we saw in Madagascar, with the Milky Way clearly visible. The landscapes, unique wildlife and wonderful people of Madagascar all meant we had a fantastic trip - even if it was tough at times to pass through some very poor parts of Madagascar - we wished we could help every kid we met in some way. We can't wait to come back!
The best parts:
Almost everything! The hotels chosen by *** (the local tour agency we went with, through Evaneos) were for the most part brilliant (most of them had great food, amazing views and lovely rooms), our guide Rynah was fantastic and shared plenty of stories of Madagascar with us, including a lot about the traditions of the tribes in each part of the country we visited, and about the wildlife and landscapes and people. Everything on our trip went smoothly, and it was great to plan an itinerary with Lea, who added some trips we had in mind that aren't typically part of the standard itineraries, and modified the hotels to include some one or two we specifically wanted to stay at. We had some fantastic guides in the national parks, too - particularly in Andasibe and Isalo.
The worst parts:
While this isn't really any fault of Evaneos' or ***, a couple of the local guides in specific reserves were a little less respectful of the wildlife than we would have liked, bringing animals out of hibernation or bothering them to bring them close to us - some tourists may enjoy this, but we believe this shouldn't be encouraged.
Evaneos
Dear RETG,
Thank you very much for your great feedback! We are more than happy that you enjoyed your trip to Madagascar that much and had a fantastic support by Lea!
We are looking forward to see you again!
Yours sincerely, your Evaneos Team!
Dave and Mary
Madagascar
Couple
Arriving in Tana, we then went east to the Andasibe area, stopping (thankfully) along the bumpy road to visit a park with many of the local animals. We then connected with guide Dominque who was great at telling and showing us the unique plants and animals of that area. We had lemurs on our shoulders in a park and fed an Indri in the wilds! Next we returned to Tana and flew north to Diago, where we met our excellent guide Sheilo who explained so much--plants, animals, customs, religion,history, culture in good English. We toured Amber Mountain, the red and gray Tsingy, some villages where we were invited to see a home and meet Sheilo's relatives. Finally to NoseBe for several days with a great village immersion, home-cooked meal, interacting with the children, getting wonderful photos, then return to Tana for a final tour of handicraft market and queen's palace.
The best parts:
We loved the following: The personal service--with our own guide and drivers, help with luggage, very kind people everywhere. We loved the unusual animals and plants--which we could see up close, both in zoos and in the wild. We loved hearing about the culture, religion, practices, history from some very good guides including Shelio (Diego area) and Dominique (Andasibe area), and several others. We loved the fresh fruit--and most of the food. We loved walking thru the villages, seeing the shops, and interacting with the beautiful children and adults--all very friendly even though we could speak none of the language. Lodging was very comfortable with one exception which was still ok. We loved the organization and communication by our travel agent, Sariaka, who was always an email or phone call away. There was very little that we did not like about this trip--except--see below
The worst parts:
The roads are terrible and very slow. Thanks to Evaneos for providing the most comfortable vehicle possible. Thanks to the drivers who really worked hard to minimize the bumps. We loved the lodges, with one exception--but even that one was ok and the food and service was great. We had one miscommunication on the itinerary when two days were switched and we didn't know it. Otherwise communication was excellent. Tana was very smokey and a bit crowded, but certain areas were very interesting.
SussexSimon
Madagascar
Family
Beautiful country but very difficult travelling around, very high poverty and average accommodation
The best parts:
Initial communication from Sariaka
First 5 days in rain forest
The worst parts:
Change of guide after 5 days - second guide no where need as good
The fact the second guide had a box of 12 dozen condoms on the passenger seat!
One of the hotels had had a major fire a week before but we were not told until we arrived that the restaurant and pool were out of use and were given not option to move even though we requested. Photos available.
We were only guests there for first night no electricity for 6 hours, took 20mins to be served a drink then asked if we had a bottle opener for it. Temporary restaurant only had two items available so my daughter who is vegetyhad to have plan pasta.
Not advised key information about certain parts of trip for example one section required us to be escorted by armed soldiers. Thought this may have been mentioned so we could decide whether we wanted to do.
One of the trips required climbing with ropes harnesses and caves, in description just said need good balance.
This was same place as fire damaged hotel so we ended up cutting it all short which wasted 4 days of trip.
By the time we got through all of this and with the unhelpful second guide we were so over it we booked return flights hone early. We abandoned our guide and got another driver which we paid for locally
Raj
Madagascar
Family
Destinations were amazingly beautiful. Nosy Iranja and Home the Residence at Nosy Be were top of all. Snorkeling at Nosy Tanikely, Andasibe and Ankarana safari was great. For us vegetarian food options were arranged. Food at Allamanda hotel, Diego Suarez was great. Overall we enjoyed a lot. More than a holidays.
The best parts:
1. Perfect planning and coordination of local agent Saraika, our local agent.
2. Destinations. Specially Nosy Be, Ankarana, Andasibe
3. Local guides
4. Most of the accommodations
The worst parts:
1. Ankarana lodge room. Spiders, Lizards and only1 fan for the family of four.
2. Boat Transport from Ankify to Nosy Be..
Mady
Madagascar
Couple
We spent 4 weeks in Madagascar however I think we should have only stayed for 3 weeks.
The best parts:
visiting the national parks to see the lemurs, always very informative guides.
Changing landscape while travelling further south.
Beaches on Nosy Be
The worst parts:
We had paid for a driver / guide, unfortunately our driver spoke very little English. I was going to contact the agency to tell them this but felt obligated to the driver as he had committed to doing this trip. The car was also not terribly comfortable & broke down 3 times during our trip.
We spent a lot of time researching the accommodation but in the end more than 50% of the nights were changed.
Nosy be
Madagascar
Solo
It was a great trip, i felt really good knowing that the travel agent was always there to answer any questions I had
she was great!! and made the trip easier
The best parts:
seeiing all the places and the people that worked in the tours
jrtome
Madagascar
Couple
From East to West and the South we saw a huge variety of landscapes, geological formations, fauna and flora as well as pristine beaches. Watching many different Lemurs, the hikes and walks we did, were a major highlight as well as the gastronomic delights.
But it is really the wonderful and nice people of Madagascar what makes a major positive impact of any journey in the country!
I made lots of posts of our journey in Facebook and you can visit my page at
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004500789117
The best parts:
Almost four weeks (26 nights) in Madagascar and we fully enjoyed our long stay in this beautiful country and the services provided. As usual, in these long journey, issues and problems do occur, but in our case, we sorted them all, in particular for one hotel night that was not as expected. All the other accommodations were up to the standard as expected or even better.
Many thanks to Linah and Mirindra for buying on our behalf a hot spot device, so we benefited of Wi-Fi all the way! Very grateful for you to help us on that! I truly suggest that in future you can provide this hot spot Wi-Fi service to all your clients. It doesn´t cost much ...
By the way both drivers Dida and Lala are excellent as well as the vehicles used!
Hope to visit Madagascar again!
Keep on with the good work...
The worst parts:
Not really a worst part but a negative impact is when we received the air tickets with our names completely wrong written and worst of all mixing both names. This doesn’t give a good impression….but it was promptly sorted out...
Virginia Couple
Madagascar
Couple
We flew into Antananarivo (Tana) and were taken to our lovely guest house where the hostess gave us a gracious welcome and fed us a delicious meal. We stayed in a beautiful, quiet, relaxing bedroom. The next morning we headed to the Eastern section of the country for our first look at sifakas, lemurs, and fosas! We also had time to relax at 3 different beautiful resorts (including Lodge de la Saline between Kirindy and Tsingy, where we were treated like royalty, as well as taking a birding trip and seeing baobobs at sunset by ourselves, without any other tourists within miles).
After our trip to the East, we headed down through the Central Highlands to see more interesting environments (rain forests and deserts), birds and lemurs before reaching the beautiful South where we took multiple guided walks through incredible spiny forests, saw more birds and baobobs, and relaxed in more charming resorts.
After a quick flight back to Tana and another relaxing night in our beautiful guest house, the next morning we headed West, having more opportunities to see and hear new lemurs (Indri Indris!), birds, snakes, insects, chameleons, frogs.... We spend 3 lovely relaxing days at Le Palmarium Reserve walking though their endless reserve, taking guided walks to see all the different plants and learning about their many lemurs (including a hybrid lemur), and taking a night time visit to see aye aye lemurs. After 20 wonderful days of touring the country, we returned to Tana to take our final tour of the city (including a visit to Ambohimanga) and to do a bit of shopping.
After 22 incredible days, we flew home. We're still talking about the trip and showing a slide show of the wonders of Madagascar to our friends.
Our Favorites:
It is difficult to describe our trip to Madagascar in a few words; we tell everyone that we felt like we could write an entire book on every hour of the trip. It is just as hard to describe our favorite places or times. All our time in Madagascar was special to us.
We have a lot of praise and thanks to Linah, our local agent representative from Evaneos, who worked with us non-stop, and was always available, despite the time changes and distance involved, to answer all of our questions, set up such a pleasing tour, and ensure that we had a fun and knowledgeable driver who took such good care of us during our 22 day stay in Madagascar.
The best parts:
1. It was hassle free to set up the trip with our local agent and get an itinerary that included all the sites we wanted to visit; gave us plenty of time at each site; arranged great, knowledgeable guides at each of the sites; provided a a lovely driver and car and made all the reservations for us at beautiful hotels and lodges.
2. Since everything was taken care of, we relaxed and enjoyed the vacation.
3. We saw so many diverse environments and learned more about the flora and fauna of Madagascar than we expected.
The worst parts:
We enjoyed every bit of our trip.
Madagascar Trip
Madagascar
Couple
Started in Anatanarivo and spent a night before driving to Ansirabe where we spent two nights visiting the city, hiking the highlands and seeing handicrafts. Drove to Ranamofana and spent two nights and hiked the rainforest seeing the lemurs- which was was personal favourite part of the trip. We added an additional night hike to see the mouse lemurs which I would recommend. Drove to Isalo stopping in Anja to see the ring-tailed lemurs. In Isalo we spet two nights and an entire day hiking the subdesert and seeing the oases- my boyfriend's personal favourite part of the trip. Drove to Ifaty where we spent 4 nights (our customization ) where we snorkeled and visited the spiny forest. This was a great way to unwind after many day of sweating and hiking. Flew back to Tana and toured the royal palace before spending a night then flying home.
The best parts:
We did the Extraordinary South Tour (with some personal customization) and everything was pretty close to flawless- from the communication with our local guide Eric, to airport pick up, transition between hotels and hikes in the parks. Our driver Oni was exceptional. He was aware how much my boyfriend and I were excited to see wildlife and made a point to pull over whenever he saw any birds, or beautiful landscapes. He made special suggestions to our park guides so that we saw the most on our hikes and even suggested some additional activities not booked in our package that we very much enjoyed (night hike in Ranamofana to see the mouse lemurs and Spiny Forest in Ifaty). Despite the long drives between locations (sometimes 4+ hours), Oni kept us entertained with facts about the county, history or friendly conversation. Breaks were pre-planned in areas of interest (lookouts, handicrafts, lunch) so we never felt we were sitting too long. The hotel staff and park guides were all friendly, handicraft demonstrations were interesting and the wildlife/landscapes were incredible. We had a blast in every national park and we saw much more than we anticipated. My boyfriend and I are avid hikers and we were more than happy to hike for an entire day (9am-4 or 5 pm) walking, and we were well prepared with water, hats and sunscreen. If you're a big hiker this trip is definitely for you! We saw everything from dense rainforest, sub-desert, canyons and hidden oases. We were up close to many endemic species of lemurs and birds. I highly recommend this trip anyone who is fond of nature, hikes and ready to get our of your comfort zone. Brush up on your French before you leave, some of the hotel staff's English is limited.
The worst parts:
Our hotel in Ranamofana (Chez Gaspard) was unaware that our breakfast was included and we were charged, we had to remind them the second day.
The hotel in Ifaty (Le Paradisier) had may mosquitoes, some getting in the room because the bungalow roof did not meet the walls in order to have low-energy temp control. The bug net worked just fine to keep bugs out, but relaxing elsewhere in the bungalow was a bit buggy.
Our hotel in Ansirabe (Flower Palace) was right in the city centre and very loud due to a political concert/gathering that went late into the night. We had ear plugs so slept well, but others complained of the noise.
