Madagascar Discovery: 12 Days — Tsingy de Bemaraha Stone Forest, Kirindy Lemurs, Morondava Baobabs & Ranomafana Rainforest Private Tour

Tour Overview

Itinerary Highlights

This private 12-day tour combines the best of western and eastern Madagascar, linking the two most dramatic landscapes — the Tsingy de Bemaraha and the rainforests of the east — through the central highlands. The itinerary is more ambitious than the 8-day Baobab Safari, adding four days of eastern rainforest exploration for a comprehensive Madagascar wildlife experience.

Days 1-2: Antananarivo & Ambohimanga

Arrive Tana. Day 1: city tour — Queen’s Palace, Analakely Market, artisan workshops. Day 2: Ambohimanga (UNESCO), the sacred royal hill with egg-white walls and panoramic highland views. Lemurs’ Park for an introduction to 9 lemur species. Overnight in Antananarivo.

Days 3-5: Morondava, Kirindy & Tsingy de Bemaraha

Fly to Morondava. Drive the sandy tracks to Kirindy Forest for Verreaux’s sifakas (dancing lemurs), mouse lemurs (world’s smallest primate), and the elusive fossa. Sunset and sunrise at the Avenue of the Baobabs — Madagascar’s most iconic landscape. Two days exploring Tsingy de Bemaraha (UNESCO): suspension bridges and via ferrata routes through a forest of limestone needles over 100m high, lemurs in isolated forest pockets between the razor-sharp peaks, and landscape that exists nowhere else on Earth.

Days 6-7: Antsirabe & Andasibe

Return to Tana and drive east to Andasibe-Mantadia National Park. Two days in the eastern rainforest: guided walks for the indri (Madagascar’s largest lemur, whose haunting song carries 3 km through the forest), diademed sifaka, and the tiny Brookesia chameleons. Night walks reveal mouse lemurs, tree frogs, and the extraordinary giraffe-necked weevil. Visit Lemur Island for close encounters with rescued lemurs.

Days 8-9: Ranomafana National Park

Drive south through the highlands (passing Antsirabe’s rickshaws and gemstone workshops) to Ranomafana — the thermal rainforest established to protect the golden bamboo lemur (discovered 1986, eating cyanide-laced bamboo without harm). Two days of guided walks through primary rainforest for lemurs, birds, chameleons, and the thermal springs after hiking.

Day 10-12: Anja, Fianarantsoa & Return

Drive to Anja Community Reserve for ring-tailed lemurs among granite boulders — Madagascar’s signature lemur species, and Madagascar’s most successful community conservation story. Continue to Fianarantsoa for tea plantations, wine country, and the old wooden town. Fly back to Tana. Farewell dinner. Day 12: departure.

Inclusions

• 11 nights accommodation
• Daily breakfast, 7 lunches, 4 dinners
• Domestic flights: Tana-Morondava, Fianarantsoa-Tana
• 4×4 for Tsingy route
• All park entrance and guide fees
• Night walks at Andasibe and Kirindy
• Tsingy via ferrata equipment

Exclusions

• International flights, visa ($37), personal expenses