MADAGASCAR: Untamed, Unmatched, Unforgettable
Wildlife, Photography and Cultural Expedition
Lying 400km off the coast of Mozambique in the Indian Ocean, Madagascar is the world’s fourth-largest island. Over 90% of its wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth, including lemurs, towering baobab trees, chameleons, and an extraordinary array of endemic plants.
14 Days/13 Nights
From misty eastern rainforests to terraced highlands and the golden baobab plains of the west, this itinerary is designed as an epic photographic journey through Madagascar’s most iconic landscapes, wildlife, and cultures.
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4-17 October 2026
Style: Overland safari expedition with a photography focus, with one internal flight
Focus: Lemurs, chameleons, baobabs, rural life, culture, and landscapes
Difficulty:Easy–moderate (some drives long but not technical)
ITINERARY
DAY 1: Arrival in Antananarivo (4 Oct)
Arrive in Antananarivo (TNR). You’ll be met at the airport by your English-speaking guide and transferred to your hotel near Ivato. Depending on arrival time, you can rest after the flight or enjoy a relaxed walk around the neighborhood and rooftop views over the city outskirts.
Accommodation: Nosy Manga Hotel, Antananarivo
DAY 2: Antananarivo → Andasibe (5 Oct)
After breakfast, depart east along scenic National Road 2, passing rice paddies, roadside markets, and lush hillsides as you descend towards the humid eastern rainforests. Arrive in Andasibe in the late afternoon and settle into your forest lodge. Evening briefing on the days ahead and optional short night walk along the road edges for chameleons and nocturnal species.
Approx. distance: ca. 150 km
Key photo themes: Roadside life, rainforest landscapes, misty hills.
Accommodation: Vakona Forest Lodge, Andasibe
DAY 3: Andasibe Rainforest & Lemur Island → Akanin’ny Nofy (6 Oct)
At dawn, enter Analamazaotra National Park in search of the Indri—the largest living lemur—whose haunting calls echo through the forest canopy. Work in soft forest light for portraits of Indri, other lemurs, chameleons, geckos, orchids, and forest textures.
Late morning, visit Vakona’s Lemur Island by canoe. Semi-tame lemurs provide superb opportunities for close portraits and action shots as they leap between branches.
In the afternoon, travel by vehicle and then boat towards Akanin’ny Nofy (“Nest of Dreams”) on Lake Ampitabe, part of the Pangalanes Canal system. Arrive in time for golden-hour landscapes over the calm lake surface.
Approx. distance: 150 km + ~45 min boat.
Key photo themes: Indri portraits, macro in rainforest, lemurs at close range, lake sunset.
Accommodation: Palmarium Hotel, Akanin’ny Nofy (2 nights)
DAY 4: Palmarium Reserve, Andranokoditra Village & Aye-Aye Island (7 Oct)
Begin with a scenic boat ride along the Pangalanes Canal as morning mist lifts off the water. Photograph Ravinala (“traveler’s palms”), reflections, pirogues, and riverbank villages.
Disembark and drive back to Antananarivo, watching the landscape change from humid lowlands to the cool central highlands with terraced paddies and red-earth villages. Late-afternoon arrival in the capital.
Approx distance: ca. 275 km + boat
Key photo themes: Canal life, reflections, transition from east to highlands.
Accommodation: Nosy Manga Hotel, Antananarivo
DAY 5: Pangalanes Canal → Antananarivo (8 Oct)
After breakfast, depart east along scenic National Road 2, passing rice paddies, roadside markets, and lush hillsides as you descend towards the humid eastern rainforests. Arrive in Andasibe in the late afternoon and settle into your forest lodge. Evening briefing on the days ahead and optional short night walk along the road edges for chameleons and nocturnal species.
Approx. distance: ca. 150 km
Key photo themes: Roadside life, rainforest landscapes, misty hills.
Accommodation: Vakona Forest Lodge, Andasibe
DAY 6: Antananarivo → Antsirabe (9 Oct)
Drive south through the central highlands to Antsirabe, famous for its colonial architecture and pousse-pousse rickshaws. En-route at Ambatolampy, photograph small-scale aluminum foundries—dramatic, high-contrast scenes of molten metal, artisans at work, and rustic workshops.
Arrive in Antsirabe mid-afternoon; sunset and blue-hour opportunities around the old train station and city streets.
Approx distance: ca. 170 km
Key photo themes: Rice terraces, village life, aluminum workshops, rickshaws & street scenes.
Accommodation: Arotel, Antsirabe
DAY 7: Antsirabe → Ambositra → Ambalavao (10 Oct)
Continue south to Ambositra, heartland of the Zafimaniry woodcarvers.
Visit workshops to photograph intricate woodwork, artisans’ hands, and traditional tools. When possible, witness a Savika bull-running event—a dust-filled, high-energy local spectacle.
The road then winds through increasingly dramatic scenery: rocky outcrops and granite domes as you approach Ambalavao, gateway to Anja Reserve and the southern highlands. Late afternoon golden light over the landscape.
Approx distance:ca. 298 km
Key photo themes: Craftsmanship, cultural action, changing landscapes, granite formations.
Accommodation: Aux Bougainvillées, Ambalavao (2 nights)
DAY 8: Day Trip: Anja Community Reserve (11 Oct)
Spend a full day in Anja Community Reserve, a conservation success story run by the local community. Ring-tailed lemurs abound, offering endless opportunities for portraits, family interactions, and classic “sun-worshipping” poses on granite boulders.
Use macro lenses for chameleons, geckos, and insects, and wide-angles for massive granite domes framing the forest below.
Key photo themes: Ring-tailed lemur troops, macro life, granite-dominated landscapes.
Accommodation: Aux Bougainvillées, Ambalavao
DAY 9: Ambalavao → Fianarantsoa → Antsirabe (12 Oct)
Drive north, stopping at an Antemoro paper workshop to follow the full process from bark pulp to flower-inlaid sheets drying in the sun. Continue to the upper town of Fianarantsoa, with cobbled streets and colonial stone houses overlooking vineyards and valleys.
By late afternoon you’re back on the highland roads towards Antsirabe, with terraced fields glowing in warm light and long shadows.
Approx distance: ca. 298 km
Key photo themes: Paper-making, historic hill town, highland landscapes in afternoon light.
Accommodation: Arotel, Antsirabe
DAY 10: Antsirabe → Lac Tritriva → Miandrivazo (13 Oct)
At sunrise, visit Lac Tritriva, a volcanic crater lake set within a high cliff-ringed basin. Capture reflections, rock textures, and minimalist compositions. Then descend westward as the environment shifts from cool highlands to semi-arid savanna. Approaching Miandrivazo, the light turns golden over dry hills and spiny trees—ideal for big-sky landscapes.
Approx distance:ca. 220 km
Key photo themes: Crater lake, transition landscapes, arid west at sunset.
Accommodation: Hôtel Soa Lia, Miandrivazo
DAY 11: Miandrivazo → Baobab Country → Kirindy (14 Oct)
Today’s journey carries you deeper into Madagascar’s baobab heartland. Photograph solitary baobabs rising from dusty plains, rustic villages, and zebu carts. Continue to the legendary Avenue of the Baobabs for a first sunset session—classical silhouettes against a fiery sky, locals walking or riding carts down the red dirt road. After dusk, proceed to Kirindy and your simple lodge on the forest edge. Night walk in Kirindy Forest to look for mouse lemurs, sportive lemurs, giant jumping rats, and, with luck, the elusive fossa.
Approx distance: ca. 320 km
Key photo themes: Baobab landscapes, silhouettes, nocturnal forest life.
Accommodation: Relais du Kirindy, Kirindy
DAY 12: Kirindy Wildlife → Morondava (15 Oct)
Spend the morning exploring Kirindy Reserve in daylight for Verreaux’s sifakas (famous for their “dancing” bipedal hops), red-fronted brown lemurs, birds, and dry-forest flora. Macro work for reptiles and insects. After lunch, drive back towards Morondava, stopping at the romantic “Baobabs in Love” and returning to the Avenue of the Baobabs for another sunset shoot if conditions are good. End the day at your beachfront hotel on the Mozambique Channel.
Approx distance: ca. 70 km
Key photo themes: Sifakas, dry forest, baobab series, seaside sunset.
Accommodation: Palissandre Côte Ouest, Morondava
DAY 13: Morondava Coast → Flight to Antananarivo (16 Oct)
Early-morning session on Morondava’s beach: pirogues heading out, fishermen hauling nets, silhouettes against the rising sun.
Later, transfer to the airport for your flight to Antananarivo. On arrival, if time allows, short urban photo walk: market scenes, stairways and tiered houses, city viewpoints.
Accommodation:Nosy Manga Hotel, Antananarivo
DAY 14: Departure (17 Oct)
Goodbye Madagascar!
Depending on flight time, last relaxed morning at the hotel. Transfer to the international airport for your onward journey, with memory cards full of lemurs, baobabs, and Malagasy smiles.