2 independent reviews for Trekking and rafting expedition in Madagascar
Reviews for Trekking and rafting expedition in Madagascar
Nicholas Moss review 22 Jul 2024
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
The three day Doha trip. It was magical. Like stepping back in time. Also shout out to Tojo our guide for the first 7 days. He was everything a guide should be and more. Eating fish 20 minutes after it had been caught, taking live chickens and ducks with us as there was no refrigeration. 11am rum cocktails. The constant laughter of the crew who were clearly having as good a time as us.2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
The bureaucracy takes a little getting used to! You have to remind yourself that you are not at home and that things will happen, just at a different pace. Tip: You can get a visa and pay for it online. You still need to fill in arrival form whatever anyone there tells you! Once you have done that you can skip past the people queuing for visas but you still have to go into the lane where they are all queuing. Travellers diarrhoea is common in Madagascar I highly recommend buying some ciprofloxacin from the first local pharmacy you see. It doesn't require a prescription there and a single 750mg dose will probably cure it in a day. Or 500mg twice a day for three days. For an esim you can buy and activate before you go. Better service than I expected and it helped me watch England lose in the finals of the Euros!3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
Yes, some of it. The boat trip for sure. Local guides were used for the first week of our trip and more local guides are required for each park etc. As well as the one you already have so we certainly contributed there. Local people worked in the hotels but some of the hotels did feel a bit like gated communities especially in Nosy Be.Tip well and buy things from local people.4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
A fantastic experience. Lovely country. It's huge and we only covered a very small area.Catherine Nursaw review 24 Nov 2015
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your holiday?
There were too many wonderful experiences to pick out just one as the most memorable or exciting! Some of the many highlights for me included: seeing so many different kinds of lemurs and chameleons; the extraordinary limestone Tsingy; staying in the tree-huts in the Montagne des Francais; eating delicious fruit of all kinds fresh from the tree; the amazing friendliness of the locals and the huge smiles on the faces of the children who would run out to wave at us as we went by!2. What tips would you give other travellers booking this holiday?
If you decide, like me, to add on some extra time in Madagascar, allow PLENTY of time (24 hours plus!) between any domestic flight and your international flight home. Air Madagascar, the only domestic airline, has a whimsical and unpredictable approach to timetables and will delay, cancel or (almost more frustratingly) bring flights forward by many hours without notice. I ended up missing my international flight as a result of Air Madagascar moving my domestic flight forward by about 8 hours without informing me. Laurenne at the operator was a complete star and very helpful, as were their local agents in Madagascar, but it still made for a very long, difficult and expensive journey home. I should stress that this was a flight I'd booked as an add-on to my holiday - the travel arrangements for that portion of my holiday all went very smoothly.3. Did you feel that your holiday benefited local people, reduced environmental impacts or supported conservation?
To a great extent, yes. I loved the fact that we were off the beaten track - we saw no other tourists after we left Tana for the first 8 days or so, and we were buying provisions from local people and often eating in small local restaurants. Hopefully a lot of the money we spent did go straight into the local economy. I did have some concerns about the lack of environmentally-friendly toilet facilities eg when camping on the river bank. This is not something that a holiday company can fix by itself - the locals just use the river bank - but you don't want to feel like you're contributing to the problem rather than being part of the solution!4. Finally, how would you rate your holiday overall?
I had a fantastic time and would definitely recommend going to Madagascar with this holiday provider! There's still so much there to explore, I'm hoping to make it back there myself to see other parts of the country. I'm giving it 5 stars because I enjoyed it so much, though I've been lucky enough to be on some other amazing holidays so I can't honestly say it's the "best holiday I've ever been on". Still, I do think it deserves a 5 star review!Holiday Reviews
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