MADAGASCAR MASOALA

Arrival in Antananarivo and transfer to the hotel. Overnight at the hotel.

Transfer to the airport and flight to Maroantsetra at the bay of Antongil at the Indian Ocean. There you will be welcomed and transferred to your hotel. The rest of the day is free to discover the provincial town with its tranquil life and market, or simply to relax. Overnight stay in a hotel.

Trip by boat about 2.5 hours to the Masoala peninsula. In this most untouched jungle area there are villages, waterfalls, waterways and on the coast breathtaking beaches. Afterwards about 4 hours walking in the rainforest to see the differences in the vegetation depending on the altitude. Don't worry: in the rainforest of Madagascar there are - like everywhere else in the country - no really dangerous animals! If you bring your diving goggles and snorkel, you can discover the underwater world here on the coral reef, the others can also swim in the river.

In June 2007 UNESCO decided to declare the Masoala National Park as a World Heritage Site together with 5 other protected rainforest areas of Madagascar.  Masoala is the largest national park on the tropical island. In 1997, the national parliament granted the area, which contains about one percent of the world's biodiversity, protection. In the evening a cosy get-together. Full board accommodation in the Ecolodge.

For the first day: in the morning an approximately three-hour walk to visit the forest and its animal inhabitants, many of them endemic, i.e. they only exist here and nowhere else in the world, birds (helmet vanga etc.), lemurs (red varis, white head lemurs etc.). In the afternoon visit of a village, where we see what many people here live on: Coffee, vanilla and cloves cultivation and processing. For the other 3 days, various activities, visits and hikes will be on the program to further explore this beautiful place.

Dinner and overnight stay again at the Ecolodge.

Boat trip of about 2 hours to Nosy Mangabe (located about two kilometers southeast of the city of Maroantsetra), a small island (520 hectares) in the bay of Antongil, which is a nature reserve. The park has been established to ensure the survival of the fingertips (Aye -Aye). In the 1960s, several pairs were brought to the island and it was closed for two decades to any non-scientific visit. Until recently, visits (even in the evening) were not possible, but were reauthorized in 2020. Several hours botanical tour, then boat trip 20 min. back to Maroantsetra. Free time at disposal there. Overnight stay at the Hotel Masoala Resort (included in the Masoala package).

After breakfast, transfer to the airport for the flight to Antananarivo.

Transfer to the city. Rest of the day at leisure, overnight at the hotel.

Depending on the departure time of your international flight, you may be able to visit the historical sites of Ambohimanga (UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001). It is the holy city of Merina, and was once the residence of the most powerful of all Merina princes, King Andrianampoinimerina. Until the conquest and final subjugation by the French in 1896, no foreigner was allowed to enter it. It had seven city gates, and the most powerful of them still serves as the entrance gate to the place today. Next to the gate there is a huge, smoothly polished and almost circular stone slab. In former times it was rolled every evening in front of the entrance gate. From the top of the "Blue Hill" - that is the translation of Ambohimanga – at 1468 meters of altitude, you have a beautiful view of Tana and the surrounding area.

Afterwards visit a market with Malagasy handicrafts to buy last souvenirs and, if the flight is late in the evening, day use of a room in the hotel. Afterwards transfer to the airport and check-in for departure for the flight home.

Unfortunately, Flight changes and cancellations happen quite often on the Tana – Maroantsetra flights