1 independent reviews for Trekking and rafting expedition in Madagascar
Reviews for Trekking and rafting expedition in Madagascar
Catherine Nursaw review 24 Nov 2015
1. What was the most memorable or exciting part of your vacation?
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 travelers booking this vacation?
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 vacation - the travel arrangements for that portion of my vacation all went very smoothly.3. Did you feel that your vacation 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 vacation 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 vacation overall?
I had a fantastic time and would definitely recommend going to Madagascar with this vacation 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 vacations so I can't honestly say it's the "best vacation I've ever been on". Still, I do think it deserves a 5 star review!Holiday Reviews
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