Our services | Our Destination | Some tours | General information | Home
General
Information
Our services | Our Destination | Some tours |
General information | Home
General practical information and answers to FAQ Keywords A-Z
-Actualities: The visa fee upon arrival in Madagascar is now free for tourist visas for a stay not exceeding 30 days, and this until the end of the year 2009. -Airlines: Flights from Paris with Air France or Corsair; Air Madagascar flies from Paris, Nairobi, Mauritius, Comoros, La Reunion, Johannesburg and now also from Guangzou and Bangkok; Air Madagascar flies also from Johannesburg directly to Ft. Dauphin, Southafrican Airlink flies from Johannesburg to Tana, Air Austral from La Reunion and Comoros, Air Mauritius from Mauritius and many other countries with stop in Mauritius. Air Madagascar and Corsair also fly now directly from Paris to Nosy Be. Domestic: Air Madagascar has a very intense domestic flight network. The bigger destinations (Ft. Dauphin, Tulear, Tamatave, Morondava, Diego Suarez, Nosy Be, Sainte Marie) are usually quite reliable, smaller destinations are quite often subject to changes. -Banks: In Tana, they open about 8.00AM through to 3.30PM; it may vary slightly, depending on the bank. In the provinces, the banks usually close during lunchtime. -Beggars: There are beggars only in the cities. The best way to deal with them in case you don't want to give them anything: neither look at them nor talk to them. Don't give money to children, as they'll very probably give it to their parents who'll buy some booze with it. If you want to help the kids, better buy them some food (but no sweets), or give them pens. See also under "safety". -Change/Money: Black market exchange
is illegal, and the rate is hardly better than the bank rates, so it's not worthwhile the
risk. The best exchange rate at the bank depends on the currency. the best
rate in our experience you'll get at the banks money change desks at the
airport and at the BMOI and the BFV/ Société Générale bank in the cities. For Traveller cheques, BNI/Crédit Lyonnais bank is
best (offices in all cities), but the exchange rate is worse than with cash and you need
to bring the receipt which you got when you've bought the cheques. Other banks are
difficult or impossible for TC change. Credit cards can be used only in very few expensive
hotels and shops, and mostly only the visa card. There are some ATM in Tana
and one or two in the bigger province cities, but you can withdraw only max. about 150Euro per withdrawal with a visa card,
and now also with Mastercard at the BNI/ Crédit Lyonnais/CA Bank.. You
can repeat the withdrawals, but you'll pay commission again. There's a 24h ATM for
visa card at the Hilton Hotel in Tana. You can get
more money with your credit card (Visa, Master) at several banks, but it takes a long wait
even in Tana, up to several hours, and there's a small commission to pay. The handling of
creditcards should improve drastically once they'll install a deep sea fiberoptic cable
which will enable Madagascar to be connected internationally with high speed data
exchange. This has been planned for Mid 2009. -Circumcision : it is originally a custom in which a boy becomes a man, but for practical reasons, in the Madagascar of today, it is practised already with boys of very young age (two to three years on the high plateau). It is practised during the dry and cold season. Depending on the family and the tribe, people go to the doctor or still celebrate it following the tradition such as the Sambatra in Mananjary (East coast). The circumcision is usually celebrated with a family party. If you see a parade along the street with people carrying sugarcanes, banana leaves and a Malagasy flag, this usually is a circumcision party. -Climate: Madagascar has two main seasons: the dry season and the rainy season. Rainy season lasts about 5 months (from December until April). In the east, you have to expect rain almost every day all year long (except in Sainte Marie). The south west hardly gets any rain. On the high plateau from Tana to Fianarantsoa, winter nights get cold, down to 5°C, Antsirabe even around freezing point. So you should bring a pullover, if you come between Mai and September. November to March is hot, on the west and south coast even very hot. On the coast, it is generally much warmer than on the highlands and in Tana, as Tana is on 1300m above sea level.
-Cybercafés: There are now more and more around in most cities. In Tana, you can go to Capintel / Simicro (one of the ISP companies) in the heart of the upper city, near the main postoffice (GPO). There is another at the Carlton hotel, where Moov/DTS (another ISP company) runs a cybercorner next to the coffeeshop of the Carlton. In Antsirabe, you can go to Capintel/Simicro next to the "Ville d'eau" hotel or to the "Diamant" hotel. In Fianarantsoa, there's a cybercafé near the "Panda" restaurant, in Tamatave/Toamasina there's one at the Jupiter Hotel (Pin's Café), one next to the cinema Ritz (MasterComm), one near the Bazar Be, in Tulear at the "Glace des As" restaurant and another one opposite of it, in Majunga there's one with MasterComm and another with Meli Melo Media, both near the "hotel de France", in Morondava there's one at the restaurant La Sirène and at the hotel Oasis. Malagasy post offers now Internet access too, in many cities, just check at the postoffice. The tarifs for internet use are now quite cheap, but the connection is still very slow, where they don't have ADSL yet. Some hotels also offer now internet access for free, and some even offer free WiFi connection in your room, if you really want to bring you laptop PC with you. -Development: Madagascar
is depending on international help. There are also a number of NGO's and
help organisations in the
country, working in different sectors. One of the most efficient
organizations is certainly Akamasoa, founded and managed by Père Pedro, a
charismatic priest. He has founded a village where he gives thousands of
people homes, food and new hope. Please have a look on his website, where
you can get some information: www.perepedro.com
If you want to help this project, you can bring them directly some clothes
or money or we can also give you their bank account details. -Drinks: Madagascar has now two companies who produce softdrinks: Star, who's producing Coca Cola, Fanta and Sprite under licence, but also their own brands like "Bonbon anglais", Passion and "Grenadine" lemonade, then Tonic and Crystal (Crystal is sparkling mineral water)all in glas bottles (1 litre and 33cl) with a deposit on it. Lately, they've brought out Coke, Fanta and Sprite also in plastic bottles. Tiko produces Tiko Cola, Orange, Lemon and Mint lemonade in 1,5 litre and 50cl plastic bottles. They also produce fruitjuices in tetra pack (orange, pineapple, passion fruit, apple) and dairy products. Star produces the only locally made beer, in two brand names: Queens and THB (Three horses beer), in 33 and 58cl bottles and now also in 33cl cans. There are several brandnames of bottled water: Olympiko, Eau Vive, La Source, in 75cl or 1,5litre plastic bottles. All the drinks produced by Star can be found nearly anywhere, the same with Tiko. In some bars and hotels, you can get import beer, and the hotels Tana Plaza and Hotel de France in Tana brew their own beer. Please be careful with the homemade fruitjuices ("jus naturel") that you can get in some restaurants, as there is often water added, which is mostly tap water. Icecubes in drinks are sometimes made also with tap water, so you should ask to be on the safe side, or avoid it. Madagascar produces its own wine, in the area around Fianarantsoa. Try the "Gris" (something between "rosé" and white wine), there are several producers. -Electricity: Madagascar has a voltage of 220V (very rarely, 110V can still be found), and the plugs should be French types. Power cuts are quite frequent. All the cities have electricity. -Famadihana: Best season to see Famadihana is August, September and October. Famadihana is " turning over the bones" consisting in wrapping again the dead with new sheets, mainly silk sheets. It is a very important traditional family event. Depending on each family, the Malagasy celebrate this event between once a year and once in ten years, with a party that can last three days during which some families spend their whole savings. During Famadihana, most families have a little parade along the street (to show to the dead what has happened in the meantime), where they carry the dead body along, often accompanied by a brass band. -Food: Madagascar has some typical dishes, like e.g. Ravitoto (crushed manioc leaves with usually pork meat) or Romazava (broth with vegetable, sometimes with bits of meat (beef or chicken)), but it's strongly influenced by French and Chinese cuisine. All cities have some good restaurants, and many hotels have their own restaurant. -Health: There's Malaria on Madagascar. You should be more careful on the rainy east than the dry west, and it's worse during rainy season (from December until April). You should take precaution. Ask your tropical doctor about up to date prescription. Local doctors are used to Malaria cases and know what to do in case you'll get it. Don't forget to take the precaution pills until four weeks after your trip. To avoid an upset stomach, you should respect the basic rules of hygiene and only drink safe water and eat cooked food, also to avoid diarrhoea through infection. We also consider the vaccination for Hepatitis A useful, as you could get it also through consumption of food or drinks. This vaccination is effectiv for ten years and will be useful also for other countries you'll be visiting. It's a good decision to fresh up the usual vaccinations. -Hotels: The hotel capacity in Madagascar is insufficient during high season (July to October, mid-December to mid-January), we strongly recommend to book in advance. You can book all hotels with us, we'll charge you a small booking fee, and you'll get a voucher for each hotel. The paiment has to be made in advance with us. If you book a tour with us, we'll automatically reserve all the corresponding hotels, they are included in the given tariffs for the tours. You can't compare Malagasy standard to the European or American. Middle and upper class hotels are clean and have warm showers or bathtubes and some comfort as laundry service, TV and minibar; upper class hotels have a moneychanger, some also night-club (disco), casino, swimming pool etc., -Immigration: before you enter Madagascar, you'll get on the aeroplane a questionnaire to fill in. They ask you there, where you'll be staying at in Madagascar. Just fill in the first hotel you'll be staying at. Please see also below under "visa". -Language: Madagascar has 18 tribes and each has its dialects. There's a kind of Official Malagasy that all Malagasy are supposed to understand. French is the second official language, and well-educated people speak it fluently. In the countryside, it is sometimes difficult to find someone speaking French. English is spoken only in the cities, mainly by some young or very well educated people. It is slowly becoming more popular. We can provide English speaking guides upon request. In all national parks are a few English speaking guides. -Meteorology: up to date weather information: please have a look at http://www.moov.mg/meteo.php -Motorbikes: rental prices upon request, depends on the size of the bike and the duration of the rental. You,ll need a valid motorbike driving licence. -Newspapers: The most popular local newspapers are the "Midi Madagasikara", "Express de Madagascar", "Madagascar Tribune", La Gazette and "Les Nouvelles". "Gazetiko" is entirely in Malagasy language. They are mostly written in French, with a small part in Malagasy. They generally have very little information in it about things happening abroad, but "Les Nouvelles" has a bit more in it. If you want to buy foreign newspapers, there are a few newspaper stands in supermarkets (Champion, Leader Price) and one at the Carlton hotel. Mainly French newspapers at these stands, and the "Herald Tribune" and "USA today". In the other cities, it is difficult to find foreign newspapers, and also the local ones arrive with some delay. You may also find some mobile newspaper sellers with international newspapers, they hang out downtown around the GPO and at the airport, the newspapers they sell are quite up-to-date but used ones, they got them from the arriving airplanes. -Nightlife: there are several discos all over Antananarivo (in the center: Caleidoscope, Caveau, Indra, Le bus, La Plage, they usually play a mix of foreign and Malagasy music, le bus and la plage has a lot of techno music, out of the center are the "Riviera" and the "Eldorado", both sometimes with live bands), and there are several bars or restaurants who have regularly some livemusic, called "cabaret", mainly a singer with a band singing cover versions of international songs (Groove box, La Romance, Jard'in, Ch'Luiggi etc.). Some bars (The Pandorra etc.) play mixed music and turn into a disco late weekend evenings. In the very heart of the city, there's also the "Glacier" bar, restaurant and hotel. The Glacier has thursdays through 'til sundays always live music in the evenings,. The "Glacier" has usually Malagasy bands playing, even some of the Top names like Jaojoby, Lego, Mamy Gotso etc. The "Residence de Ankerana" has live Jazz music every friday night. This bars and restaurants usually have adds in the newspaper (the best newspaper to buy for adds is the "Midi Madagasikara"). In the other cities, there are mostly two or three discos. -Phone: To phone somebody within Madagascar or abroad has become easy over the last years. Besides the quality of lines which is still considerably worse than in Europe, the handling of phone calls is the same. You can buy a phone card with Telma (Telecom Malagasy) and phone from any phone booth throughout the country, to somebody in Madagascar or abroad. If you want to call abroad from a public phone booth, just dial 00 plus the country code, for ex. 0044 for UK, followed by the local number without the first zero. If you want to call within Madagascar from a phone booth, dial the 7 digit number, for ex. our office number 23 30928. If you want to call from a local cellular phone to a local fixnet number, dial 020 first, 020 says that the desired serviceprovider is Telma. If you want to call from Telma fixnet to a local cellular phone, the prefix is 032 for Orange, 033 for Zain /Madacom/Celtel and 034 for Telma, so you dial for ex. 032 07 12345. The cellphone network in Madagascar is expanding rapidly, even smaller cities have a network now. If you want to bring your own cellular phone to Madagascar, inquire with your service provider if they have a contract with a company in Madagascar. If you plan to phone quite often with your mobile phone during your stay in Madagascar, it's probably a good idea to buy a local SIM card, it costs less than 5 Euro including a small credit, and you can get the recharge cards in shops and some hotels everywhere where there's a cellphone network. Mind the thieves, cellular phones are a popular target... -Prices: For a hotel room (double), you'll pay between about 10 and 300 EURO, middle class about 15 to 75 EURO. A meal (main course only) you'll pay about 3 to 7 EURO without drinks, for a menu 6 to 12 EURO (without drinks) in most restaurants. Drinks: a large local beer will cost about 1 EURO in most restaurants, a small soft drink about 0.6 EURO, and a bottle of local wine about 5 to 9EURO. Taxi fares are negotiable in Tana, but have fixed prices per person in the other cities -Radio: In Tana now about 30 FM stations, in Malagasy and French language. Foreign FM stations also include VOA (Voice of America), BBC and RFI (Radio France International), also in some of the larger cities.
-Rental cars: There are some international companies like Hertz, Budget etc., but their tariffs are expensive. We more often work with small local companies, often family run. They are reliable, since they take care of their vehicles, as they are their own, and cheaper. Prices with them for a rental car are around 40 Euro plus fuel per day, including the driver with his indemnity. For a 4-wheel drive car, the tariff is from 70 Euro/day plus fuel or gasoline costs. Minibus tariffs upon request (depends on the size). You can't rent a car without driver. Cars are expensive in Madagascar due to the fact that there's a very high import duty on cars (70 to 116% on top of the European price +shipping costs). -Restaurants: There are many restaurants all over the country now. In Tana, you can find now restaurants for almost all tastes: Japanese, Chinese, Indonesian, Corean, Indian, Italian, French, German and, of course, Malagasy. Some restaurants especially in Tana are really serving "haute cuisine", their chefs regularly win prizes at international competitions. The very basic restaurants (so called hotely) are cheap but often not very clean, and have sometimes rooms as well. Please see also under "food". -Roads: The roads are mostly good from Tana to: Tulear, Tamatave, Mahajanga, very bad the last stretch to Ft. Dauphin, middle stretch to Diego, last stretch to Morondava, and generally bad all along the east coast, with most bridges broken. Vehicles are brought over by a kind of raft. The new president is spending quite some effort on rebuilding the existing roads and adding new roads, and it is improving now. -Safety: You should avoid certain quarters of the cities late night. There are pickpockets, mainly in Tana. Mind the guys with the hat in Tana! They point the hat at you to make you believe that you should throw some coins in it; but underneath the hat, they take money out of your pocket. They usually surround you in a group. Best is, if you push away their hand gently but firmly. You shouldn't camp in lonely areas. Don't let your valuables lay around openly, neither in hotelrooms. Put your valuables in the hotelsafe and let they give you a receipt. It might also be a good idea to make a photocopy of your passport and ticket and keed it in another piece of luggage than the original, or leave a copy in our offices. Madagascar is safer than many other countries. -Sun: the sun shines much stronger in Madagascar than in Europe, so bring a sun lotion to avoid sunburn. These products are usually much cheaper abroad than in Madagascar because Madagascar has high import tax on most goods. Sunrise is about 6.30A.M. in winter (5.30 A.M. in summer), sunset about 5.30P.M. in winter (6.30P.M. in summer). -Taxi Brousse: this is a kind of collective taxi, mostly either Peugeot 504 familiale cars (where they squeeze in at least 9 people plus driver) or minibuses. There are also some large buses now. They mostly are late, leave when the car or bus is full, and quite often brake down due to bad maintenance. They are dirtcheap (e.g. the 360km stretch Tana - Tamatave costs only about 10$US), but often travel at night, so you won't see much and you can't stop to take pictures either. That's why we recommend to rent a car. -Television: In Tana 6 stations: OTV, Record Télé, RTA, TVM, MATV, Viva, in the provinces only one to two stations. TVM is the national station. In better hotels satellite TV. -Trains: The train between Fianarantsoa and Manakara is the only track that still transports passengers. Theoretically, the ride takes about 6 - 10 hours, but practically, it could take much longer. It is therefore risky to organise a tour around it, unless you are ready to skip the train ride at the worst case, in order to keep the schedule for the rst of the tour. The passenger train to Tamatave is no longer at work, only a freight train with a little passengers' space and very overcrowded, which runs very irregularly. The same applies to the trains between Tana and Ambatondrazaka, and between Tana and Brickaville. The train from Tana to Antsirabe is out of order at the moment. Due to the coming privatisation, some lines might be working soon again, especially the line Tana - Tamatave. If you are really keen to take a train ride, please ask us about up- to- date information, as the situation changes often. We'll be pleased to check it out for you. -Visa: You can easily obtain your one month visa upon entry at Antananarivo (Ivato) airport. It is now available for free until the end of 2009, if your stay doesn't exceed 30 days. -Whale watching: on the East Coast (Maroantsetra with the Bay of Antongil and off the island of Sainte Marie are the best spots) from about early July until middle of September, you can see humpback whales. -Zoma Market: The Zoma market doesn’t exist anymore since mid 1997. For buying handcrafts and souvenirs, the best occasion is the handcrafts market out on the Dike Street (route de la digue), on the way to the airport. There’s no hassle and pickpockets there, but you need a car or taxi to get there. There are buses passing by too, but it’s a bit complicated. For buying other things like household goods, clothes etc., there are several markets, e.g. the Pochard market (entrance opposite the "Grand Orient" restaurant) or the pavillons on Analakely. There are also some supermarkets now in Tana, where you can buy almost everything, also souvenir T-shirts etc.
Madagascar is a beautiful country and has a lot to offer. Enjoy your stay!
If you feel that we should put other subjects on this page, please give us your suggestion right away, Thank you! voyageur@madagascar-tour-operator.com
|
