My wife and I took a 12-day tour with Helinirina (Madagascar-circuits tours). It was 5 stars for us! If you’re looking

Oct 2019 •

My wife and I took a 12-day tour with Helinirina (Madagascar-circuits tours). It was 5 stars for us!

If you’re looking for comfort and 5-star luxury hotels – better look elsewhere than Madagascar. If you’re looking for adventure and interesting times – Madagascar has it! We were interested in Madagascar because of its unique ecosystem, and we weren’t disappointed.

We always prefer to employ a tour agency from the country we’re visiting. We were limited to about 12 days. We had considered another tour operator, but he told us that in 12 days, we’d be able to see only the dry west side or only the wet east side. Helinirina offered a tour of both sides of the island by employing 3 short intra-country flights. This worked well. He offered us great value!

We had 2 guides and 2 drivers on our trip: Niaina/Haja on the west side, and Hassina/Raul on the east. They were all very attentive, took good care of us, and showed us a great time.

We spent the first night in the lovely Royal Palace in Antsiribe. The next day we 4WD’d to a boat launch for a 2-day cruise on the Tsirbihina River. The highlight was a beautiful waterfall/swimming hole at the halfway point where we camped. They supplied all the camp gear, and it was actually quite comfortable on the sandy shore. On the third day we climbed the Big Tsingy formation. Very exhilarating and scenic! Then we 40-wheeled it to Kirindy National Park to see Lemurs. We did, and saw Fossa, too! That night, they added a night safari where we found nocturnal lemurs, chameleons, geckos, centipedes, and other interesting creatures. A couple of the wild lemurs were so mesmerized at the light beam that they came right at us! The next day we visited the majestic Baobabs, said goodbye to the west side, and flew back to Antananrivo.

From Antananrivo, we drove to the lovely Feon’ny Ala Hotal on the East side. In the morning, we visited Mantadia National Park and then the Vakona private reserve for more Lemur encounters on a beautiful canoe ride, and lots of crocodiles (not from the canoe!). Late that afternoon, we were driven to another boat launch for a cruise on their beautiful intercostal waterway to the lovely Palmarium Hotel/Reserve. We toured the extensive grounds the next morning which are filled with – you guessed it – more lemurs! (and gecko, chameleon, etc.)

Afterward, we continued our boat cruise further north to Toamasina from which we flew to Ile Aux Nattes. This was 2 days of paradise! There were just a handful of tourists on the beautiful 3 km island of 1500 inhabitants. The weather was perfect! It was only maybe 15 steps from our bungalow door to the lapping warm sandy seashore. And there was good snorkeling just a few hundred meters down-shore. The Sambatra Beach Lodge was really comfortable and laid back. There was a clean sand floor in the dining area, which sounds maybe weird, but it was really comfortable and encouraged all the guests to be barefoot and casual. Lots of fun!

Overall, we were very pleased with our tour (and the reasonable price). It was dry season (October), and it got pretty hot on the west side, making for a few hard-to-sleep nights. The boat trip was a bit long, but it avoided another 2 days of 4-wheeling on the horrible Madagascar roads, so maybe it was worth it. Helinerina put us in very nice hotels, except for the camping nights and a few west-side lodges, where there aren’t other nearby options. The Lodge at Kirindy is pretty rustic, but I wouldn’t give it up, because that’s where we had the night safari and saw the Fossa and the big white lemurs.

The outstanding portions of the trip for us were the waterfall swim, viewing the fishing/farming/native life on the first cruise, the lobster for lunch on that cruise, the Tsingy climb, the night safari, the walk down the Avenue of the Baobabs, the two private reserves, and the paradise at Sambatra Beach Lodge on Ile Aux Nattes.

Helinirina provided everything that he’d promised and we had no significant snags on the tour nor with the deposit transfer. The tour was a bit rushed, but that was our fault; we wanted to pack in as much as we could in the time we had. We had the adventure and interesting times that we’d hoped for. Now, I’ve got a ton of great photo’s to process….