Madagascar

Island Tours

We offer a range of challenging and scenic tours on the beautiful island of Madagascar. Using dual purpose Transalp and Africa Twin bikes you can tour at your own pace with the specially designed routemaps provided.

The tours work on the principle that you hire the bike and the tour route maps come with it. The average tour would take 2 weeks, but you asre free to hire for less or more and complete or swap between tours.  In Madagascar the road system is not well developed, so you will need the route maps to get around and you will be strongly advised to stick to them. By doing this you will have the promise of an exhillaratin and well planned adventure.

For Africa Twin please add 20%, this is a heavier bike and therefore better suited to the more experienced rider, especially when taken off road.

The essentials for Bikers are, of course, roads - and Madagscar has 50,000 km (which gives an impression of its size), though only 5000 km are asphalt and can be travelled year-round. The good news for bikers is that these roads are often in good, though sometimes bad, condition, and most have a lot of curves. Rather attractive are the side trips off the main road into villages and back. Traffic, apart from Tana, is generally thin, but attention must be paid to taxi-brouse, taxi-be, trucks, tankers, busses, zebu-carts, chickens, ducks, turkeys, cattle, goats, and, of course, people and potholes. The landscapes are quite varied: tropical permanent green on the east coast; dense, partly unexplored forests on the mountain slopes; the central highland of the Merina people; the dry west and southwest; and beaches for bathing, snorkeling and diving. Special attention deserves to be paid to the nature, plants and wildlife, which are unique. The people are of a quiet, humorous and unobtrusive nature, and as a visitor, one can expect to most always be welcome.

In all places of interest to tourists, travellers can find places to stay offering sufficient comfort. Rooms with a double bed are appr. 5 - 13 Euro per room, often with heated water and a restaurant (dinner: 2.50 - 8 Euro) close by.

The language on Madagascar is Malagasy. The most widespread foreign language is French, which trevellers, travelling on their own, should speak. Malgache people speaking English, German, Spanish or other languages can be found, but cannot be relied upon for day-to-day needs.

Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world. In the eyes of Malgache people, Westerners are extremely rich. Those who decide to travel here should be aware of this discrepancy and behave accordingly. Nevertheless, the experience of a trip around Madagascar can enrich one's personal treasure of life experiences.