FAQs & travel information about Madagascar
Madagascar is best known for its large variety of animal species, its rain forests, marvelous beaches and interesting reefs. It is an island state situated right in front of Africa's southeastern coast. Before you’re heading on your adventure to Madagascar, we would like to provide you with some general travel information for your destination and answer the questions we are asked most often.
To enter Madagascar as an EU citizen, a passport that is valid for at least 6 more months after the beginning of your trip is required, preliminary passports and children's passports are also accepted if they're still valid. Additionally, you need to apply for a visa or e-visa (if you're not staying withing Madagascar for longer than 60 days). You can also apply for your visa upon arrival. The costs depend on your chosen way of application and on your duration of stay. For a visa upon arrival that is valid for up to 30 days, please calculate around 80.000,00 Ar (Malagasy Ariary), which is equivalent to about 18,00 EUR.
If you enter Madagascar directly from Germany, no compulsory vaccinations are required. Still, we recommend that you check whether all standard vaccinations according to the vaccination calendar of the Robert Koch Institute are still valid and refresh them if necessary. We also recommend consulting a travel or tropical medicine specialist.
The country's currency is Malagasy Ariary (MGA). which has an exchange rate of about 1 Euro = 4.458,11 Malagasy Ariary. Experience has shown that it is cheaper to change money locally than in your home country, but you should also be aware that there may be fees in addition to any exchange fees if you do not bring the money in cash but pick it up with your card.
There is a time difference of -2 hours between Madagascar and Germany.
The official languages spoken in Madagascar are Malagasy and French. In terms of foreign languages, many inhabitants of Madagascar also speak English.
The overall climate in Madagascar is tropical, which is why in Madagascar you can enjoy reversed seasons compared with Europe or North America. Nevertheless, considerable differences can be noticed throughout the country: the climate is temperate in the mountains, arid in the south-west and rainy along the eastern coast. The rainy season lasts from November to March and between April and October, the country mostly remains dry. Throughout the country, the temperatures don't fall below about 10 °C year-round and can reach maximums of about 32 °C. Therefore, it is possible to travel through Madagascar on a motorbike year-round, however due to the rainfalls in winter and the hot summers, we especially recommend traveling in spring (February - May) or fall (September - November).
Traveling to Madagascar is the easiest by plane. The most important airports are the airports Antananarivo (TNR), Nosy Be (NOS) and Mahajanga (MJN), from where we can arrange an airport transfer for you. Regardless of the method of transportation you choose, we will gladly assist you with the planning so that nothing can go wrong!
You can find all of our tour dates on our tour site. If none of our proposed dates match your needs however, simply fill out our contact form or shoot us an e-mail telling us how many riders you will be travelling with, what level you are riding at und when you would like to travel and we will be more than happy to send you an individual offer after checking our current availabilities! If you would like to book further ammenities such as a couple of extra days to explore the country on your own or enjoy some more motorbike rides, just let us know - the more information we receive, the better and quicker we can organize your next motorbike tour for you and the earlier you can lay back and relax, looking forward to travelling to Madagascar!
After your booking, you can pay for your tour via bank transfer, the information that you need to do so will be mentioned on your invoice. An initial deposit payment amounting to 20% of the total tour price must be paid immediately after receiving the invoice, the rest of the payment is due 30 days before your scheduled departure. Exceptions can be made if flight bookings have to be paid in total in advance, which depends on the chosen flight and airline.
Just because you are new to riding motorbikes, it doesn't mean that you cannot book one of our motorbike tours! Simply let us know your level of riding and we will do our best to match you with other riders that are on the same page as you are so that you do not have to worry about the trails being too tough (or too easy, for that matter)! After all, Madagascar has got many enduro trails for beginners, intermediate riders and experts which we would love to show you!
To be able to join our enduro tours by riding your motorbike through Madagascar, you must be at least 18 years old. Furthermore, you need a valid motorcycle license as well as an international license.
If you'd like to join our tour as a non-rider, however, there is no minimium age, as long as children and teenagers under the age of 18 are accompanied by a legal representative.
Yes, on all of our enduro tours through Madagascar it is possible to rent a motorbike! Usually, we use Honda 110 cc, Honda 125 cc, Suzuki DR350, Suzuki DRZ 400, Royal Enfield 410 cc, Yamaha XTE 600, Honda Transalp or similar models for this purpose. Please note that if you would like to ride with a pillion passenger, only certain models are bookable.
Unfortunately, right now it is not possible to rent a motorbike from us in Madagascar without booking a tour.
If you would like to, of course you can also ride the tour on your own motorbike. To do so, your motorbike should be legally registered, in a generally good state and equipped with proper enduro tires. If you are not sure whether or not your bike is suitable to ride the tour, write us an e-mail, call us or text us on WhatsApp, Facebook or Instagram and we will be happy to assist you!
If a part of your motorbike breaks during our tour, our guide will try to fix it for you. Should this not be possible on our way, we will try to provide you with a replacement enduro so that you can continue your tour as if nothing had happened. Please notice that if you have not booked the rent of an enduro before, we may charge you accordingly on the spot.
For your own safety, we require you to wear a helmet, knee and elbow pads, a chest guard, gloves, a motorcycle jacket or jersey, goggles and durable motorcycle boots while riding. Please bring your own protectional gear with you.
Besides of the safety gear mentioned above, we recommend bringing the following items to your motorbike tour:
- A hydration pack or a normal, small backpack (incl. a rain cover)
- A rain coat that can also be worn while riding your motorbike
- Leisure clothing: t-shirts, hoodies, shorts, jeans, comfortable shoes, swimwear, underwear, socks
- Towels, cosmetic products and personal hygiene products
- Personal medicine as well as a first-aid kit
- Sunscreen and sunglasses
- Passport, visa (if needed), driver's license + international driver's license, your wallet
Madagascar is a beautiful country that surely has a lot more to offer than we can cover in just a couple of days of riding. Thus, we would be more than happy to assist you in booking some additional nights, whether you would just like to spend some more days at the beach or you would like to enjoy some more action with one of our guides!
During our tour, we will stay in good local hotels that we've only had positive experiences with so far.
We advice you, as for any trip, to conclude a travel health insurance before your tour.
Riding motorbikes is an outdoor sport, which is why the weather is always a risk factor. Should the weather be bad, our guides will determine whether they think that we can ride the tour anyways or not and if any changes to the routing must be made so that you can enjoy a safe adventure. Should our guides decide that going for a ride is too dangerous given the current situation, we will cover the kilometers in our support vehicle and try to adhere to the rest of the program as good as possible.
You can find all information regarding the cancellation of your booking in our terms and conditions.
Now, that you have got a general overview of what to expect on your trip to Madagascar, you can take a look at the website of the government of the UK on travel advice to Madagascar to get even more travel information. We at Viaduro care for your safety, and therefore we would like to provide you with some travel information that enables you to travel safely. However, we can always only assume which travel information is important to the average traveler, so you might as well look for more information regarding your specific needs elsewhere. Although we are regularly updating this information, it might also happen that not everything is up to date as frequent changes can always take place, thus, all information provided is not legally binding.
One last advice, please always make sure to listen to our guides! We can guarantee you that the only thing they want you to do - except having fun of course - is to be safe, and they are the ones that know this country best and that have the best overview of the ongoing situation. With that being said, you are now ready to read through the actual travel information. Enjoy your trip!
- Last update: 27.01.22 -
