Travel to Antananarivo

a picturesque and very French old quarter

Antananarivo, commonly referred to as Tana, is the capital of Madagascar and the main transport hub for the country.

The old town, set across a collection of low hills and punctuated by a network of lakes, is a pleasant, historic and rather interesting place, filled with impressive colonial architecture.

However the lower town and surrounding suburbs are hectic and choked with chaotic traffic.

A short stay in Tana is an attractive enough proposition, especially if you are interested in the history and architecture. The city includes a few points of interest, including various small museums, local markets and eateries.

One of the biggest downsides about travelling in Madagascar is that the internal flights are so unreliable and/or inconvenient that you usually have to include a night in Antananarivo every time you pass through, which means you can easily find yourself needing 2, 3 or even 4 separate nights here.

With the exception of a few beach-focused trips which fly in and out of the airport at Nosy Be, all other trips to Madagascar pass through the capital, Antananarivo, usually more than once and usually with an overnight stop on more than one occasion.

Seasonality

The best time to visit Antananarivo is generally considered to be during the May-Sep cool dry season.

The town is situated at an altitude of around 1200m/3950’ (which makes it the highest capital of any island nation) and experiences a subtropical highland climate.

The May-Sep period represents the cool dry winter season, with peak daytime temperatures around 21C/70F and nighttime temperatures usually holding up around 10C/50F. Rainfall is light and occasional.

The Nov-Mar period represents a warmer wetter summer season, with peak daytime temperatures around 26C/79F and nighttime temperatures being relatively high at 17C/63F. Rain can be quite high during this season, particularly Nov-Mar, peaking at around 300mm/12” per month in Dec-Jan (which is a lot).

Getting there

Antananarivo is the main transport hub for Madagascar.

The city is home to Ivato International Airport, which also serves as the main domestic airport hub and is located around 12 km northeast of the city centre.

The main international flight routings into Tana are from Paris, Addis Ababa, Nairobi and Johannesburg.

The main problem with visiting Tana is the traffic. Once you are up in the higher elevations of the old town, it tends to be less of an issue, but in the sprawling suburbs the roads are often extremely snarled up.

Getting between the airport and the old town should take twenty minutes with a clear run, but is more likely to be 1-2 hours given the traffic.

Where to stay

Given the traffic issues described in the previous section, the main decision is whether to stay out by the airport or brave the traffic into town.

We generally recommend that if you want to spend two or more nights exploring the town, then it’s definitely well worth the effort travelling into the centre. There are some decent hotels and characterful small guest-houses up here.

But if you are looking at simple overnight stops in order to make flight connections, then it can often be better to stay in one of the hotels close to the airport and skip town altogether. The hotels tend to be a bit bland and functional, but reasonably reliable.

trips often include multiple stopovers in Tana