Safari to Isalo

an excellent location for outdoorsy travellers

Set in southcentral Madagascar, Isalo National Park lies alongside the main RN7 road that runs from the capital Tana, over 1000 km to Tulear on the southwest coast.

The reserve is a very scenic area of eroded sandstone mountains, which offers some excellent hiking and opportunities to spot several species of lemurs.

Isalo is a great location for hiking and horse-riding in particular. There is also an impressive via ferrata.

We tend to only recommend travelling this RN7 route if you are particularly hardy and keen to explore the specific locations along the way. Unfortunately that means we tend to end up including Isalo in trips disappointingly rarely, even though we love it.

Although we really like the Isalo area, it tends to feature in trips relatively rarely, because it is such a long drive to get to. However, if you are planning to fly down to the southwest coast, it’s not such a long drive.

The usual stay duration is 2-4 nights.

Seasonality

The best time to visit the Isalo area is generally considered to be during the Apr-Oct dry season, but conditions are not usually particularly adverse during any month.

The area has not historically experienced a great deal of rainfall. Even the wettest month, January, only tends to peak at around 50mm/2″ and any rain that does fall is quickly evaporated away.

However, in recent years we have had reports of higher than usual rainfall, with a record 526mm of rain falling during the month of January 2019 alone (which is an incredible amount). So maybe we should now be warning against travelling during the Nov-Mar rainy season.

The temperature information tends to be more reliable. During the Apr-Oct dry season the daytime temperatures tend to peak around 24C/75F, but during the converse Nov-Mar rainy season those temperatures can head up and over 29C/84F, with spikes in humidities accompanying any precipitation.

Getting there

Isalo National Park lies 450 km south of Tana on the infamous RN7 highway, the endless road that takes typically 7-12 nights to reach the southwest corner of the country (once you have stopped off at various interesting spots along the way).

These days we actually access the area more often by flying from Antananarivo down to Tulear on the coast and driving the three hours east to Isalo, later departing by the same way.

It’s also possible to access the area by light aircraft from Antananarivo direct to Isalo, but that’s a long and expensive charter.

Where to stay

As well as a range of rather mediocre overland hotels along the main road, the Isalo area has a couple of really decent lodges, namely Le Relais de la Reine and Le Jardin du Roy, both of which are set back from the RN7 to the south.

a long and arduous drive down the main road