“Sikeleli Planning + Madagascar Inspiration: This was our 11th country we visited with the help of Sikeleli, and clearly there’s a reason we keep working with them! Karen had just gotten back from Madagascar and the team did a wonderful newsletter summarizing the draw, which inspired us for a once-in-a-lifetime visit to this exotic island. We ended up planning 2.5 weeks end of August/beginning September to get the best combination of adventure and relaxation (perfect weather and not a drop of rain!). Karen and Danni have such attention to detail and plan everything so well to cater to our needs (was also 3 months pregnant), that we had no doubts in our minds we would have the best experience.

Guides: Every one of our guides spoke English well, constantly made sure I had enough bottled water (especially since I’m pregnant), and seamlessly handled all the logistics from place to place well. We were treated VIP the whole time, greeted at the airport by security and taken through quickly to get our visas. At times, some of our local guides were so knowledgeable in the national parks that we felt like we were speaking to scientists/biologists—very impressed! With the help of our guides, we saw over 12 types of lemurs, multiple species of geckos and chameleons, endemic plants and insects, and of course they helped us get all the right angles to take phenomenal pictures. We even had a bucket list of Madagascar foods that we wanted to taste, and the guides (shoutout to Michel!) went out of his way scouting for the items and set up a nice meal for us to try it all. 

Highlights: The country is so diverse and large it’s hard to pick one area, but our favorites were: 

• Sunset drinks in the canyon of Isalo National Park and seeing the Ringtail Lemurs
• Sunrise pictures to see the massive Baobabs in Morondava (go sunset too, but sunrise has significantly less tourists)
• Private charters with our own pilot to get to each place quickly (totally worth it!!)
• Tsingy National Park – the most unique place we’ve hiked and it was easy and fun! 
• Andasibe National Park to see so many animals in the forests, plus the night walk to see different nocturnal species was AMAZING!
• Nose Be islands – Pure luxury. Pure relaxation. White sand beaches, fantastic seafood, and great fishing/snorkeling/whale watching

Madagascar is a gem of a destination that we couldn’t be happier to have visited with the help of Sikeleli! Would recommended to any of any age to visit, and will definitely be working with this wonderful company again in the future!”