How much does a trip to Madagascar cost?

Our private trips cost from €320 per adult for two days in the rainforest and from €3,070 for three weeks across the island. Most run 10 to 12 days, from €1,540. Every trip includes your own vehicle and driver-guide, accommodation with breakfast, park entrance fees and local guides. On top, budget for the international flight (roughly 700 to 1,100 euros return from Paris), any domestic flight (roughly 100 to 200 euros one way), the visa (30 to 40 euros at the time of writing), and most lunches and dinners, drinks and tips.

Day to day, Madagascar is cheap. What costs money is distance. The RN7 from Antananarivo to Toliara (Tulear) alone is more than 900 km of slow road, the parks people come for are far apart, and a private trip pays for its vehicle and driver every day, whether that day is six hours on the road or a morning in one forest.

Our trip prices, and the flights each one leaves out

Shortest first, with what you'd add to get there and back:

• Andasibe, 2 days: from €320. There and back by road from Antananarivo, so no flight to add.
• West: Baobabs and Tsingy, 5 days: from €810. Starts and ends in Morondava, about an hour's flight from Antananarivo, and both flights are extra.
• West Adventure, 10 days: from €1,540. Leaves Antananarivo by road and ends at Morondava airport. Add the flight back.
• Eastern Madagascar, 10 days: from €1,620. The boats are included. The last day's flight from Sainte-Marie to Antananarivo isn't.
• Classic South, 11 days: from €1,730. Down the RN7 to Ifaty. Add the flight from Tulear back to Antananarivo.
• Northern Madagascar, 11 days: from €1,790. Priced from Diego Suarez. Add the flight there and your flight out of Nosy Be.
• Northern Madagascar Adventure, 12 days: price on request. A round trip from Antananarivo, with both domestic flights extra.
• Ultimate Madagascar, 20 days: from €3,070. Starts and ends in Antananarivo, all by road and river, so no domestic flights.

We can book any of those flights for you. Every trip can also be reshaped: shorter, longer, a park swapped, Nosy Be added at the end. The 10-day and 20-day trips both spend days on the Tsiribihina river, where at the time of writing the UK Foreign Office advises seeking alternative routes after armed robberies on boats, and we can reshape either without the river, for example by flying to Morondava and joining the western route there (more in our safety guide).

What it costs to arrange it yourself

You can also hire a vehicle and driver-guide directly and book the rest yourself. At the time of writing, one rental company's 4x4s start at 79 to 109 euros a day, depending on the model, for rentals of two weeks or more in the low season. A driver-guide adds 30 euros a day (40 from January 2027), which covers the driver's own room and meals, and fuel is on top. Other operators quote a single day rate for car and driver, so check what it covers: fuel, the driver's room and meals, and detours you didn't agree at the start are where quotes differ.

Then add hotels, park fees, park guides and your meals, and two costs people tend to miss. On a one-way trip the vehicle usually drives home empty, and you pay for that run. And the driver is usually paid for every day of the hire, rest days included.

Whether that comes out cheaper than a set trip depends on the hotels you choose and how much planning you want to do. What a set trip adds is one contact from start to finish: the person who answers your first message arranges the trip and checks in while you're here.

Budget, mid-range or comfortable

Rough Guides puts a shoestring day in Madagascar at about $35 to $70: guesthouses, meals at hotelys (the simple eateries found in most towns) and taxi-brousses between towns. It works if you have weeks and patience. The minibuses are slow, and the UK Foreign Office advises against them because of road deaths and robberies. Our guide to getting around Madagascar covers the trade-offs.

With a private vehicle, the hotels become the main lever. In most towns a good mid-range double costs up to about 75 euros a night, and the best place in town rarely more than 150. A handful of top lodges charge several hundred euros per person per night. We can move the hotels on a set trip up or down to suit your budget, and the price follows.

Season moves the price too. July to September is high season and costs more. January to March is quieter and cheaper, but it's the heart of the rains: many parks close in November and rarely reopen before April or May, and in the west the roads turn to mud. The rainforest at Andasibe stays open all year. Our month-by-month guide shows what each month gives you.

International and domestic flights

The international flight is usually the biggest cost outside the trip price. Antananarivo has direct flights from Paris and one-stop connections through hubs such as Addis Ababa, Mauritius and Réunion. In 2026, economy returns usually cost about 700 to 1,100 euros from Paris, roughly 550 to 950 pounds from London and about $1,200 to $1,600 from New York. Fares swing a lot with dates, so price your flights before you fix the trip.

Domestic flights are run by the national airline, Madagascar Airlines, which goes back to its old name, Air Madagascar, from 31 October 2026. Most routes go to and from Antananarivo. A one-way ticket on the main routes costs 100 to 200 euros or so in 2026. Schedules change and delays happen, so never book a domestic flight on the same day as your flight home.

The visa, insurance and jabs

The visa costs 30 euros for stays of up to 15 days, 35 euros for up to 30 days and 40 euros for up to 60 days, according to the official eVisa site in October 2026, and it's the same price online or on arrival at the airport. The 15-day fee tripled in February 2026, and some older guides and even some government pages still give the old 10 euros, so check it just before you fly. Your passport needs to be valid for at least six months after you arrive, with two blank pages, and you may be asked to show an onward or return ticket.

Budget too for travel insurance that covers medical evacuation, and for any vaccinations or malaria tablets your travel clinic recommends. Our safety guide explains why the evacuation cover matters.

Tipping

Tips aren't included in any of our prices. There's no fixed rule and sources differ, so treat these as a starting point: around 5 to 10 euros a day from the group for a driver-guide on a multi-day trip, and 2,000 to 10,000 ariary per person for a park guide after a good day. In restaurants, about 5 per cent is normal and 10 per cent generous. Tip more for the guide who found the leaf-tailed gecko you'd have walked straight past.

How to spend less without spoiling the trip

• Share the vehicle. The vehicle and driver-guide are the biggest daily cost, shared by everyone on board. Our prices are per adult, from two people, and vary with group size.
• Pick one region and do it properly. Every extra region usually means a domestic flight, at 100 to 200 euros a seat, and a travel day.
• Go shorter, not faster. Fewer days cost less. Fewer days with the same parks just means more hours in the car. The 20-day Ultimate can be shortened or split into two trips.

When you're ready, send your dates on the booking page. No account, no deposit, no obligation.

Photo: Rado Rafidinjatovo on Unsplash.