Bradt Madagascar Guidebook
by Hilary Bradt and Daniel Austin
Madagascar Travel Guide – Holiday advice and travel tips including Antananarivo highlights, Malagasy wildlife and endemics, national parks, reserves and activities. Also featuring detailed species identification, the best spots for wildlife tracking, birdwatching, Nosy Be, Nosy Mangabe, Masoala, natural history, baobabs, local cuisine and hotels.
Size: 135 X 216 mm
Edition: 13
Number of pages: 472
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Bradt Madagascar Guide
The latest edition of the leading and most comprehensive guide to Madagascar.
About this guide to Madagascar
This updated Bradt Madagascar guidebook, now in its 13th edition, has been written by Hilary Bradt, who first visited in 1976 and has returned roughly 35 times, and Daniel Austin, who has visited more than 15 times and continues to travel there annually.
Bradt’s Madagascar is by far the most thorough guide to the country in English and is written and updated by established experts whose unparalleled knowledge of Madagascar combines with contributions from over 50 specialists in a book which has been the most authoritative guide to the country for three decades. It covers national parks and protected areas and includes itineraries to suit all interests and budgets, plus details of around 1,000 hotels and restaurants.
Madagascar is like nowhere else on earth. It is fascinating not only zoologically and botanically, but culturally, linguistically, historically and geologically. This vast island is the fourth largest in the world and also the oldest, which partly explains why it has evolved into an incredible hotspot for biodiversity, with a truly unique flora and fauna that is more than 80% endemic to the island, and with new species being described virtually on a daily basis. Madagascar is also the only place where you can see wild lemurs. Almost a quarter of the world’s 450-or-so primates exist only here.
With Bradt’s Madagascar you can visit tropical rainforest and seek out its incredible flora and fauna; explore otherworldly eroded limestone spires, most famously at Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park – Madagascar’s most striking landscape; discover the beach-fringed islands around Nosy Be with their fabulous scuba diving, snorkelling, kayaking, whale-watching and fishing; and make the most of a host of adventuring and sporting possibilities, including surfing, windsurfing, kitesurfing, rock climbing, tree climbing, caving, river trips, mountain biking, distance running, quad biking and hiking.
Also covered in this updated Bradt Madagascar guidebook are the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Ambohimanga, the renowned Avenue des Baobabs, one of the country’s most photographed scenes, and information on the best birdwatching spots: Madagascar has almost 300 avian species, with a high proportion of endemics, including five whole endemic families.
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Contents
Contents
Introduction
PART ONE GENERAL INFORMATION
Chapter 1 The Country
Chapter 2 People and Culture
Chapter 3 Natural History
Chapter 4 Practical Information
Chapter 5 Health and Safety
Chapter 6 Madagascar and You
PART TWO THE GUIDE
Chapter 7 Antananarivo and Area
Chapter 8 East of Tana
Chapter 9 The Highlands South of Tana
Chapter 10 The South
Chapter 11 The West: Menabe Region
Chapter 12 The North and Northwest
Chapter 13 Nosy Be and Nearby Islands
Chapter 14 Toamasina to Masoala and the SAVA Region
Chapter 15 Île Sainte Marie (Nosy Boraha)
Chapter 16 The East Coast between Toamasina and Taolagnaro
Appendix 1 Historical Chronology
Appendix 2 The Malagasy Language
Appendix 3 Further Information
Index
About the authors
Daniel Austin‘s fascination with Madagascar began long before he managed to muster the funds to go and see the island first-hand, on what he planned to be a once-in-a-lifetime trip before submitting to the inevitability of getting a ‘proper job’. Whether it was his aversion to such drudgery or the allure of Madagascar that was stronger than he expected isn’t certain – perhaps both – but the trip changed the course of his life and he has returned at least once every year ever since, often for three months at a time. Now occupied full time with all things Malagasy, he leads small-group tours to the island (danielaustin.co.uk), gives occasional lectures on Madagascar, is secretary of the London-based Anglo-Malagasy Society, founded the Madagascar Library (madagascar-library.com) and co-authored the other Bradt titles Madagascar Wildlife and Madagascar Highlights.
Hilary Bradt‘s career as an occupational therapist ended when potential employers noticed that the time taken off for travel exceeded the periods of employment. With her former husband George, she self-published her first guidebook in 1974 during an extended journey through South America. As well as running Bradt Travel Guides, Hilary worked for 25 years as a tour leader in Madagascar. Her in-depth knowledge of the country has brought her lecture engagements at the Royal Geographical Society, the Smithsonian Institution and on board expedition cruise ships, as well as numerous commissions for travel articles.
Hilary received an MBE in 2008 for services to the travel industry, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the British Guild of Travel Writers in 2009, and a Travel Media Special Contribution award in 2019. She now lives in semi-retirement in Devon and is delighted to have handed over the hard graft of researching new editions to Daniel.
Reviews
‘Indispensable’
The Sunday Telegraph
‘An authoritative and scholarly
guide’
The Observer
A great travel book
Travel Africa magazine
