Will be traveling to Madagascar next year from Bangkok with Air Madagascar

and would be grateful for any information ,regards costs,problems encountered,

and best time to visit,

kind regads Worgeordie

probably better to ask in the travel forum or the bangkok forum

Air MADAGASCAR - Google African Airlines listed as unsafe - Strangely they are mostly all African and Ex Soviet Block.

No leg room and an appalling experience. All African carriers are to be avoided - they normally use ancient Ex Soviet aircraft and have no maintenance programme. Other carrier is Air France.....see AF447 from Rio to Paris...!!!

The country itself is terrific. Scenic and lots of wildlife.

Incredible poverty / raw Africa.

No infrastructure.

English hardly spoken you need to know French.

Hilton Hotel in Capital Antananarivo is about 4 stars below any other Hilton Hotel...... see infrastucture.

Avoid eating Sardines - 25 people dead....See BBC World today...07/04/2011

No man is an island - unless his name is ....Madagascar.

Go and enjoy - its an experience.

Was a valuable piece of property in the game RISK.

Have been to Madagascar several times - it is certainly an experience. People are mostly very poor there - don't expect much in terms of infrastructure (the major roads are paved of course).

Also don't expect much from hotels / restaurants / shopping / communication everything is very simple and basic.

Why don't we try this in the Travel forum and see what happens...OK?

It seems most people responding here are the dissatified members of TV. I have been visiting Madagascar for 3 years on a mining project. To correct some of the other responses - Air Madagascar is not the best of Airlines BUT they are Boeings. Very old 767 from Bangkok with a refuelling stop in Reunion. Flight time around 10 hours. As they only have 2 767's they frequently have breakdowns - usually in Paris. I have had a number of 12 + hour delays but they put you up in the Four Wings hotel not far from Swampy for the night. You can get a free visa on arrival (US & EU passports) but you need to show your return ticket and the visa is valid to that date. Alterrnatively you can buy a visa at the Airport 60 Days $60, 90 Days $85. Local currency - AriAry- spend all before your return. Useless outside of Madagascar and even airside at the airport. Restaurants - many good French style restaurants all over the place. I do not reccomend you eat in Malagasy restaurants unless you have a good supply of Imodium to hand. Malagasy food availiable in most French Style restaurants. NO Western fast food outlets (McD - KFC etc.)

Roads small and in poor condition. I travel RN1 almost every day and my advice is to sleep. Most vechiles coming in opposite direction cut the many, many bends in the road.

Eastern side manly tropical rainforest where they haven't chopped it down to make charcoal. Westers side semi arid desert. Wildlife, though not abundent (they eat most of it) is unique. Lemurs around the camp where I live. Snakes but NO poisonous ones.

Mostly French spoken but many understand English in the towns and tourist areas. Perhaps more so than Thailand.

Hope this clears up some of the negative responses.

Thanks Andy ,thats what I need clear factual information,visited lots of countries but Madagascar is on my bucket list along with Easter Island,thank you kind regards Worgeordie

It seems most people responding here are the dissatified members of TV. I have been visiting Madagascar for 3 years on a mining project. To correct some of the other responses - Air Madagascar is not the best of Airlines BUT they are Boeings. Very old 767 from Bangkok with a refuelling stop in Reunion. Flight time around 10 hours. As they only have 2 767's they frequently have breakdowns - usually in Paris. I have had a number of 12 + hour delays but they put you up in the Four Wings hotel not far from Swampy for the night. You can get a free visa on arrival (US & EU passports) but you need to show your return ticket and the visa is valid to that date. Alterrnatively you can buy a visa at the Airport 60 Days $60, 90 Days $85. Local currency - AriAry- spend all before your return. Useless outside of Madagascar and even airside at the airport. Restaurants - many good French style restaurants all over the place. I do not reccomend you eat in Malagasy restaurants unless you have a good supply of Imodium to hand. Malagasy food availiable in most French Style restaurants. NO Western fast food outlets (McD - KFC etc.)

Roads small and in poor condition. I travel RN1 almost every day and my advice is to sleep. Most vechiles coming in opposite direction cut the many, many bends in the road.

Eastern side manly tropical rainforest where they haven't chopped it down to make charcoal. Westers side semi arid desert. Wildlife, though not abundent (they eat most of it) is unique. Lemurs around the camp where I live. Snakes but NO poisonous ones.

Mostly French spoken but many understand English in the towns and tourist areas. Perhaps more so than Thailand.

Hope this clears up some of the negative responses.

Like the idea of a transit holiday in Reunion on the way! All the Indian Ocean destinations are expensive to get to.

French Canadian friend of mine brought home a Malagasy girlfriend. She must have looked better at home.

I've only been to Antananarivo, poor but nice, beware pickpockets including street urchins. Radama Hotel reasonable with Wifi. Surprise surprise! They're Asian, not African, in the highlands, at least, including rice and noodles...

It seems most people responding here are the dissatified members of TV. I have been visiting Madagascar for 3 years on a mining project. To correct some of the other responses - Air Madagascar is not the best of Airlines BUT they are Boeings. Very old 767 from Bangkok with a refuelling stop in Reunion. Flight time around 10 hours. As they only have 2 767's they frequently have breakdowns - usually in Paris. I have had a number of 12 + hour delays but they put you up in the Four Wings hotel not far from Swampy for the night. You can get a free visa on arrival (US & EU passports) but you need to show your return ticket and the visa is valid to that date. Alterrnatively you can buy a visa at the Airport 60 Days $60, 90 Days $85. Local currency - AriAry- spend all before your return. Useless outside of Madagascar and even airside at the airport. Restaurants - many good French style restaurants all over the place. I do not reccomend you eat in Malagasy restaurants unless you have a good supply of Imodium to hand. Malagasy food availiable in most French Style restaurants. NO Western fast food outlets (McD - KFC etc.)

Roads small and in poor condition. I travel RN1 almost every day and my advice is to sleep. Most vechiles coming in opposite direction cut the many, many bends in the road.

Eastern side manly tropical rainforest where they haven't chopped it down to make charcoal. Westers side semi arid desert. Wildlife, though not abundent (they eat most of it) is unique. Lemurs around the camp where I live. Snakes but NO poisonous ones.

Mostly French spoken but many understand English in the towns and tourist areas. Perhaps more so than Thailand.

Hope this clears up some of the negative responses.

Actually, French is universally understood - but Malagasy is the overwhelming language of choice {with each other}.