Madagascar at its best

  Dadamanga Will Make You Fall in Love With Madagascar - I have done these multi-day tours before, but those tours were already created and scheduled; I just had to pick which date to go. This is the first time where... read more the tour is truly bespoke. I love the flexibility that this gives you. I had already scheduled the tour that was created for me and while booking my flights, I realized I couldn’t use award miles on the days I had scheduled the tour. It was no problem moving the date up one day to make this happen. Of course, traveling through Madagascar will sometimes leave you with few options on things like meals and hotels. My custom made tour chose hotels that I could tell were either the best or among the best in the area. I can easily get over the fact that Madagascar has some infrastructure issues where some hotels will need to ration the electricity. After a day of meeting wonderful people from remote villages and seeing amazing nature unique to the country, it is easy to accept those issues and have some sense of humor about it. The Sakamanga Hotel in Tana is very quaint and with some French colonial touches, it really gives you a cool welcome to the city. The restaurant attached to it is amazing and highly regarded among critics. The distances and road conditions between important landmarks is an issue that troubled me the most. It’s a shame that you need to spend so many hours traveling anywhere important. This brings me to the incredible crew that Dadamanga hires to show you the country. We were infinitely lucky to have Aina as our tour guide for the whole tour. Being a native of Madagascar, Aina passionately teaches you about the country and gives you history, botany, and zoology lessons all throughout the tour. He’s also good with the camera and will capture great shots of you that he will share later. He will frequently check up on you during the long drives, making sure you’re feeling safe, hydrated, entertained, and happy. We had three drivers; all were good but Didi really impressed us. Didi showed great defensive driving skills that made you feel really safe. He was also soft spoken, polite, and just a true Malagasy gem of a guy. I really wish that he had been the driver for the entire tour, but at least he was the one we had the longest.
I tried looking for something to criticize, just so people didn’t think that I was getting paid to write this. I couldn’t find anything. Everything that I was offered was delivered, on time and with that million dollar Malagasy smile. Thank you so much for making me fall in love with this country.

  An Incredible Journey  - I coordinated a 3 week tour with Brett Massoud and Dadamanga travel to Madagascar. In all, the service provided by all members of team at Dadamanga was absolutely superb.... read more All communication was answered in a timely and efficient manner. Additionally, all our guides/drivers were professional andknowledgeable being acutely aware of our needs while playing particular attention to our safety; traveling in Madagascar can be difficult and pose many challenges but Dadamanga handled these challenges with relative ease. In addition to Brett, I would that to commend our Guides Naina, Rado and Fano for their superior service.
I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Dadamanga to anyone desiring to explore the wonders of Madagascar. Indeed, my wife and I would like to return and visit the northern regions of Madagascar and hope Dadamanga can again assist us in doing so.

Sincerely,

Tony Esposito

  Awesome experience in Madagascar  - We had a wonderful trip to Madagascar. Our tour by Dadamanga was so well organised, we were cared for every step of the way. Thank you very much.

  Best honeymoon I've ever had. - We traveled with Dadamanga for our 12 day honeymoon in Madagascar. We asked them to create and organize a trip from Tana to Iles Saint Marie, and then back to... read more Tana. They surpassed every expectation with excelence. Our main driver and guide Gi (Mr Guideona ) was extremely nice and helpfull. Started in Tana, going through Andasibe with a supereme stay at Lemurs Lodge. During the visits to the parks here we saw our first Lemurs. After this we traveled to Palmarium where we saw the legendary Aye Aye lemur (soon to be extinct because if it horendous face). Then our journey took us up the fresh water canal with canal boat to Toamasina. We expected this to be not that exciting, but it is extremely interestning to see all the settlements along to river. You also get a unique glimpse of the river industry close to Toamasina, which is one of the largest cities and has the largest port in Madagascar.
After this we travled through Mahambo to Iles Saint Marie. If we could change anything it would be to stay longer at La Pirogue in Mahambo. Mr Gi (our driver guide) took us to a local restaurant on the way there which is one of our best memories from the trip.

The boat from Mahambo to Iles Saint Marie was somewhat rough, with several of the young french tourists becomming sea sick. Me and my wife were fine since we are from Norway.

Iles Saint Marie can only be described as magical. It is truly one of the hidden gems in traveling. There are almost no tourists. The people there are extremely nice and helpfull. All the guides we had for the day trips were excelent. We stayed at the Nosy The hotel Dadamanga had booked for us, the Princesse Bora Lodge , was perfect in every way. The food was great, the staff was helpfull and nice, the accomodation was superb and the location at the beach was supreme.

After our way to short stay at Iles Saint Marie we went back to Tana for a single day (the domestic flights didnt match with our departing flight to Adis Ababa). Here we met our driver guide Mr Gi again and showed us the city.

I met my wife 10 years ago. We have traveled to over 20 countries by now. This was by far the best experience we've had traveling, and it was only made possible by all the amazing people at Dadamange. I cannot reccomend them enough.

  Great trip planning and flawless execution  - I contacted Brett based on the great reviews Dadamanga has received on TA and also his generosity in sharing information on the associated forum. To say that Brett is responsive... read more is an understatement. He’s kind and patient, and he thoroughly answered questions and provided his thoughts on a short trip we wanted to make to Madagascar.

He then involved the rest of his team to give us a few options for our trip, offering suggestions along the way.

The trip was totally smooth. We were assigned a very knowledgeable and friendly guide and driver, and we knew we were in good hands from touchdown to takeoff.

Pre-arrival questions were answered promptly, and this really highlighted Dadamanga’s professionalism. Many travel agents de-prioritize clients as soon as you pay the deposit, but this wasn’t the case at all with Dadamanga.

Truly, this was among the smoothest and most gratifying experiences I’ve had with a travel planner in a very long time, and this despite the challenges that Madagascar presents. And it’s always good to know that what is spent goes to employing and helping locals.

Two thumbs up for Brett and the rest of the Dadamanga team.

  Amazing experience with Dadamanga!  - We live in Kenya and decided to go to Madagascar a month before the trip was supposed to start. I had no contacts in Madagascar, and upon researching online, we... read more found out about Dadamanga and saw that it had excellent reviews.

I reached out to them with a request to help us arrange our trip and within short time, I received a detailed draft comprising of everything we wanted to visit, i.e., the baobabs, the beach, the lemurs.

The pre-trip was incredibly smooth and I appreciated a lot the user-friendly tools Dadamanga uses to communicate with clients, their friendliness and professionalism. Even before the trip, we were in touch with Dadamanga and its team through a dedicated WhatsApp group. They also sent us a pre-trip info package, which was very helpful.

Once arrived, we were met with Roberto at Antananarivo airport, and the trip began. Everything went extremely well. The team made sure that we had the best experience in every place we visited, i.e., Morondava, Antsirabe, and Antananarivo. We visited wonderful places and enjoyed every minute.

All the accommodations during our trip were great, and we simply had a wonderful time. Madagascar was the most beautiful place I have ever been to, both because of nature, and the people we met, and it is all thanks to Dadamanga.

I would certainly recommend them to anyone who wants a memorable yet smooth experience in organizing a trip to Madagascar.

I also want to thank and commend Tojo, our driver and friend, who made our trip memorable, fun and always safe, and to the entire Dadamanga team, including Brett, Herijaona, and Roberto for their great help.

  Awesome company - don't hesitate to book your Madagascar trip with them  - When planning our 18-day trip to Madagascar, we soon realised that it was not something we could readily do ourselves as first-time travellers to the country from the UK. We... read more came across Brett through the many examples of advice he had offered on several travel discussion forums about Madagascar (TripAdvisor, Reddit etc.), demonstrating that he was clearly both experienced and knowledgeable. We contacted Dadamanga and outlined what we were looking to do (a trip to the east and north with a focus on wildlife) using their comprehensive online registration form. The itinerary they came back with was amazing – it ticked every box for us and they were flexible to changes to make sure it fitted what we wanted perfectly. The communication with the team was exceptional and we felt fully supported both in the organisation and throughout the duration of our trip. Our journey through Madagascar was truly incredible – we had the very best guides and drivers (do not attempt to self-drive!), the itinerary exceeded our expectations and the team were there to meet and support us every step of the way. We could not recommend them highly enough and definitely could not have done it without the brilliant, friendly and talented local guides (without whom we would have missed so much), the skilled drivers and the amazing support team who made sure we got the very best out of our stay. Thanks so much Dadamanga for making it the trip of a lifetime!

  Amazing Experience!  - We travelled 3 women - friends from different countries to South-West Madagascar with Dadamanga. I found Brett on TA site and wrote my first email to him way... read more before i planned journey.
3 months later, after extensive back and forth correspondence, we carefully choose our 15 days itinerary. Thank you for all the patience Dadamanga team had with us.
Our 2 weeks were awesome! 3-days boat trip recommended by Dadamanga were highlight of our tour. Home-cook melas, evening bonfire entertainment, local rum testing, visit to local villages. Sleeping in the tents, shower at the waterfall, swimming at blue lagoon. Amazing!
Dadamanga choosed a comfortable lodges for us during our 15-days journey and suggested diverse itinerary.
Great drivers, English speaking, fun and charismatic guides made our trip memorable and fun!
Thank you Dadamanga for a great tour of our lifetime!

  An Adventure in Madagascar  - The first word that comes to mind, when I think about our trip is "amazing"! I knew our trip was a huge adventure for my mother and me, but... read more it surpassed both our wildest dreams. Our wonderful guide, Nambi, was with us every step of the way, and he offered a wealth of insight and personality. Each park guide was fluent in English, and the accommodations were all so different and unique. Brett and his team did a wonderful job listening to what we wanted to see of Madagascar and made it happen. We traveled by plane, boat, and vehicle across such diverse terrain. The one thing I learned that I didn't hear about in any of my podcasts, books, or videos was about the amazing food! The fruits, vegetables, fish, and meat were beyond my wildest dreams. We didn't go without a wonderful meal at each stop along the way.

Our stop at Nosy Komba Lodge was like being in the show The White Lotus. You can't explain it until you experience the lodge and the tranquil surroundings of the island. It was a wonderful point for relaxation and beaches, during our twelve-day visit.

To experience Madagascar is to immerse yourself in the people and culture of the area. Dadamanga captured this for us and more! It is hard to tell people about your trip because it is beyond what words can describe. If you are looking for the best Madagascar experience, choose Dadamanga.