Avenue of the Baobabs and Tsingy de Bemaraha
Eight-century baobabs lined up on red laterite, then a forest of limestone blades crossed in a harness: western Madagascar is the trip's adventure — dry season only.
Suggested stay — 3 to 4 nights
It all starts in Morondava, on the Mozambique Channel: twenty minutes up a dirt road, the Avenue of the Baobabs lines up its thirty-metre Adansonia grandidieri, silver trunks set ablaze by the sunset — Madagascar's most famous image, and one of the few that is even better in real life, when zebu carts pass between the giants in the golden dust. The intertwined 'lovers' baobab', a few kilometres away, completes the pilgrimage.
Then the real adventure: eight hours of battered track and two ferries (the Tsiribihina at Belo, the Manambolo at Bekopaka) to reach the UNESCO-listed Tsingy de Bemaraha — a limestone plateau dissolved into millions of grey blades, tens of metres tall. The Great Tsingy circuit is done in a harness: ladders, suspension bridges, squeezes through faults, with Decken's sifakas as spectators. You come back down the Manambolo gorge by pirogue, between cliffs and Vazimba tombs. Allow three full days from Morondava — and only from May to November.
Don't miss
- The Avenue of the Baobabs at sunset, and at sunrise for the crowd-free version
- The Great Tsingy circuit with harness and suspension bridges (an athletic half-day)
- The Small Tsingy and the Manambolo gorge by pirogue from Bekopaka
- The lovers' baobab and the Sakalava villages along the Belo track
Our tips on the ground
- Book a 4x4 and driver who know the Morondava-Bekopaka track: the ferries only load in daylight and the good drivers know the real schedules — a dawn start is non-negotiable.
- The Great Tsingy circuit is no place for unacknowledged vertigo: narrow fault squeezes and suspension bridges 60 metres up — the Small Tsingy offer a gentle and already spectacular alternative.
- Outside the dry season, don't push it: the track effectively closes from December to April (ferries suspended, mud baths) and the park itself shuts its circuits — slot the West between May and November, full stop.
Our flagship guide — €29
Guide available“Madagascar on Your Own Terms”, the complete edition, is out
10 chapters: day-by-day itineraries, driving and transport, a costed budget and checklists — the same method as our Namibia guide.
The guide is currently written in French — an English edition is in the works.
Before you go
Readers' questions about Avenue of the Baobabs and Tsingy de Bemaraha
Can you reach the tsingy without going through Morondava?
That is the normal route and the only sensible one: Morondava is reached from Tana by air (1 h) or by two days of road via Antsirabe and Miandrivazo — from where you can also descend the Tsiribihina by pirogue or barge, two and a half days of river down to Belo, the beautiful slow approach before Bekopaka.
Is the Avenue of the Baobabs ticketed?
Access remains free, with a modest community contribution requested at the car park (a few thousand ariary) that funds the village and the trees' protection. The site is 45 minutes from Morondava: many pass at sunset on the way out to Bekopaka, then treat themselves to sunrise on the way back — the light is even better and visitors are scarce.