Clients' Reports on Travel to Madagascar in 2004

Feedback from some of the people who travelled to Madagascar with us in 2004.

Photograph by courtesy of RICHARD HIRSON.

'SERVICE FROM RAINBOW TOURS: Excellent
DOCUMENTATION: Excellent
SURFACE HANDLING: Excellent
OVERALL SATISFACTION: Excellent
Amarina: Excellent comfort and location. Friendly staff but they need a lot more training. Chef rates as very poor. … This is a very new hotel. The owner-manager is very hospitable, aware of the shortcomings and determined to improve matters and make a success of her hotel.
Anjajavy: Excellent comfort, service, meals, location and facilities.
Palissandre: Excellent comfort, service, meals, location and facilities. Lives up to all one’s expectations.
We found Madagascar interesting and appealing. [Local agents] were excellent, with intelligent and courteous guides. We appreciated the careful way in which Rainbow Tours created a holiday which met our needs.'
T. & C. Read, December 2004

'SERVICE FROM RAINBOW TOURS:Excellent.
OVERALL SATISFACTION:Excellent.
Anjajavy: Excellent comfort, service, location and facilities; good meals. Good fishing – very stylish. Beach disappointing.
Tsarabanjina: Excellent service, meals, location and facilities. Beautiful island and excellent atmosphere.
Thank you Derek. We had a wonderful time. It was very good to start with Anjajavy for comfort and zest and then spend 9 nights in a comfortable but more relax and sportive atmosphere. Well done.'
Mrs. M. Brocard & Family, December 2004

'SERVICE FROM RAINBOW TOURS: Excellent. Very helpful and informed advice whilst preparing schedule.
DOCUMENTATION: Excellent.
SURFACE HANDLING: Excellent. All transfers etc. faultless – well organised.
Poor weather and baggage delays a problem.
Palissandre: Excellent comfort, service, meals, location and facilities.
Meals were excellent with good variety and interesting local dishes. Very clean and very helpful staff. Recommendable.
Nosy Iranja: Excellent service, meals, location and facilities; comfort good. Very idyllic – the perfect island. Beautiful sea, food simple but good, bungalows nicely done – hotel centre well thought out – turtles a bonus. Recommendable.
Anjajavy: Excellent comfort and service; good meals, location and facilities. Meals over – engineered – this is an ordinary hotel trying to do Michelin style food. Buffet at breakfast very poor. Sea quality poor.
Anjajavy a let down – interesting wildlife but not much else to offer. With hindsight, 2-3 days here would have been enough, more at Iranja. Should also have tried Tsarabajina.'
Mr. M. Petitjean, December 2004

‘SERVICE FROM RAINBOW TOURS: Excellent.
OVERALL SATISFACTION: Excellent.
Sunny Hotel, Mahajanga: Comfort, service, meals, location and facilities good. Power off at 22h00.
Gite d’Ampijoroa: Excellent comfort, location and facilities; service and meals good. Must stay in chalets. Boat trip excellent.
Lapasoa, Tana: Excellent meals and location; good comfort, service and facilities.
Vakona Forest Lodge: Excellent location; good comfort, service meals and facilities.
Relais de la Reined’Isalo: Excellent comfort, service, meals, location and facilities.
Melody Beach Hotel: Good for the area. Power on 24 hrs. Lots of birds within walking distance.
Le Paradisier: Excellent comfort, service, location and facilities; good meals. Power off at 22h00, but sea breeze.
Berenty Lodge: Power off at 21h00 not acceptable, hot, no breeze. Average meals. Comfort poor.
Lavasoa, Fort Dauphin: Comfort and location excellent.
Berenty was the least liked in part because some of the chalets were very hot at night once the power went off and opening windows achieved nothing.
We did need to go there to actually see Torotoroka Owl, White-browed Boobook, Giant Coua (briefly only at Zombitse) and Sandgrouse.’
R. Stott, November/December 2004

MADAGASCAR SMALL GROUP TOUR - 1-13 November 2004
'It was wonderful; everything I had hoped for and more. Lalaina was brilliant; so sweet and also so informative. He had the answer to everything we asked - and an uncanny ability to spot even the tiniest thing we would otherwise have missed - like mouse lemurs at the top of a tree (in the dark!). He never got ruffled, even when there was a minor outbreak of grumpiness because of a scheduling hiccup. ...
I must also mention Hermann, our driver - who got us back on schedule by driving almost non-stop (not quite, thank goodness) for 13 hours ... And then Lalaina got us rooms at the Tana Plaza which meant we saw the secret zoma.
I felt I was in heaven on earth the whole time - culminating in sheer paradise at Anjajavy where one morning when I turned the corner of my villa I found the trees full of breakfasting sifakas. Bliss. It was great too to see the work that is going on with the various projects in the village. I was happy to leave behind my (fortunately, totally redundant) medical kit and hope it proves useful in the clinic.
But - the highlight for me was Ianja. Ringtails will always be my favourites, and there I was surrounded by them at such close quarters. The first attachment is my absolutely favourite photo (one of 283!). Even the loos were charming - see second attachment! How thoughtful of the local people to provide them.
It really is a magical island - not just the flora and fauna, but the people too; so friendly and smiley. In Fianarantsoa the local school children pressed us to buy handmade cards saying "Our teacher says this isn't begging - it's a collection". Who could resist? As for the money - it's the first time I've had 'millions' in my purse! Not to mention travelling by private plane and train (the Michelin).
I'm running out of superlatives, so will leave the final words to Shakespeare; the following quote was constantly in my head:
"Be not afeard: the isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not." (The Tempest, Act III scene ii).
Thank you for enabling me to have the best holiday I have ever had.'
Ms. S.Grant

MADAGASCAR SMALL GROUP TOUR - 1-13 November 2004
‘Enjoyed the variety of the country, found it exhilarating, joined in all the activities and felt very brave at my age! The country needs tourists to help its revenues.
Centrest Sejour: Very pleasant location, lovely interesting end of village location, enjoyed walking through the village and got a good insight of the life led there.
Anjajavy: Luxurious, beautiful setting on the coast, first class service, enjoyed a wonderful beach barbecue. The chance to relax after the hectic and busy schedule we had undertaken.
Ms. J. MacMaster

Photograph by courtesy of SUE GRANT.

‘SERVICE FROM RAINBOW TOURS: Excellent. Outstanding! Judith’s personal knowledge of Madagascar translated into an ideal tailor made package of our needs/interests.
DOCUMENTATION: Excellent. Very clear and everything went as planned.
SURFACE HANDLING: Excellent. Many thanks to [local agents], their guides and drivers for handling everything so well.
OVERALL SATISFACTION: Excellent. (Actually, better than excellent, but you don’t have another box. Outstanding.
Princesse Bora Lodge: Excellent comfort, service, meals, location and facilities. On arrival, we were told we had missed the whales by two weeks! Then some were spotted from the shore and we were able to go out immediately by boat and follow them for 3 hours. Fantastic.
Vakona Forest Lodge: Excellent comfort, service, meals, location and facilities.Our forest guide, Zak, was so knowledgeable and found us opportunities to see almost every species we could reasonably expect to see in Périnet in two days.
Anjajavy: Excellent comfort, service, meals, location and facilities. Quite outstanding location/beauty. Food and service of the highest standard – attention to detail was everywhere. ‘The Oasis’ is a little paradise. We have never felt so spoilt. Wildlife locally is excellent, including the fish eagle, lemurs and sundry birds.
The brochure and correspondence with Judith led us to expect a lot, but without exception our expectations were exceeded!
We learnt so much from the knowledge, passion and enthusiasm of the people for their wildlife, especially Hilton at Anjajavy, Zak at Périnet and Francois-Xavier at Bora Lodge.
[Local agents] and Stefan [guide] went out went out of their way to ensure that all arrangements ran smoothly and to check out if everything was OK.’
P. & R. Simpson, October 2004

‘La Varangue: A real gem with great food.
Berenty: Excellent local guide.
Lavasoa: Wonderful views, very friendly.
Vakona Forest Lodge: Comfort, service, meals, location excellent. Excellent local guide for Mantadia and Perinet.
Nature Lodge: Comfort, service, meals, location excellent. Wonderful place – beautiful and friendly. Great French food!
Vanila Hotel: A bit over-rated and over-priced, but relaxing.’
Mr & Ms T. Kartupelis, October 2004

Perinet/Vakona Forest Lodge: Excellent comfort, service, meals, location & facilities. Excellent attention to detail all round. Comfort level very high. Flora/fauna sightings excellent.
Ampijoroa: Notwithstanding the very average accommodation and poor meals – this was expected. The wildlife, the walks, etc. more than made up for it. Not to be missed.
Berenty: Meals OK. N.b. Lemurs in very poor state “due to eating certain tree”.
Hotel de France: Rooms were either excellent or average. Service: at reception – excellent; in dining room – average; but in bar – terrible.
M. Urquhart, L&L group tour, October 2004

MADAGASCAR WILDLIFE TOUR - 1 OCTOBER 2004
‘SERVICE FROM RAINBOW TOURS: Excellent: All queries were answered promptly.
AIR TRAVEL: Air Madagascar performed better than expected. Special diabetic meals appeared as requested.
SURFACE HANDLING: Local guide from Rija was truly exceptional in ensuring everything went smoothly. Marius’ handling tips and hotel bills was a huge help too.
Hotel de France: We stayed here for 2 separate visits – both were very comfortable.
Gite de Berenty Lodge: As they have a monopoly – clearly they do not care about providing good service. Inadequate food eg: “there are only 2 soups”. Poor service for drinks eg: “there’s no gin” – when we found some at another bar on site it was not made available for the rest of our stay. Rooms were not serviced during our stay. Wheeled luggage was dragged through the dirt for over 100 yards and lock broken. Poor managements and appalling lack of customer service.
Vakona Lodge: A complete contrast with Berenty – this is how a forest lodge should be run!
Centrest Sejour: Hotel staff in restaurant were very slow – however they were prepared to amend menus to suit the tastes of our party.
Camping (in) Ankarana: The sanitary arrangements were very poor …
Hotel Baobab: We were aware that you have had adverse reports about this hotel and had proposed relocation – but it was wonderful after the Ankarana campsite – much better than the national hotel in Ankify!! And we could go in the sea!
Hotel Vanila: Lovely to have some free time to relax at the end of the tour
Marius was a very caring guide – he went to great lengths to adapt the itinerary to suit all members of the party – not an easy task, with a wide range of interests and physical stamina! He was informative, entertaining, long suffering, and good humoured throughout. His willingness to share his photographs with us was a delightful bonus at the end of a truly memorable trip.’
Mr D. & Mrs S. Davies, October 2004

‘Relais de la Reine: First class.
Le Paradisier/Ifaty Beach: Excellent comfort, service, location & facilities. The guide and his team were excellent.
St Augustin: The trip to Nosy Ve was excellent.
Ampijoroa: Excellent guides again.
Mahajanga: A good boat trip in the delta. But why does the Sunny Hotel keep lemurs, Whistling ducks, crocs and radiated tortoises in ghastly cages?’
Dr C. Gallimore, private group, October 2004

'All in all we had a fabulous trip. Madagascar is a great place; it really was like visiting 4 different countries. We all got on so well and saw so much.
Highlights were things like the Indri, that noise they make, the birdlife, the Baobabs, and the stars at night - you couldn’t see the sky sometimes for the stars!
Marina in Nosy Be was fabulous – they couldn’t do enough for us – we had such a good time there.
The thing which puzzled us all the most, was the guiding in Madagascar. At Ifaty in my extension I did two Spiny Forest walks with one of Mosa’s family, who was only about 14. But I was pleased with what I saw; we found lots of things and those baobabs are just incredible. However, at Ifaty one of the guides who found a Hook-billed Vanga on its nest, grabbed the tree and started shaking it. Similarly, he pulled down a Sakalava weaver nest and put his hand into it, rummaging around though I told him not to.
Maurice in Perinet was brilliant.'
Ms. A. Spink, October 2004

‘SERVICE FROM RAINBOW TOURS: Excellent.
DOCUMENTATION: Excellent.
OVERALL SATISFACTION: Excellent.
Anjajavy: Unforgettable!’
Mr & Mrs J. Chappell, Sept./Oct. 2004

‘SERVICE FROM RAINBOW TOURS: Excellent. Guides fantastic & service from Derek at Rainbow was top notch.
DOCUMENTATION: Excellent. Itinerary v. helpful & easy to follow
SURFACE HANDLING: Guides made the holiday in particular Roger (Tana & Vakona) and Luke (the local guide at Vakona) were exceptional.
OVERALL SATISFACTION: Excellent.
Vakona Forest Lodge: Location great and guides ensured we made best use of our time. Fantastic for wildlife.
Palissandre: Excellent comfort, service, location & facilities. Good views from room. Nice break after time in rainforest and Roger continued to help us to see Tana.
Domaine de Fontenay: Marie-Jose and Karl-Heinz made us v. welcome. Food was home cooked and excellent – best of holiday.
Nosy Iranja: Seafood was excellent but we found other food a bit average. Location was perfect and facilities v. good.
Thank you Rainbow for organising a fantastic honeymoon. It was clearly well researched & well planned and suited our needs perfectly. We would not hesitate to recommend Rainbow Tours and hope to have another holiday with you in the near future.’
Mr J. Ainsworth & Ms. C. Murphy, September 2004

‘OVERALL SATISFACTION: Excellent.
SURFACE HANDLING: Excellent.
Palissandre:: Nice hotel, a little bit ‘tired’, but good room.
Berenty: Average comfort, service, meals and facilities; excellent location.As this was a reserve, then it was not necessary to have all the luxurious amenitied. It would be nice to have a choice of food and also wine other than just Malagasy.
Miramar: The hotel is definitely ‘tired’. Although the staff were very good and friendly. The food at the Miramar restaurant was excellent, but they wouldn’t serve us before 7 pm even though we asked to be served as early as possible because neither of us were feeling good. Also, there was no choice of food, which we felt was a ‘minus’ point.
Vakona Lodge: Excellent comfort and meals. Hotel itself was good, but a bit too far away from the reserve to be convenient. Food very good, good choice of wine, nice to have the log fire.
Anjajavy: Excellent comfort, service, location and facilities; good meals. Villas not really good to accommodate two single people rather than as a couple. Reception needs more English. Lovely place to stay. Could have a bit more choice of food at dinner.
Marina: Excellent comfort, meals and location; good facilities. Fantastic location, staff need to be trained more and English taught. … The food was excellent, the road to the hotel was awful, dusty and 45 minutes of bone-shaking discomfort.
Hotel du Louvre: Food was really good, a great atmosphere in the restaurant/bar, closer to the airport, which was an advantage.’
C. Kemm & P. Harries, September 2004

‘SERVICE FROM RAINBOW TOURS: Excellent. Plenty of info and everything was like clockwork in Madagascar.
DOCUMENTATION: Excellent. Good detail.
OVERALL SATISFACTION: Excellent.
Nautilus: Excellent meals; good comfort, service, location and facilities. Very poor towels – also salty shower water. Everything else fine.
Centrest: Lovely setting, garden, etc. but nowhere to sit except at a restaurant/bar table.
Our guide, Rija, was very, very good. Always cheerful and accommodating.’
Waddingham family, September 2004

‘SERVICE FROM RAINBOW TOURS: Excellent.
SURFACE HANDLING: Excellent.
OVERALL SATISFACTION: Excellent.
Princesse Bora Lodge: Cannot fault a single thing!
Vakona Forest Lodge: Too far from reserves, but the guides were excellent & knowledgeable. Good driver.
Lavasoa: Excellent comfort, service and facilities. Location more than excellent. Eric the owner was very friendly & hospitable.
Vanila: Excellent comfort, service & meals.
We thoroughly enjoyed Madagascar. [Agents were] very very helpful and excellent. Wildlife was amazing and we saw all that we had hoped to see (and more! Giraffe beetle.)
Mr. D. Hitchcox, September 2004

‘SERVICE FROM RAINBOW TOURS: Excellent. Very satisfied – we hope to travel with you again.
DOCUMENTATION: Excellent. Very useful info. On clothing/footwear & level of tipping.
AIR TRAVEL: Air Madagascar were actually much better than anticipated!
SURFACE HANDLING: Excellent. We were very happy with the level of service from all the different people we dealt with, but especially Hery.
OVERALL SATISFACTION: Excellent. We had a great time and would recommend Rainbow Tours and Madagascar to anyone interested in wildlife.
Berenty: Excellent location; good service; average facilities; poor meals. Staff had a somewhat indifferent attitude – we were a captive market.
Vakona Forest Lodge: Excellent location, facilities, comfort and service. Nice hotel, pleasant staff. Guide (Luc) was excellent.
Nature Lodge: Excellent location. Lots of potential, but still quite ‘new’. Atmosphere (and good service) very dependent on Francoise [the owner/manager]. Rooms lovely, but damp in wet weather. Guide Philippe very good
Campsite in Ankarana with no facilities was a bit of a shock, but fine for 2 nights – The Vanila Hotel in Nosy Be was very welcome afterwards!’
Ms. B. Harvey & Mr. A. Hitchings, August/September 2004

‘SERVICE FROM RAINBOW TOURS: Excellent. Itinerary was great.
OVERALL SATISFACTION: Excellent.
Lodge des Terres Blanches: This was an amazingly secluded and beautiful place to stay with a friendly and interesting host. Jackie is handing over running of the hotel to a Frechman this autumn, but will carry on doing transfers and excursions.
Domaine de Fontenay: This was a fun place to stay with eccentric and very welcoming owners. The rooms are giant with luxurious bathrooms and the garden features a giant tortoise and a beautiful jungle walk.
Dauphin Bleu: Again, a very friendly and welcoming place at a great location.
Anakarana: The camping was basic as expected, but the food and guides were good and the scenery was lovely…
Nosy Iranja: This was the most luxurious place we stayed – clean, spacious rooms, great food and the most amazing beaches. There are now over 30 bungalows, but there was always a deserted patch on the island.
Orangea: Agaian, very friendly and helpful owners who went out of their way to help us. Rooms were clean and food was good.
One of the best excursions we did on Nosy Be was on an old refurbished sailing boat run by a Frenchman (ex Chagos islander). The boat has been lovingly restored and the owner is an interesting character with a good eye for service – we ate amazingly well.’
C. & A. Balme, August 2004

‘SERVICE FROM RAINBOW TOURS: Excellent.
OVERALL SATISFACTION: Excellent.
OVERALL SATISFACTION: Excellent
Fontenay: Lovely hotel, full of character, very good service/attention by proprietors.
Marina: We were one of either 2 or 4 guests in hotel and enjoyed it a great deal but wonder if experience will be the same when hotel is full.
Anjajavy: Heaven! Despite all the hype easily lived up to it.
Tonga Soa: Was fine and lady proprietor is wonderful. Softies (like us) might appreciate slightly higher comfort levels (particulary on arrival and the long flight)
Derek Schuurman organized an absolutely wonderful tour for us. I was very impressed with the professionalism and level of care/service. We were very lucky to hit on Rainbow Tours for this trip. Thanks!’
Mr. S. Schaefer, August 2004

‘Had a fantastic time.
SERVICE FROM RAINBOW TOURS: Excellent.
DOCUMENTATION: Excellent. Need to stress on trousers/shirts for walking through undergrowth.
SURFACE HANDLING: Excellent.
OVERALL SATISFACTION: Excellent.
L’Heure Bleue: Comfort, meals, location and facilities excellent. Their English not very good, so our basic French was stretched. Nice dogs!!
Domaine de Fontenay: Comfort, service, meals, location and facilities all excellent. Oweners do best to try to look after you. Great to have log fire. Nice dogs, lemurs, tortoise!
Montagne d’Ambre: Great driver/guides.
Tonga Soa: …new rooms look great!
Résidence Lapasoa: Comfort, service, location excellent.
Vakona Forest Lodge: Comfort, service, meals, location and facilities all excellent. Great to have log fire. Own reserve well run – English-speaking guides to help.
Perinet/Mantadia: Our guide Jack was very professional! Really tried to find thing, didn’t give up.’
P. Thomas & S. Boast, August 2004

‘SERVICE FROM RAINBOW TOURS: Excellent. Very helpful advice on where to stay.
SURFACE HANDLING: Excellent. All transfers etc. within Madagascar were well organised.
OVERALL SATISFACTION: Excellent. Madagascar was fascinating and we all enjoyed our trip very much.
Anjajavy: Excellent comfort, service, meals, location and facilities. Anjajavy is a wonderful place to see lemurs, birds and reptiles. The staff were very friendly & helpful, and the facilities excellent. We were very glad to spend 5 days here.
L’heure bleue: Excellent service; comfort, meals, location and facilities good. Very good value ‘category B’ hotel. Convenient for ‘Blue Dive’ nearby. Meals were good, but we usually ate at other local restaurants of similar quality but cheaper.
Iranja: A very special location. Excellent snorkelling & diving. We were lucky to see baby green turtles hatch on the beach.
Our thanks to Derek Schuurman for all his help in arranging a wonderful trip. We managed to combine a relaxing holiday with much observation of wildlife on land & sea. We would also mention the very good service from [your local agents] in Tana and the fascinating trip to Ambohimanga on our last day. Well worth seeing.’
Mitchison Family, August 2004

‘SERVICE FROM RAINBOW TOURS: Excellent. All very well organised (especially for Africa).
OVERALL SATISFACTION: Excellent. Thank you ever so much, we had the most perfect time.
Corail Noir: Comfort, service, location, facilities excellent. Very versatile with meals, happy to prepare early simple meal (eg pasta & sauce) for kids.
Anjajavy: Comfort, service, meals, location, facilities double excellent. Perfect Paradise. Marina used a lot, watersports and activities always kept us happy.’
Wilkins Family, July 2004

‘SERVICE FROM RAINBOW TOURS: Excellent.
SURFACE HANDLING: Best guides were Patrice and Huby. … in Diego, Titi was great cook.
OVERALL SATISFACTION: Excellent.
Vakona: Comfort, service, meals, location, facilities all excellent. Wonderful location, so close to the parks. Didn’t visit their nature reserve, though, as we were told by our excellent guide that the lemurs they had, had been trapped in the wild. Not good.
Our guides were both brilliant. We trekked up v. steep hills through the undergrowth and saw all sorts of flora and fauna. Highlights were obviously the diadem sifaka and indri. We’ll always remember our honeymoon, thanks to this wonderful place.
Palissandre: Comfort, service, meals, location, facilities all excellent. Food amazing!
Nature Lodge: Comfort, service, meals, location, facilities all excellent. Owner was v. friendly. Views stunning and food pretty darn tasty, too.
Montagne des Francais: Great baobabs!
Vanila Hotel: Comfort, service, meals, location, facilities all excellent Lovely hotel. Great food and good location. Not much of an atmosphere, though – totally geared towards French tourists!
Went to Lokobe with Donald. Enjoyed pirogue and reserve, although saddening to see guide encourage us to feed lemurs and not respect them.
Nosy Iranja: Comfort, meals, location, facilities excellent. Lovely situation. Slightly shocked by very high prices when compared to other hotels in Madagascar – all in euros! Food also had a strong French slant – would have preferred Malagasy menus. Forced to eat 3-course meals for lunch and dinner. Staff mostly very friendly and bungalow brilliant. Definitely need to be able to speak French.
Thank you, Derek, for making our honeymoon so memorable. We will definitely be using Rainbow Tours again in the future….’
Mr & Mrs A Benjamin, July 2004

‘SERVICE FROM RAINBOW TOURS: Good.
DOCUMENTATION: Excellent.
SURFACE HANDLING: Excellent. Exremely reliable & helpful.
OVERALL SATISFACTION: Excellent.
Centrest: Varied menu of consistently high standard. Comfortable rooms – felt dry even though it rained throughout our stay.
Tsara Guesthouse: Comfort, service, meals, location and facilities all excellent. Would have enjoyed another night of this!
Relais de la Reine: Comfort, service, meals, location and facilities all excellent. Wonderful.
Le Paradisier: Comfort, service, meals, location and facilities all excellent.
Anjajavy: Comfort, service, meals, location and facilities all excellent. Well! Not what we’d expected when we thought about Madagascar.
Vakona Forest Lodge: Comfort, service, meals, location and facilities all good. Didn’t warm to Vakona. Beds felt damp (not raining!) – very good location. Didn’t like lemur island or kitsch objects in gardens.
Palissandre: Comfort, service, meals, location and facilities all excellent. Lovely!
We had a wonderful holiday – far exceeded any expectations. Guides, drivers and general organisation was excellent – local guides very helpful and enthusiastic. We would certainly do it again – looking at the Bradt book and noting all the stuff we missed. Thank you.’
Mrs. A Lewis & Family, July 2004

'We are home safe and sound after a very very marvellous trip - many thanks to you.
We saw at least 100 birds, about 95 of them totally new to us - all but hoopoos and egrets, and Hamerkop, I think. Also saw quite a few lemurs of various kinds, chameleons, lizards, etc. All the guides were very good and very helpful and the places were OK, some very elegant, food good, etc.
Aside from being tired of riding on airplanes we are very happy with the whole experience.
Many thanks again,'
J. & G. Harkness, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, May/June 2004

‘Thank you for everything – it was a great experience.
SERVICE FROM RAINBOW TOURS: Excellent.
DOCUMENTATION: Excellent.
SURFACE HANDLING: Excellent.
OVERALL SATISFACTION: Excellent.
Vakona Forest Lodge: Visually stunning and wonderful. Our guides were great – both on the road and in the rainforest.
Anjajavy: Absolutely out of this world and worth every penny.
Tsarabanjina: Loved the ready access to scuba, waterskiing right out our front door.
Hotel du Louvre: Clean and nice – not a lot of soul – but a good dependable, modern hotel for a night.
Mantadia: Loved its remoteness, especially all the hiking with our guide, Maurice.
Ile Ste Marie: We did love the motorcycle trip around the island – even in the pouring rain.
Residence Lapasoa: Could hear every person go up the stairs past our room. The décor and uniqueness were wonderful.
Berenty: Again, our guide was amazing, so were the lemurs and the landscape. Lodging was somewhat primitive, and food somewhat sparse – but animals made up for it. We were really angry that the de Heaulmes hotel we came back to from Berenty would not take us over to Lavasoa – so we waited 2 hours to get picked up!
Lavasoa: Amazing view – warm and friendly owner.’
Dr. W. Callahan, California, USA, May/June 2004

'We would both like to thank you for organising our Madagascar holiday for us, everything went very well and we thoroughly enjoyed both the country and the wildlife. [Local agents] were efficient and in particular Lalaina looked after us very well. Please pass our regards on to him.
In wildlife terms Mantadia was definitely the location we enjoyed most. You were absolutely right that the going was more difficult, but the day there was absolutely fascinating and the high point of our Madagascar holiday. We also found Berenty rewarding. The lemurs were easy to find, other wildlife was there and not frightened of people. We found the accommodation at Berenty comfortable, the staff helpful and the food was very good considering the remote location. We also found the accomodation at Vakona and Princesse Bora Lodge of a very high standard.
All in all a wonderful holiday in a fascinating country.'
C. & A. Cockburn, April 2004