So much for a trip including Nepal, Bhutan, AND Madagascar (Air Fare surprises!)

[2017ish]

We are planning on a trip to Nepal and Bhutan next April, and after a trip to the San Francisco zoo with our granddaughter (yay!! Lemurs!), decided to include our desired trip to Madagascar.

Then, DW tried to piece together air connections. OMG! From Kathmandu to Madagascar, in coach, if you want to avoid a 36 hour trip, it would cost $1600 each, one way! Decided that doing two trips made more sense, even though all three desired destinations are around the Indian Ocean. Looks like we will be able to do Turkish Airlines round trip, Business Class from Miami to Madagascar, for about 5K each (stops in Istanbul and Mauritius). And, for a bonus, we'll be able to explore Istanbul both to and from by extending our 8 hour layover to several days.

So, now it looks like round trip to Singapore, and diving in either Philippines or Indonesia along with the Himalayan destinations, followed by a month in Madagascar later in the year....

We were quite surprised that doing two trips instead of one makes sense.

Anyone have any thoughts on Madagascar??

 

[Surewhitey]

Watch out for the Bhutan tourist visa fee. $100-200 daily per person as I understand... Ouch!

 

[ringtail]

We are planning on a trip to Nepal and Bhutan next April, and after a trip to the San Francisco zoo with our granddaughter (yay!! Lemurs!), decided to include our desired trip to Madagascar.

Then, DW tried to piece together air connections. OMG! From Kathmandu to Madagascar, in coach, if you want to avoid a 36 hour trip, it would cost $1600 each, one way! Decided that doing two trips made more sense, even though all three desired destinations are around the Indian Ocean. Looks like we will be able to do Turkish Airlines round trip, Business Class from Miami to Madagascar, for about 5K each (stops in Istanbul and Mauritius). And, for a bonus, we'll be able to explore Istanbul both to and from by extending our 8 hour layover to several days.

So, now it looks like round trip to Singapore, and diving in either Philippines or Indonesia along with the Himalayan destinations, followed by a month in Madagascar later in the year....

We were quite surprised that doing two trips instead of one makes sense.

Anyone have any thoughts on Madagascar??

Presumably too late for you but maybe others will read this and be inspired.
We have been to Madagascar twice, and it is absolute magic. Everything you see is unlike things you have seen before, from the insects to the birds to, yes, the wonderful lemurs.
For photography Berenty is the must-see. Ring-tailed lemurs, brown lemurs and Verraux sifakas. On our first trip there in ’96, all were easy to see and basically ignored people. We were sad to see that when we went back in ’03, the ring-tails had clearly been fed by tourists and were now becoming pests. It’s been a long time since then, we hope that more strict ‘do not feed’ enforcement is in place and that the ring-tails have returned to something like normal activities. Oh! And the fruit bats at Berenty are also extraordinary. Huge, they are.

September is the time for baby ring-tails and indri.

Be prepared to get lemur poop in the treads of your shoes. It is sticky and will last for weeks. But not smelly or gross.

The sifakas (in the west) are amazing. You could spend a week there and never get sick of watching them bounce.

Definitely get to Andasibe-Mantadia. The call of the indri is something you will never forget. If I had to pick one place not to miss, that would be it. We also saw lots of chameleons there (easiest to spot on a night walk). And at a different park entrance – not where we saw Indri – we got to see diademed sifakas, which are very rare.

In Madagascar, people will tend to tell you what they think you want to hear, rather than what is true. If you ask “how much further”, the answer will be ten minutes. That could mean ten minutes, or two hours. I bring this up specifically because the night-active lemurs are quite sensitive to flash photography, but if you ask a guide if flash it OK they will say yes. Do not believe them.

Another place you might consider if you go up north is Ankarana. Spectacular rocks, crowned lemurs, and we saw a lot of frogs there.

Get Cipro or something similar – tummy troubles are more the rule than the exception. Being vegetarian was difficult 20 years ago. Maybe it is better today.

Madagascar has excellent chocolate. Stay away from the toaka gasy (local rum} if you value your brain.

In the dry areas, stargazing is pretty amazing.

Some book recommendations if available in your local library or to purchase.

Antipode – Heather Heying [this one is especially good for giving a feel for what it is like in Madagascar]

Madagascar – the Eighth Continent – Peter Tyson

Bradt Guide to Madagascar

Muddling through in Madagascar – Dervla Murphy

The Aye-aye and I – Gerald Durrell [in part our trip was inspired by seeing lemurs at the Durrell sanctuary on Jersey]

 

[2017ish]

Presumably too late for you but maybe others will read this and be inspired.
We have been to Madagascar twice, and it is absolute magic. Everything you see is unlike things you have seen before, from the insects to the birds to, yes, the wonderful lemurs.
...

Oh, not too late for us at all! We will be going there, either as our second big trip of 2025, or in 2026. Thank you for the information. Much appreciated.

We are making our way through the Bradt guide already.

 

[FIREarly]

We are planning on a trip to Nepal and Bhutan next April, and after a trip to the San Francisco zoo with our granddaughter (yay!! Lemurs!), decided to include our desired trip to Madagascar.

Then, DW tried to piece together air connections. OMG! From Kathmandu to Madagascar, in coach, if you want to avoid a 36 hour trip, it would cost $1600 each, one way! Decided that doing two trips made more sense, even though all three desired destinations are around the Indian Ocean. Looks like we will be able to do Turkish Airlines round trip, Business Class from Miami to Madagascar, for about 5K each (stops in Istanbul and Mauritius). And, for a bonus, we'll be able to explore Istanbul both to and from by extending our 8 hour layover to several days.

So, now it looks like round trip to Singapore, and diving in either Philippines or Indonesia along with the Himalayan destinations, followed by a month in Madagascar later in the year....

We were quite surprised that doing two trips instead of one makes sense.

Anyone have any thoughts on Madagascar??

Have you looked on ChatGPT? If you pay $20 for 1 month and use the travel apps it has, you might find something very helpful. If not, it's only a one time $20 loss. Remember to cancel the membership.

For help using ChatGPT with membership:
1. Login
2. Select Menu icon in top left
3. Select More GPTs
4. Search for "travel"
5. Select GPT Travel app and "Start chat"
6. Write your prompt with dates, departure and arrival airports, number of people, etc... (anything details you would tell the airline). At end of prompt, ask it to provide results in tabular form and ask if it can provide links.
7. If first prompt doesn't work well enough, keep prompting in the same char window to improve the results.

 

[2017ish]

Have you looked on ChatGPT? If you pay $20 for 1 month and use the travel apps it has, you might find something very helpful. If not, it's only a one time $20 loss. Remember to cancel the membership.

...

Interesting. We actually haven't given much thought to that route. Thanks for the concept. Will look at it on future trips (and bounce ideas off of D.I.L., who is getting prominent in the LLM arena...).

 

[tulak]

I’ve used the free version of ChatGPT for travel itineraries. Works great to provide an outline of things to do. You get a free amount of 4o daily, which is their latest version. No need to pay if you’re not a heavy user.