About MadaTsidika

MadaTsidika — from "tsidika", meaning "to visit" in Malagasy — is an independent travel guide to Madagascar. It gathers in one place what you need to settle before you go: where to head, in which season, how long to allow and how to get there — from the baobabs of Morondava to the beaches of Nosy Be, by way of the lemur forests of the highlands and the east coast.

Who writes this site

MadaTsidika is written and edited from Madagascar by Mirado Rakotoarison. It is neither an agency nor a newsroom: one person, on the ground, documenting the country destination by destination and revising the pages over time. The site's technical development is handled by Mirado Rakotoarison.

Writing from inside the country changes one thing above all: when a detail stops matching the ground — a track listed as passable that no longer is, an out-of-date fee, a flight route dropped — word gets back, and the page is corrected. In Madagascar the gap between the journey on the map and the journey itself is often measured in hours: the durations given on this site are dry-season orders of magnitude, revised as feedback comes in from travellers and drivers.

How the pages are written

Every destination page makes the same promise: answer the questions you actually ask before booking.

• Location, season, access and suggested stay at the top of the page, so you can decide in seconds whether the place fits your itinerary.
• What there is to see, named precisely — trails, sites, species — rather than interchangeable superlatives.
• Practical advice: whether a guide is compulsory, what kit is worth carrying, seasonal precautions.
• A visible last-updated date on every page. In Madagascar a park fee or an air link can change from one season to the next: knowing how old a piece of information is beats assuming it is timeless.

Sources are on-the-ground knowledge, public national-park documentation and reference works on the country. Where something cannot be verified, it is not published. Photographs come from Wikimedia Commons, with author and licence shown beneath each image and listed on the Photo credits page.

How the site is funded

MadaTsidika is not affiliated with any travel agency, tour operator or tourist board. No page is sponsored and no business pays to appear here. Two revenue streams keep it running, stated plainly:

• Advertising displayed on the pages. Ads are selected by the network, not by us, and have no influence on what is written.
• Transport referrals: if you request a quote through the Ground transport page, your request goes to independent Malagasy drivers and rental operators, and MadaTsidika earns a commission from the operator if the trip goes ahead. The service stays free to you, non-binding, and does not change the price you are quoted.

That model is deliberate: it keeps the site free, with no sign-up and no data resale.

Corrections and suggestions

Out-of-date information, a fee that has changed, a road reopened or cut? Report it through the Contact page, naming the page concerned: corrections are made and the last-updated date is changed accordingly. Suggestions for destinations to cover are welcome too — the site expands steadily, region by region.