Why start with Andasibe instead of ending there?

Andasibe sits east of Antananarivo, in the opposite direction from RN7's run south, so starting there avoids a backtrack — the loop goes east first, then south, then flies back to Tana at the end, rather than doubling back through the capital partway through the trip.

Can this loop be shortened if I only have 10 days?

Yes — trimming Ranomafana to one full day instead of two, and skipping the Anakao beach extension at the end in favour of flying directly from Toliara, brings the loop down to about 10 days without cutting any of the headline stops.

Do I need to fly back to Antananarivo at the end, or can I drive the whole loop?

Flying back from Toliara (or Isalo's nearby airstrip) is the standard way to close this loop — driving the full 950 km of RN7 back north would roughly double the trip's road time for no new scenery, since it's the same route in reverse.

Itinerary

The Classic Loop: Andasibe First, Then RN7 South

Andasibe-Mantadia and the RN7 run south to Toliara pair naturally — Andasibe sits on the road east of Antananarivo, RN7 heads south, and running them back to back as one 12-14 day loop delivers rainforest lemurs, highland scenery and canyon country without a single domestic flight until the very end.

Updated 2026-08-16

Days 1-2: Andasibe first

Landing in Antananarivo and heading straight for Andasibe-Mantadia, roughly three hours east, front-loads the trip's most reliable wildlife encounter while the jet-lag day still needs an easy pace: a dawn walk with a local guide gives strong odds of hearing, and seeing, the indri's territorial call carrying through the forest, alongside sifakas and, on a night walk, mouse lemurs and chameleons. Doing Andasibe first rather than looping it in later avoids a backtrack, since the road east and the road south on RN7 both start from Antananarivo.

Days 3-6: The highland turn — Antsirabe to Ranomafana

From Antananarivo, RN7 runs first through Antsirabe, a 19th-century thermal-spa town worth a stop for its boulevards and rickshaw fleets rather than a destination in its own right, then on to Ambositra's Zafimaniry woodcarving workshops before reaching Ranomafana National Park. Ranomafana earns two full days over one: the golden bamboo lemur and Milne-Edwards' sifaka are both genuinely findable on a dawn walk, and the rainforest rewards the slower pace a single rushed visit doesn't allow.

Days 7-9: Ambalavao, Anja and Isalo

Ambalavao is the highland turn's centrepiece stop: Antaimoro bark-paper workshops, a twice-weekly zebu market that fills the town with herds and hats on market day, and Anja's community reserve just outside town, where habituated ring-tailed lemur troops sun themselves on granite boulders at close range. From there the road drops toward Isalo National Park, the south's set piece — sandstone canyons, the Piscine Naturelle's natural swimming pool, and Bara tombs cut into the cliff faces — which rewards two days over a rushed single visit, one for the main canyon circuit and one for a quieter trail.

Days 10-12: Closing the loop at Toliara

The road falls from Isalo to the coast past the Ilakaka sapphire boomtown and the spiny forest, ending at Toliara. From here the loop closes one of two ways: a few extra days at Anakao's beaches south of Toliara for a coastal finish before flying back to Antananarivo, or flying directly out of Toliara or Isalo's airstrip to end the trip at the 12-day mark without the beach extension. Either version avoids retracing RN7 northward, since the flight back to Tana closes the loop in the air rather than on the road.

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