Mirindra Adventures Reviews

Madagascar Tour I went on a two day tour by myself with Mirindra adventures to Andasibe. I really enjoyed the tour and think it was really good value for money and time. I felt incredibly safe even though I was by myself. Rija was very warm and knowledgeable about Madagascar telling me about all of the history and facts as we travelled. I highly recommended going on a tour with Mirindra Adventures.

RN7 Tour with Rija Myself and 4 friends spent 9 days with Rija doing the RN7. The tour was incredible (the variety of scenery, from coast, to semi-desert, to rainforest, with some beautiful mountains in the middle) and Rija was excellent. He put us in touch with fantastic guides in every park we visited, was always on time, and selected the perfect car for our tour (plenty of room for 6 people and could handle the tricky roads - for Andringitra a 4x4 with plenty of ground clearance is necessary, along with a good driver!). Would highly recommend a trip to Madagascar with Rija!

Andasibe 4 day wildlife tour Just finished our 4 day tour to Andasibe with Mirindra Adventures. We had a fabulous time staying at the Vakona Lodge and our many wildlife hikes in the national park. Highlights were getting to see and hear the famous Indri Indri as well as spotting a mouse lemur on our night hike. Lemur island is great for close encounters with lemurs too. Setra was a fantastic driver and guide and was very helpful throughout the trip. Davina was equally impressive at spotting amazing wildlife from the many lemurs to tiny chameleons and geckos. Highly recommend this company and trip. Be aware that travel times can be longer than expected due to traffic, construction and poor road conditions. Just keep a laid back attitude-mora mora.

Great animals experience in the wild Great experience. Driver was so good, I felt safe on these road with holes everywhere. The natural reserve was very cool with camaleons and other reptiles. The vakona forest was excellent, I love the lemur island. I though it would be like a zoo, but they are actually free in the wild. The night walk and the hike were great, saw many lemurs and other creatures. The 3 h hike is not hard, is only 4km return, but is slow as the point is to see lemurs. I was hesitating to take this tour as I dont like animals in zoos but I loved it!!! I would recomend it to solo and families. Very safe, fun and not too far from Antananarivo. Is about 3.5h , with a stop on the way. But all depends on traffic...

Absolutely worth it to tick all the animal boxes Rojo our Driver and Rija, the Organisator, did a great job in organising us this tour super short notice (we booked only in the late evening and left at 7 AM the next morning) . Rojo was a considerate, safe driver and told us a lot about the Malagasy lifestyle, culture and wilderness. The stops at the reptile centre and national parks were great as we saw many animals like chameleons, lemurs, even the mouse lemur on the night walk and the Inri (largest lemur on madagaskar)! Would definitely recommend!

Fantastic communication and smooth travels for our honeymoon adventure! Mada review SUMMARY: My husband and I chose Madagascar as our honeymoon destination for 3 weeks. We decided to book with Mirindra Adventures due to their good reviews and we were not disappointed! We had 3 different drivers during the parts of our trip and our itinerary ran to plan thanks to Rija! If you’re wanting a smooth, well organised tour of Madagascar, we highly recommend Mirindra! For more detail of our trip please read on: PRICING: The pricing was reasonable at €65 per day for the driver and car. With a €20 per day surcharge for particularly bad roads on the west (Morondava, Kirindy & Belo Sur Mer). We also paid for fuel throughout the trip equating to roughly £300-350 for the 9-11 days of car travel we used Mirindria for. The fuel prices are more reasonable than in UK and are standardised, wherever you are in the country - so easy to estimate. Just be sure you always have local currency Ariary on you! BOOKING PROCESS: Wanting to see as much of the island and different habitats as possible, 2 months before our trip, we came up with a rough itinerary from our own research of where we wanted to visit (based on national parks), and enquired to book a vehicle and driver. Rija the owner of the company quickly responded, told us what journeys were possible, offering advice where journey times were longer and required an overnight stay due to poor road conditions. We were given clear, effective and regular communication throughout the weeks leading up to our trip and quickly refined our itinerary to fit everything in, allowing for some buffer room. He even offered to book some of the national park guides for us! Happy with the revised plan, we paid a 20% deposit to secure our reservation, using western union to pay it in the local currency, Ariary. The rest we paid within the first couple of days again via western union to save our cash. ARRIVAL AND MEETING: After arriving late at the airport in Antananarivo (Tana), we exchanged some euros at the beaurau de change, and bought a local SIM card to facilitate communicate with Rija. We created a WhatsApp group so that we were always able to communicate throughout the trip. Rija was always very responsive and accommodating to our requests. TANA - ANDASIBE - TANA: The next day we met Rija outside our hotel and he drove us in his Hyundai Terrikan to Andasibe National Park, taking care around the pot holes and occasionally telling us local facts and information along the way. The ride was comfortable and Rija was friendly with good English. Throughout our visit to Andasibe, communication was excellent and Rija was always to hand when needed to drive us places. He had also managed to secure us the best guide who had 25 years experience there! We returned to Tana to continue an independently organised section of our trip for 5 days (flying to Sambava and Marojejy NP), before reconvening back at Tana for our next tour with Mirindra. TANA - RANOMAFANA NATIONAL PARK: Due to personal circumstances, Rija handed the next portion of our trip to his cousin Haja. His English was fairly good and his driving was excellent, but he is perhaps still building his confidence as tour guide. This was fine though as we only booked him as a driver. He was very attentive and ensured that we had a pleasant journey on the long days travelling. There was a minor issue with the car by the time we stopped for lunch at Antsirabe. so he quickly got it fixed whilst we had lunch. Therefore due to his quick actions, we were only delayed arriving safely to Ranomafana by 1-2hours m, arriving a little after dark. RANOMAFANA - MORONDAVA: After a fantastic few days visiting the National park and research centre ValBio, we made the long journey to Morondava on the west coast, stopping at Antsirabe overnight. We even managed a short morning walk in the national park, before setting off and were very pleased with the guide (Patrick), that Rija had booked us. The longest journey was the following day from Antsirabe, stopping at the hottest place on the island Miandrivazo for lunch on route. To make this journey more comfortable and arrive before sunset to see the magnificent Allee de Baobabs, we set off at 5am. We were glad we did because the sunset was beautiful and the roads in places were not in a great state, but also the temperatures soared the further west we went. MORONDAVA - KIRINDY - BELO SUR MER: The next part of our trip required a more substantial 4WD 4x4 so we met our third and final driver Hery to navigate the bumpy tracks that often had sludgy pools or small rivers to cross. It was clear why the surcharge was needed for the difficult road conditions and we were pleased to be in a large wheeled Toyota Land Cruiser. Whilst Hery’s English and French were limited, we had communicated everything necessary through Rija and Haja and were able to get our points across fine. Hery was very happy, pleasant and easy going. He was clearly a very confident and experienced driver and we therefore arrived everywhere safely despite challenging road conditions. Overall all the parts of our trip that we booked with Mirindra went very smoothly with effective communication throughout. We had the most amazing experience and a lot of it was made possible due to this company! We had expected to experience delays, breakdowns and potential robberies from the research we did beforehand, but we’re very pleased with the outcome of our trip that everything went incredibly well! We made some incredible memories along the way and are very grateful to Rija and his team for making our adventure honeymoon a reality!

Raja, the professional guide, made sure we got to the best parks in Madagascar and saw the lovely animals and lots of na Raja, the professional guide, made sure we got to the best parks in Madagascar and saw the lovely animals and lots of nature, professional and kind explanation. Helped us very much in planning the trip and in addition with problems with the local airline - it goes without saying that it is warmly and lovingly recommended eytan and Attila

Excellent trip with my daughter! Great trip! Waterfalls, Geysers/hot springs, canoe trip and Lemurs! A very local experience, which I love. Haja was an excellent driver and tour guide. The hotel was very nice with great food. We had a fantastic time!

Outstanding week end! Great tour, great team, many insights about history, people and nature. A unique opportunity to understand a bit of Mada… thanks for your kindness, all the best

My experience with the Ampfey tour I had an amazing time going on this tour! The guide (Haja) was super nice. He's a capable driver and a good conversationalist. His English was great which is hard to find in Madagascar. The locations were great and the hotel was really comfortable. I recommend.

Choose Mirindra Tours!!! Great trip, Great Value, Great Memories!! Highly recommend Rija of Mirindra Adventure Travel- he delivers and at a great price. Honestly, most companies seem to offer a similar itinerary for the Andasibe Lemur Adventure Experience (though other companies made a big deal of your customized itinerary, they all looked about the same) but Mirindra offered GREAT communication, good pricing, highly organized travel with LOTS of cultural/historical/natural insights, and a dependable 4x4 to navigate the roads in comfort. He was very responsive to communication (solid English as well as French and Malash of course), really listened to my queries/preferences, made great recommendations and followed through on all he promised. Rija knows the road, everything was well organized and worked like clockwork (never easy in Africa/Madagascar), he lined up senior guides who could really navigate the forests and track nature. (Maurice/Morris, our wildlife spotter was amazing, could spot moths, chameleons, nocturnal lemurs from what seemed like 30 yards at night!!). (You see the glowing eyes, he’d ask?? Not until YOU made sure I did...) We walked in the forest at night, rather than the road, which was magical. My ‘big day’ in the national forest was a deluge of rain, and Rija worked with the guides to still get into the forest and visit with the (hidden) Indri Indri and more. I’m a seasoned adventure traveler, and let extremely satisfied. [And whoever you end up touring with…please don’t forget to give small tips to all your guides along the way, a little bit really helps supplement lousy salaries and everyone I encountered was great at their job!)

Superb Guide and Driver for Madagascar We had a wonderful 8 days spent with Rija and his cousin Setra back in November driving to a few different destinations. Would definitely recommend getting in touch with Rija for any tours or driving that you need in Madagascar, he was incredibly knowledgeable and conscientious, recommended us great places to eat and helped us plan the perfect trip. And considering the roads can be pretty bumpy in Madagascar the journey was very comfortable and relaxing - 5*

Amazing day in Andasibe Rija is an amazing guide, and his flexibility is also unique. We were the first who arrived the park and the last, who leave it. We saw all 4 types of lemur, snake, chamrleon, gecko, everything. Best value for money optin in Tana! Thank you!

Mirindra Adventures is the best choice I would like to thank with all my heart to Rija and Manda for a fantastic lifetime experience! Our trip from Antananarivo to Baobab Alley and Kirindy park was simply amazing. I was provided with all care and support. I felt so safe and comfortable during the whole trip. I had millions of questions that were always answered patiently. We had so much fun that I felt more like travelling with close friends than tourist guides. Don't think a minute longer if you seek a guide for this fascinating destination. Mirindra Adventures is the best choice:)

Best travel ever As people knor (or dont know) the transportation in Madagascar is not easy to handle. Thanks to Rija and his travel company and our lovely driver Bidy, we drive safe on very special areas, Rija and his driver were super nice and explore us the special culture, we visited special tropical forests, we saw andemic special animals and also Rija took us to see the simple workers (rise harvesting, brick / block creators, gold miners, ironsmiths ech..) Also Rija made our honeymoon special since he took us for nice hotels and took care for our hospitality and made our honeymoon as perfect as possible with small gestures. At the end we also ate special tropical fruits and for desert visited at the best shop on Tananarive for local Vanilla. If you need tourguild - Rija is the address. Thank you for the best tour ever. Zak & Tal ♥️

2 days Wildlife to Andasibe The driver and guides were very professional and looked after you very well. Everything went like clockwork and enjoyed seeing the wild array of wildlife in mostly its natural habitat. The Enri Enri the biggest of the family of lemurs is a must see.

Highly recommend Rija for Madagascar travel! We had an incredible trip with Rija, exploring the west coast and Andasibe. From the first time we reached out to inquire about a tour and through the entire trip, Rija was accommodating, friendly and informative. We were able to see and do everything we had hoped and learned a lot from Rija. He booked our accommodations for us which exceeded our expectations. When an unexpected issue arose with the vehicle, Rija was able to find a solution and keep our trip on schedule. Our driver Bidy was excellent as well, despite some very difficult road conditions. We felt the trip was reasonably priced for what we received and would highly recommend Rija as a guide!

Choose independent, choose Rija to safely show you the real Madagascar Rija took us on a journey through his country. He was polite and friendly with a great sense of humour. His driving was faultless, even after days and days of hard kilometres. The roads in Madagascar are not to be trifled with! We spent 12 days travelling the country for around 2400kms. Rija's car was always spotlessly clean. He even spent some spare time having it serviced mid journey. His car is his life and it shows how much he loves it! He joined us for a video call before the trip to discuss our plans and help us to decide on what route to take which was very helpful. We had booked some hotels in advance, but Rija's local skills actually got better rates in either the same places, or sometimes nicer ones. Also with regards to food, his choices were good. He knows this country well and the best places to go. Some tour operators in Madagascar are foreign owned so the lion's share does not go to the locals, who need it most. Go independent, support a local operator. Go Rija.

Unique, wonderfull, excellent experience In Magadascar Rija took me in a Taylor made trip for 5 days around Madagascar. Everything was excellent, he was hospitable, so knowledgeable, punctual and impecable as a driver and tour guide. His vehicle was excellent, always kept it clean. His choice of hotels and places where to go and eat where top of the line . His sense of humor was great and I enjoy every single moment of the trip with him . He opened my eyes and heart to Madagascar. I highly recommend His services, I feel very fortunate to have him as my guide .

Great driver, nice experience We travelled with Rija in November 2019 for almost 3 weeks through Madagascar by car. He is a very reliable guide and drives carefully. We enjoyed the fact that Rija took part in some of our walking activities and we loved to learn from him a lot about his country while we were driving along RN7. We can highly recommend Rija to people who like to discover the country with driver - in our opinion the best way to discover beautiful Madagascar.