Two Days: Straight to Andasibe, No Detours Two days buys exactly one thing on a Madagascar budget: land in Tana, then get to the indri at Andasibe-Mantadia and back before you fly out. It’s also the most expensive way to see this park per day, since a fixed park fee and a hired transfer get spread across only one park morning. If your dates can stretch, the 3-day version drops the same cost over a calmer pace; the full budget guide covers the rest of the country.

Three Days: A Free Tana Morning, Then the Indri Three days spreads the same Andasibe park fees over a calmer trip and adds a genuinely free morning in the capital first. Tana, then Andasibe’s indri, then back to Tana to fly out, no other region fits honestly in this window. Need it tighter, drop to 2 days ; have a fourth day to spend, the 4-day version adds a taxi-brousse run to Antsirabe.

Four Days: Andasibe, Then a Taxi-Brousse Day to Antsirabe Four days keeps the same free Tana morning and Andasibe indri circuit as the 3-day trip, then adds a long taxi-brousse day south to Antsirabe instead of flying home straight from Tana. It’s a rough day on shared transport, but it costs a fraction of a hired car covering the same there-and-back drive. Want the overnight instead of a rushed day trip?

Five Days: Andasibe, Then an Antsirabe Overnight Five days gives Antsirabe a real overnight instead of the 4-day trip’s rushed there-and-back, without needing a hired car for any of it. Tana, Andasibe’s indri, then a full evening and a free craft-market morning in the highlands before heading home. Want the deeper RN7 push to Ranomafana and Isalo instead? Jump to 6 days ; tighter, the 4-day version compresses Antsirabe into a single long day.

Six Days: The Real RN7, Not the Andasibe Detour Six days is enough for a genuine RN7 push, Tana to Antsirabe to Ranomafana to Isalo, but not enough to also fit the Andasibe indri detour; that branch heads east on the RN2 while the RN7 heads south, and combining both means backtracking through Tana and losing a full day to driving you’ve already done. This route trades the indri for real time at two of the RN7’s best parks instead.

Seven Days: Ranomafana and Isalo Each Get a Full Day Seven days is the RN7 corridor done properly on a budget: Tana, Antsirabe, a full day at Ranomafana, a full day at Isalo, then a Madagascar Airlines flight back from Toliara instead of redriving the whole 950km. Like the 6-day version, it trades the Andasibe indri detour for real depth on the highway itself, since the two branches run in opposite directions from Tana.

Madagascar Runs on Ariary, Taxi-Brousse, and the Dry Season Every price here lands in Malagasy ariary (MGA), and the numbers run into the hundreds of thousands fast, so budget math matters more here than almost anywhere else you’ll travel. The payoff is wildlife that exists nowhere else on Earth: the indri’s wail at Andasibe, ring-tailed lemurs at Isalo, baobabs at sunset near Morondava. Go April through November when the roads and parks actually cooperate, keep to one region rather than the whole island, and check your government’s current travel advisory before you book anything.

Madagascar’s Parks Ranked by What You Get for the Ariary Every price on this island lands in Malagasy ariary (MGA), and almost every park stacks two separate charges: an entrance fee and a guide fee, paid in cash at the gate, never bundled into what a tour operator quoted you. A community-run reserve like Anja costs a fraction of an MNP park like Isalo for a genuinely comparable lemur sighting. None of this involves lions or a big-five checklist, the wildlife here is endemic and found nowhere else.