Three times a year we travel to the capital Antananarivo. Jurgen undertook this trip every month the first year we lived in Maroamboka. A trip that, if everything goes well, can be done in 16 hours. In the capital we meet friends, we get to worship in English at our church, and we can arrange the necessary administrative matters (such as visa, car and motorcycle papers and several money matters).

It is a tiring journey. We prefer to combine the trip with a stopover in Ranomafana. This is a tourist village in the middle of the national park with the same name. We always look forward to stay there for two or three days before traveling on to Tana.

Needless to say there are luxury hotels and restaurants in a place like Ranomafana. These hotels mainly rely on tourism. However, we prefer to stay in a simple hotel called ‘La Palmeraie’. It is simple but adequate and also affordable for the Malagasy in terms of price. Hotel La Palmeraie is our place. Maman’i Kano is the owner and she knows us well. She is very welcoming and receives us joyfully. The rooms are simple and, not unimportant, clean! We always have two rooms for which we pay a total of 60,000 Ariary (about € 15,–) per night. We share the toilet and the shower (with hot water) with other guests which is okay because there are cleaned several times a day.

We usually plan to stay a few days, from Monday to Thursday. We leave on Monday morning to arrive in the afternoon. We don’t do much on Tuesdays. The children usually go into the village or to a river to play. On Wednesdays we sometimes go to the thermal bath. This bath is cleaned weekly on Tuesday so Wednesday is the day to go. For us it is 1,000 Ariary (about € 0.25) per person because we live on Madagascar. For tourists it is slightly more expensive (5,000 Ariary, about € 1,25)). On Thursday morning we leave around 05:00 to arrive in Tana in the evening. This is the way we try to keep traveling a fun and a bit more relaxed thing to do.

We’ll post some photos of Hotel La Palmeraie below.
There are also rooms available with a private shower and toilet. The rooms vary from large to small.
Prices start at 30,000 Ariary (about€ 7,50) with the ‘most expensive’ room for 60,000 Ariary per night.
Telephone number: +261 34 45 940 88
-21.25822/47.45392 – OpenstreetMaps
21°15’29.4″S 47°27’15.2″E – Google Maps