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Madagascar Travel Podcast with Hery Rakoto

Hery Rakoto

Madagascar Travel Podcast with Hery Rakoto is a slow, place-based guide to the world's fourth-largest island. Travelling here means moving between a narrow coastal plain, a central high plateau and an arid south, while hearing Malagasy and French in daily use. The island's isolation has produced species that exist nowhere else, and its rivers and roads carry their own rhythms.

Early episodes keep a base in Antananarivo, the capital on the high plateau. Later the host moves east to Toamasina, the country's main port, then south to the spiny forest country around Toliara and inland to Fianarantsoa, the highland town known for its surrounding rice terraces.

The show unfolds across dry-season months and wet-season months, returning to the same highland towns and eastern coastline. Each visit adds a layer; a market becomes recognisable, a route through the hills becomes familiar. Over two years the podcast accumulates the kind of knowledge that comes from living somewhere, not passing through.

Hery Rakoto lives in Madagascar and stays for two years, moving between cities, coastlines and smaller towns on a route that follows the seasons. Not a week-long visit — Hery is there in every kind of weather, working out where to eat on an ordinary Tuesday, which train to take, what a festival actually feels like from the pavement.

A new episode arrives every day. Each one is short and specific: one neighbourhood, one journey, one meal, one museum worth the detour — with the practical detail that matters. What it costs. When it closes. Whether the queue is worth it. What to do when it rains. Every episode carries a full transcript and chapter markers.

Part of Paris2Tokyo — one show for each of the world's hundred most-visited countries. Made for travelers, wherever you are going next.

#Madagascar #MadagascarTravel #EastAfrica #Antananarivo #TravelPodcast #Travel #Paris2Tokyo

https://www.paris2tokyo.com/podcasts/madagascar/

  • 6 episodes
  • Updated Today

Episodes6

  • Today · 9 min

    Tana's Last Day: Flyover, Rain, and the Road East

    On his final full day in Antananarivo, Hery checks the Anosizato flyover construction, navigates the city's energy crisis, visits the Andafiavaratra Palace, and plans his move east toward Andasibe and the coast.

  • Tuesday · 10 min

    Tana's Heart: Markets, Haute-Ville, and Lemurs

    Hery explores the Haute-Ville's colonial lanes, dives into the Analakely market's chaos, and gets up close with lemurs at Lemurs' Park. He also sorts out the practicalities of long-term life in Antananarivo, from mobile money to finding a flat, all with …

  • Monday · 8 min

    Highland Mornings and the Art of Waiting

    Hery navigates Antananarivo's paperwork, power cuts, and a rainy day with coffee and croissants at Madagascar Coffee Roasters, then explores the silent halls of the Andafiavaratra Palace and the city's creative undercurrents. Practical notes on visas, mo…

  • Sunday · 8 min

    Tana's Pulse: Markets, Music, and Moving Cash

    Hery navigates Antananarivo's practical heartbeat: haggling at Analakely for a suitcase, paying with mobile money, dodging the Jazz festival hubbub, and checking in from a baguette-fueled café. Day two is about making the city work for you.

  • Saturday · 9 min

    First Steps: Tana Air, Rice, Rain

    Hery Rakoto lands in Antananarivo for the first time. Visa stamps, ariary cash, taxi-be chaos, and a bowl of romazava in the highland winter. The capital is your orientation city; here is how it actually works.