Where Is Madagascar on the World Map?

Madagascar is the big island off the southeast coast of Africa, about 250 miles from Mozambique across the Mozambique Channel. On a world map, look at the lower right edge of Africa and slide into the Indian Ocean; that long island shaped a little like a left footprint is Madagascar. It's the fourth largest island on Earth, and on our push pin world maps it sits right where the Indian Ocean opens up, waiting for a pin.

I'm Brenda. My husband Mike and I have made push pin travel maps since 2012, and we've watched a lot of customers put their first pin in places they haven't been yet. Madagascar is one of those pins people place early and dream about for years. Here's where it is, what it's famous for, and what a trip there actually looks like.

Where is Madagascar on the world map?

Find Africa, then look southeast. Madagascar runs parallel to the coastline of Mozambique, stretching almost a thousand miles from north to south through the Indian Ocean. It's a country of its own, independent since 1960, with its capital at Antananarivo in the central highlands. On most world maps it's unmistakable once you've spotted it: no other island near Africa comes close to its size.

Its isolation is the whole story. The island split from the African mainland well over a hundred million years ago, and life there went its own way. About 90% of Madagascar's plants and animals exist nowhere else on the planet, from every species of lemur to most of its chameleons and frogs (National Geographic, 2010). That's why the island gets called a living laboratory, and why it earns a pin on so many bucket lists.

What is Madagascar famous for?

Lemurs, first. More than 100 species, and they live nowhere else in the wild. Then the baobabs, those trees that look planted upside down, lining a dirt road near Morondava so photogenically the stretch has its own name, the Avenue of the Baobabs. Add rainforest, sandstone canyons, coral reefs, vanilla (the island grows much of the world's supply), and a culture that blends African and Southeast Asian roots in a way you won't find anywhere else on the continent's edge.

What are the best places to visit in Madagascar?

Antananarivo, the capital

Most trips start in "Tana." Give it a day or two. The markets are loud and wonderful, the streets are cobbled and steep, and the food stalls will feed you well for pocket change. It's the best crash course in Malagasy life you'll get.

Ranomafana National Park

Dense rainforest, misty trails, and guided hikes that put you a few feet from lemurs, chameleons, and birds you've never heard of. If you get a glimpse of the golden bamboo lemur, you've seen an animal that wasn't even known to science until 1986.

Isalo National Park

The opposite of Ranomafana: rust-colored canyons, dry grassland, and hidden oases where you can swim beneath a waterfall after a hot trek. It feels like another planet, and that's the appeal.

Avenue of the Baobabs

Come at sunrise or sunset, when the trees stand black against the color. Some of these baobabs are centuries old. It's the photo everyone takes and it still doesn't feel like a cliché in person.

Nosy Be and the coast

End on the water. Nosy Be, off the northwest coast, is the classic finish: white sand, coral reefs, and snorkeling with sea turtles in water so clear it hardly seems real.

How do you get to Madagascar?

Through Antananarivo, almost always. There are no nonstop flights from the United States, so most travelers connect once in Europe, the Middle East, or East Africa and land at Ivato International Airport outside the capital. Plan on a long travel day; it's roughly a 20-hour journey from the East Coast when the connections behave.

Once you're on the island, distances are bigger than the map suggests. Roads are slow, so most itineraries pick one axis: the classic southern route from Tana down through Ranomafana and Isalo, or a north loop toward Nosy Be. Two weeks is the comfortable minimum if you want rainforest, canyons, and a beach finish without racing. Internal flights can buy back a few days if your schedule is tight.

When is the best time to visit Madagascar?

Most travelers go in the drier months, roughly April through October. That's winter in the southern hemisphere, which means comfortable hiking weather and better roads. The cyclone season runs through the southern summer, so January to March is the stretch to avoid. Wildlife watching is good most of the dry season; whale watching off the coast peaks around July to September.

Pin it before you go

Put a pin in Madagascar now, in your dream-trip color, and let it stare at you from the Executive World map above your desk until you book the flight. When you come home, swap it for a been-there pin. If you're short on wall space, the framed canvas world maps come in three sizes, and there are always more pin colors to keep the system going.

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Brenda Phelps co-founded Push Pin Travel Maps with her husband Mike in 2012. Their maps are handcrafted in the USA and have helped over 250,000 travelers track where they've been and where they're headed next.