Outstanding. John created a fantastic holiday experience for us. The tour, the local guides and the activities were great. Great service and fair price. Good accommodation. Very professional and 100% tailor-made tour according to our wishes. Johns concern is to create you a fantastic tour and he did for us. Book with this company when you’re in Madagascar!

Excellent and knowledgeable guide John was my guide on a small group tour of the south of Madagascar. He is a truly excellent guide. He is very knowledgeable about his country and offered valuable and interesting input throughout our trip. I never felt he was going through the motions or tuning out - quite the opposite, he was always engaged and sincere. He helped smooth out the bumps to make our trip easier and remained patient and cheerful even when faced with difficult personality traits (!). I don't think you could ask for a better guide and I completely recommend him to anyone visiting Madagascar. I agree with the other reviews that the country itself is amazing. The initial draw for me like so many others was the wildlife, and Madagascar lived up to expectations there. However, once there we experienced so much more. Diversity of scenery, landscape and vegetation, warm and welcoming people, overall excellent quality of food and lodging. Those who travel long distances should be aware the roads are often bumpy and windy, which gave me motion sickness at times. However this was no fault of our driver who was also excellent and did his best - and it was a small price to pay for an amazing experience. Highly recommended.

Marvellous Madagascar Our tour throughout Madagascar was exceptional from start to finish. John, our guide was a wealth of knowledge in every aspect of his country, from the people to the nature. He made our tour stress free as everything was arranged for us. The accommodation and food far exceeded my expectations. I actually found myself choosing the Malagasy option on a number of occasions. Just delicious. The Malagasy people were friendly and happy to assist whenever and wherever needed. At no time did I feel unsafe. Due to the diversity of the country each walk/hike was very different. From the dry spiny forest(where I loved the baobabs), local hillside village, lake and tropical rainforest. All just wonderful. Of course, the wildlife (lemurs and chameleons) a highlight. I especially enjoyed the local workshops-zebu horn and marquetry. Also the paper making and silk factories, most interesting. At no time were we pressured into purchasing items. People were always helpful. If planning a trip to Madagascar, John was very professional and gave us an excellent insight into his country. I highly recommend booking a tour with him. It was definitely an awesome trip with memories for my lifetime!!!

Madagascar is amazing! Madagascar is an amazing country with many varying landscapes, from crystal clear oceans and open plains in the south, to the hills and rainforests on the east coast. There was something, or someone, to see around every corner. We found the Malagasy people to be very friendly and welcoming everywhere we visited. Our guide John was extremely helpful, knowledgeable and very professional. John was a great host, he went out of his way to ensure that our needs were met and he was extremely patient and caring with others on our tour. I have some dietary requirements and John ensured that I had ample food options along the way. John’s customer service and insight into his country, the flora and the amazing wildlife we saw, certainly helped to make our trip to Madagascar even more special. I highly recommend John and visiting Madagascar.

Amazing Madagascar Our trip to Madagascar at the end of October and early November was magical. Our guide John, and driver Jean, could not have done more to make this experience more enjoyable. John had so much knowledge about the places we visited and the wildlife we saw and his passion for sharing it with us was infectious. We really got to see the magic of the country experiencing local hospitality, wonderful scenery and incredible wildlife. Nothing was too much trouble and we never felt rushed if we were interested in spending a little longer somewhere. There were also ‘laughs a plenty’ as we all relaxed together at the end of the day. Jean’s careful driving made the sometimes long drives relaxing as we knew we were in safe hands. The interaction between John and Jean was also relaxing for us as it was clear they worked well together and trusted each other. We cannot recommend John as a guide highly enough and anyone who is considering visiting Madagascar should make contact. Liz and Barbara

Magical Madagascar Madagascar was magical and seeing it through the eyes of John was unbelievable! John was amazing and shared such knowledge and love for nature. We can’t say enough about our experience and how John made this a trip of s lifetime!

Magic Madagascar Our guide, John Ratsimbarijaona and driver, Christian were just so wonderful - so caring and helpful. John had so much knowledge and love for Madagascar to pass on to us. He was amazing. We had a fun time with lots of laughs. He went out of his way to make sure we got to see the things we wanted to see and allowed us to linger longer at places we found particularly interesting. He knew birds, plants, animals and all about the people of the different areas we travelled. The trip gave us a great look at Madagascar and we were able to get a taste of the varied foods. We loved the spectacular scenery, the people, the wildlife and the culture. John and Christian made us all feel very special and well looked after. Christian was a fabulously safe and careful driver - particularly on some of the very rough roads we travelled on. John always made sure we were aware of the paths etc that we would be walking and was always there to offer a helping hand when we needed it. When one of our fellow group members became sick, he did everything possible to make sure she was well looked after, not leaving her side until she was treated in hospital and returned to the hotel. We were all a bit concerned about the fact that we had to buy bottled water but were pleased to see that the locals were always keen to take our empty bottles to recycle and reuse in lots of ways. We particularly loved the walks in the towns and villages and the visit to a house for lunch. There were many opportunities to see the singing and dancing of the Malagasy people.

Amazing journey to the eighth continent My wife and I journeyed to Madagascar last month, not knowing exactly what to except. Fortunately, we were guided by Madagascar Lemur Tour and Guide the entire nine day trip. Our guide, John, and our driver, Honey, gave us the the trip of our lives. We visited four National Parks in depth, saw numerous varieties of lemurs, endemic plants, birds and insects, and observed the unique culture of the country. They used local guides in the Parks to maximize the sights we got to see, all of whom were excellent. They spoke very good English, and went out of their way to show us things of special interest, such as a sapphire mine in operation. They were always on time, and we saw everything we were supposed to see and more. We highly recommend them

John Ratsimbarijaona was the BEST tour guide ever! Indispensable and extraordinary! We had so much fun learning about Madagascar with John. He knew the scientific names of every bird, plant and mammal. The bird and orchid scientists in our group were delighted and able to spot a large number of species they had only read about but never seen. Though Ilikaka was not the sapphire source we had hoped for, John was able to get us off the main road a bit to a gem shop with beautiful local emeralds and tourmalines. Our gemologist had brought her spectrometer and verified they were genuine natural stones. We also saw Malagasy silk making and visited local markets in Tulear. At no time did we feel pressured to buy or that there was a commercial push around the stop. We loved that about Madagascar and trusted John from beginning to end to keep us safe and well-informed. Though we focused our visit on wildlife, the visit to the beach was just delightful. A lot of driving on not so great roads, We loved the clean beauty of the vast countryside and wished for more trees, but the easygoing friendliness of the people remain memorable from the visit. If you go, get a good guide and John is the best.