Soul of Madagascar tours head office
Soul Of Madagascar Tours
- Office In:
- Size:
- 5-10 employees (Founded in 2019)
- Tour Types:
- Customizable private tours and fixed group tours
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $1,562 to $8,679 per person per day (MXN, excl. int'l flights)
for a custom tour
Your request will be sent directly to the operator
If preferred, you can contact the operator directly
Reviews
Email Elena | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Great Lemur Viewing Trip
Planning a trip to Madagascar can be daunting, but Theresia, our guide Michael, and driver, Ambinintsoa, provided a level of attentiveness that truly stands out. Having traveled to over 50 countries, I was incredibly impressed by their care.
Before we arrived, Theresia was highly responsive, which helped ease the stress of planning. Once on the ground, Ambinintsoa did everything he could to make the journey smooth.
Madagascar's road conditions are famously brutal, but he navigated the rough terrain carefully and always tried to park as close as possible to our stops to maximize our comfort.
Our guide, Michael, is excellent at what he does. He genuinely loves and respects local wildlife. We saw 13 different types of lemurs. He proactively coordinated with park rangers to track animals, communicated what we had already seen and what would be interesting to spot next and worked with the rangers to keep the more dominant species occupied so the shyer species could come closer. He also handles logistics well. When an unrelated tourist group delayed our boat, Michael stepped in to resolve the situation and get us moving.
Michael and Ambinintsoa also pay attention to small, personal details. When we mentioned wanting to try local lychees, which were out of season, they managed to treat us with fresh rambutan which were delicious.
The team also handles unexpected issues very professionally. On our final day, Ambinintsoa was called away to assist with a broken-down company vehicle. Even while managing that operational headache, Michael and Ambinintsoa made sure to arrange a substitute private airport transfer for us. They are a deeply dedicated team that genuinely cares about your experience. I can't recommend them enough!
Email Colin Coulson | 65+ years of age | Experience level: first safari
Enoch Rules he made Madagascar an unforgettable experience
Colin C
Colin C
Siam Reap Cambodia183 contributions
1
Dream Holiday
sept. 2018 • En couple
From the moment that Enock picked us up from the hotel in Tana we knew that we would enjoy our trip. He made sure that we got the most out of the holiday. Excellent English. Always there when you wanted him but not in your way. He listened to your requests and made them happen. Nothing was too much trouble. I would recommend him whole heartedly as your guide for Madagascar
Email Lisa Quinn | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Enock and Soul of Madagascar Tour is THE BEST!!!
We used Enock with Soul of Madagascar tours.. Enock was a really great guide. He was proactive, fun, knowledgeable and patient. We have an 87-year-old and my 11-year-old daughter with us and he was kind and help them both when he needed it. He was so easy to get in touch with and kept in contact with me constantly. Everything he chose for us to do was on point and I would choose Enock again in a moments notice!
IT
Email Marco | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
GREAT EXPERIENCE, BEST ORGANIZATION by Soul of Magascar and Enock!! Professionalism and friendliness
Enock has been a great guide, accurate and very attentive to our needs and safety but more and more a great travel partner! We really appreciated he joined us in every activities, during the trekking on the forests, visiting the villages and the towns.
We stayed in best quality hotels and Enock checked for us the cleaning of the rooms.
We visited Madagascar also for photography, so our travel has been organized to visit a lot of natural reserves, national parks and also a lot of tipical ethnic villages and town markets
Last step of our travel we had relax and snorkeling at Ifaty beach leisure where we have enjoyed the best sunsets ever seen
I will come back for sure in Madagascar, organizing with Enock and Souls of Madagascar Travels :)
Email Jakhan | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Reliable and Professional Tour Operator
I recently took a 13-day private tour with Soul of Madagascar in April 2024, after hearing positive reviews online about their guide and founder, Enock. He was very helpful and quickly responsive in planning our trip itinerary with private car for a reasonable price. Unfortunately, Mr. Enock passed away before our arrival and we were uncertain as to what would become of our trip. Despite this unforeseen tragedy, Soul of Madagascar maintained good professionalism and reached out to us multiple times to assure us that our trip would still be possible with some reorganization. We arrived in Antananarivo and were served by Mr. Anjara as our new guide and Mr. Rivo as our driver. The services these two provided were exceptional and every care was made to ensure that we were both safe and satisfied. SOM booked fine accommodations/lodges for us, as well as set up a fantastic Tsiribihina River cruise with an amazing boat crew. Special thanks to the boat chef of La Sirene, based in Masiakampy, who prepared restaurant quality meals all from a small boat kitchen! We did receive a flat tire on one section of the trip, which is expected from such long drives on Madagascar's difficult roads, but this was quickly resolved. My only suggestion is that the cars which are contracted by SOM be inspected and serviced regularly to make sure they are in good working order, and that the repair kits in the cars have the necessary tools. Aside from this, our itinerary that also included Alley des Baobabs and Ranomafana National Park was carried out without any problems. I would also like to thank SOM for working around our schedule and for providing us with airport transfer two days after our itinerary finished. I would recommend SOM Tours to anyone looking for a reliable agency, since traveling independently in Madagascar can be extremely complicated and stressful. Thank you!
JP
Email Rinako | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
The best travel in my life
I’ve communicated with Theresia from Soul of Madagascar Tours and always gave me quick and clear response. It was great help for us before travel.
During the trip, tour guide and driver are everyone professional and perfect time management.
We had 7 days trip this time but definitely I would like to come back to Madagascar with Soul of Madagascar tour and explore more adventure!
BE
Email Eliane | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
I highly recommend this agency.
Professional Tour Operator
A wonderful experience in the south-west of Madagascar (Ambatomilo). We spent 7 days with Soul of Madagasca, visiting the Mikea people, the white sand dune, the baobab forest and the island of Manjaboaky.) The guide and driver were extremely professional and I really had the time of my life. They were fantastic and always gave interesting information about the country. A special mention to Thérèsia, the manager, who is an extremely kind woman, always looking after you and her team and doing everything possible to make your stay extraordinary. I highly recommend this agency. Here are some of my photos.
BE
Email Lessi Becker | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Paradise with Soul of Madagascar
Thank you to the whole team for this adventure, great southern loop of Madagascar You assured.
I underline the professionalism of Mrs THERESIA, the owner manager of the tour operator.
I recommend
FR
Email Assetou | 35-50 years of age | Experience level: first safari
titre: Medical assistance and travel ensures with SOMT
Our family of 6 ( 4 adults, 11yrs and 12yrs) had an amazing time with SOMT on a tour from Tana to Morondava. The trip was personalized according to our preferences. We had a brilliant bump and a very comfortable car, the roads in Madagascar can be very difficult. Our guide was extremely passionate and knew Madagascar perfectly. He showed us the real life of the Malagasy people who took us to the local workshops. The accommodation was very high level. Everything was perfectly organized, I definitely had to come back and reccomende SOMT to my closest friends and family. Mrs Theresia is the person who ensures the dual competence as general practitioner and organizer for our trip. This was an advantage for us as it was very easy for us to get medical assistance after being bitten by a lemur during the tour. We are very lucky to come across this agency with a doctor present, it is of capital importance for us because there is an overabundance of dangers. Thanks again to all!
Email M and C | 50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
terrible vehicle
We had worked for months with Soul of Madagascar for this holiday. We had quick and efficient responses from the office employees of Soul of Madagascar. We especially were impressed with Theresia. She was quick and efficient with her responses. We were expecting a wonderful holiday because of Theresia’s thoroughness. She sent us a picture of the Soul of Madagascar rep that was meeting us at the airport and a picture of the vehicle we would be using.
The lodges we requested were reserved by Soul of Madagascar. All were what we expected and met our needs. A few of the lodges exceeded our expectations. Bakuba Lodge was absolutely wonderful. It is a very unique lodge and would recommend this lodge. Bakuba Lodge and Le Soleil de Tsingy were the best lodges we stayed. We would not recommend Radisson Waterfront rooms 19, 20 or 21. They are in the basement. We would not recommend Gaspard Hotel in Ranomafana, the food was not good at all.
Our guide, Joushia, and the original driver, Rivo, were not very punctual. In fact, they were late over 95% of the time. We had to contact Theresia midway through our holiday because of Joushia’s attitude and the vehicle issues we had.
Oh, the vehicle issues we had!! Not one, not two, not even three, but five issues with the original vehicle. Then the second vehicle was a bit better but we still had no working air conditioning and ROACHES in the vehicle. We booked higher end hotels as we expected great service and a quality experience. Because of the service we received from Theresia, we thought we would receive excellent service from everyone at Soul of Madagascar. We also thought we would have had a higher end vehicle because of the higher end hotel choices we had made. Well, that was not the case. We had never experienced such bad service between the guide, driver and the vehicle like this. The best vehicle was the one that transported us to/from the hotel/airport and the one from Bekopaka to Morandava, which was not from Soul of Madagascar. Out of 14 days we have been with a vehicle, we had air condition for 4 days. Two of these days were transfer to/from the International Airport. Taking the total time we spent in a vehicle without air conditioning, it would be over 95% that we had NO air conditioning. We understand things happen. Maybe even twice, but five different things happened with the same vehicle. The first time, on the way to Kirindy Forest, the fan belt broke. It took about 2.5 hours to get back to where the fan belt broke. The next day, driving to Bekopa the air conditioner broke. We had to drive 5 hours on the dirt road with the windows down. It was SO hot and SO dusty. Our luggage, ourselves and everything was DIRTY. I mean DIRTY. Joushia and Rivo did not even seem to care that we were filthy. The next time the vehicle had an issue was on the way to Antsirabe. We stopped once for 15 minutes, then another time for 20 minutes and then an extra hour at lunch because the power steering pipe had a hole. And the air conditioning was not working. We had told Joushia we needed a different vehicle in Antsirabe. But he did NOT listen to us.
We were heading to Ranomafana the day after Antsirabe. We had told Joushia we absolutely wanted to do a night walk in Ranomafana as this was planned on our itinerary. Joushia said we had to insure we were on the road very early to arrive in Ranomafana for the night walk. We opted to not do Antsirabe city tour and the zebu factory to insure we had enough time to get to Ranomafana. We ended up paying the price for not getting a different vehicle in Antsirable as the vehicle broke down on the side of the road. We also noticed the power steering wasn't working, even though we were told everything was fine with the vehicle and of course the air conditioning was not work. That day the fan belt broke again, the same fan belt. We sat at least two hours at the side of the road while the vehicle was repaired. We repeated that we wanted to do one tonight but because of the vehicle breaking down for the fourth time, we could not. Rivo's reply was "This is life in Madagascar." WOW, what customer service is this?!?! We have not seen any other tourist's vehicles broken down on the side of the road. Obviously, it isn't life in Madagascar. We also have not seen any other tourist vehicles with their windows down! So many lies! Joushia lied to us! Finally, we got a different vehicle, but again, it had no air conditioning, and it had roaches crawling on the floor and on us!! This whole situation was unacceptable.
We travel the world as we have visited 95 different countries. Most of these travels has been on induvial tours such as this one. Never have had anything like this. We talked to other tourists while on our holiday in Madagascar; French, Hungarian, Dutch, English, Australian, Canadian, South African and Americans. None have experienced even one issue like we had. All we ever heard from Theresia was “Thank you for understanding”. Well, that is one thing, but it does not make the facts change. If we experienced any small issue on a previous holiday, we would have been compensated for any issues. It would have been a nice gesture, indicating these issues were understood, if a small refund or possibly including meals at several of the hotels. But no compensation was ever made. We paid a lot of money for this holiday and expected great service. Other than Theresia, we did not receive good service from Soul of Madagascar. We felt as if we were a nuisance and not a client.
We had communicated with Theresia during the trip for her to try to understand our situation. Her response was “my apologies” and she was grateful for our understanding. She also stated she did not know about all the issues with the vehicle until we had told her. Joushia did not tell her about the vehicle?? Upon our arrived home, we sent a lengthy email detailing all our issues we experienced on our trip to Theresia. This is her response, “I would like to apologize for the inconvenience you experienced during your trip. As a representative of our agency, I will take all your feedback seriously. I will take the time to carefully observe the people I will work with in the future. Once again, I offer you my most sincere apologies.” Apologies are one thing, but it is as if no one from Soul of Madagascar understood that we paid good money for a tour that was far below satisfactory conditions. We honestly cannot recommend Soul of Madagascar.