Anjajavy L'Hotel (Madagascar) including Carlton Antananarivo

Our stay at Anjajavy L'Hotel was in the midst of our Africa trip from Dec. 21, 2014 - Jan. 10, 2015. We came from the Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge in Rwanda (via Jo'burg), and we followed this Madagascar visit with stays at the Dock House (Cape Town) and La Residence (Franschhoek, South Africa).

We really loved Anjajavy...and highly recommend it for anyone looking for remote luxury amidst natural beauty with excellent dining...and/or a very comfortale place to see the lemurs!




 

JNB-TNR SA8252 in Business Class:

A typical business class flight on SA, except that it was on an Avro RJ85 "Avroliner" jet--a first for us. The meal was pretty good, as was service:



Carlton Antananarivo Presidential Suite:

We arrived into Antananarivo, Madagascar's capital, and it was HOT and HUMID. I knew I was in trouble!

Customs was entertaining and a bit more laborious--as we both separately had several customs agents attempting to secure a bribe. I simply insisted that I only had credit cards/debit cards with me and had not drawn any local cash yet from an ATM, so I managed more smartly than my husband--who just tried to pretend he didn't understand what they were asking for. So I ended up making it through a good 15 min faster. Husbands--gay or straight, it's the same.

Once we left the building, our Carlton driver was there waiting for us. Since I'd booked us the Presidential Suite (for 331 euro), it included a one way airport transfer. It took about 30 min to arrive at the Carlton. The Carlton is the tallest building in all of Madagascar!

Check in was easy and we were heading to the elevators when we realized one was a REAL door--disguised as an elevator door. Hilarious!





We took an actual elevator to the 13th floor for the Presidential Suite. It had quite a view:



The furnishings were plentiful and comfortable but on the cheaper/un-chic side.

The bedroom (with my hubby who wouldn't move):



The separate living room, accessed through a door that can separate our bedroom into its own single room:



The bar/kitchenette area adjoining the living room:



A little kitschy but more than sufficient for one night stay. Both the bedroom and living room had closets and a decent sized bathroom with shower.

We had a decent late lunch in the lobby cafe area (sorry, no photos) after exploring around the hotel a bit. Then we had decent room service for dinner. We had been advised on numerous occasions by my research and travel agent contacts NOT to walk around Tana (the nickname for the capital) at night, so we dined in. We also were bushed--but it would have been interesting to explore a bit more than we did.

While watching a movie on our laptop afterward, there was a CRAZY thunderstorm with massive lightning displays...and the entire hotel lost power for about 10-15 min. Wifi was restored after another 30 min--and the manager on duty kindly called us to make sure we were OK and to advise us of the situation. I was impressed.

Air con was sufficient for most, but it wasn't great by my standards. Still, I slept quite soundly.

Check out the next morning at 6:00 am was painful...but we had to catch the 7:00 am charter flight to Anjajavy. The hotel TRIED to charge us both ways for our airport transfers, but after I reminded and wouldn't budge about the comp'd one way transfer, they took one way off our bill. Still, the return transfer was a ridiculous 75 euro--but we preferred to think of that as a round trip charge overall.

Charter flight on Madagascar Trans Air:

We arrived at the charter terminal for MTA around 6:30 am, which was when we had been told to arrive for our 7:00 am flight. It was a very nice charter office with a few nice lounge areas akin to separate seating/club rooms in some of the nicer airport lounges. Our bags and each of us were weighed, of course.

After our 2 fellow passengers arrived at 7:50 am and had been weighed, we boarded our little prop plane. It was roomier for me behind the pilot than it was for my husband in the co-pilot seat, and all in all it wasn't too bad. The other wife was seated behind my husband, and her husband was seated in the back row.

The trip was easy and smooth for the 2 hr trip.

Right after takeoff:



Outskirts of Tana...it was spectacularly beautiful:



It seems that Godzilla came through Madagascar at some point:



And finally, the Mozambique Strait/Indian Ocean, near Anjajavy:



 

We landed on a earthen airstrip with the GM Cedric and some outgoing guests waiting. There is a bathroom and covered arrivals area for shade (sorry no pic). And it was VERY hot and humid. Cedric told us it was a hotter than usual...naturally!

We had a nice chat with a Pitzer grad working on a Princeton program in Africa, along with her parents from the States--they all were very, very sad to be leaving. Good sign! Then they flew off, and the 4 of us and Cedric headed in a pretty new Landcruiser (far more comfortable than the one we had in Rwanda!) to the lodge.

It turns out that we had missed Bill & Melinda Gates by a little less than a week. Shucks!

On the 20 min drive, we stopped by a grove of the famous Boab trees:



We finally arrived at the lodge reception and couldn't help but to stare at the view:



This was paradise, indeed.

The Main Lodge

The main lodge building holds the lobby/reception, bar, dining (inside and outside), and deck. There is a very nice pool out towards the beach,as well, as you can see in some of the photos with views below. I'm sorry to say that I somehow never took a photo of the pool! There is an elevated wooden platform that runs from the main lodge to the pool deck (on both sides) and then continues a bit down stairs to the beach. Just before those stairs to the beach, the walkway runs parallel to the beach with chalets on the non-beach side until you get further down the walk.



The lobby (the far side is the entrance):



View from inside lobby to the pool/beach:



Outdoor dining seating (where we ate all of our meals):



There also was dining seating inside, but I forgot to take a photo. We never dined inside since it was so hot and humid (and the main lodge has no air con). Whenever I dined, after sharing with Cedric that I have a tough time with heat, they plugged in a fan next to me to help cool me down. It was a lifesaver. Thanks, Cedric!

 

Our Chalet

After getting a little brunch and filling out some check in paperwork, we headed to our chalet. On the "beach side"of the property, the elevated wooden walkway runs parallel to the beach, and closer to the lodge the chalets are all on the non-beach side--meaning that the walkway is in FRONT of each chalet, which isn't as private as some might prefer. On the "cliff" side of the property, the walkway seemed to have a few chalets on both sides of the walkway, but with fewer chalets on that side. There are some chalets that are very close to the main lodge, and I was glad to not be in one of those--since they did not seem very private to me. (We didn't explore the cliff side chalets, unfortunately.) All of the chalets are identical; the only difference is location.

Our chalet was further down the beach side, just past the "spa" chalet, and seemed to be the last chalet on the non-beach side. The first chalet on the beach side of the walkway (with the walkway behind it) was just before our chalet. Our chalet was elevated up a slope with a steep flight of steps, so we had a nice view...though we could also see the beach-side chalet a bit.

Our chalet (you can just make out the "spa" (massage) chalet to the left):



The chalet was two story. Downstairs was a small living area, the queen bed area, a small bathroom with a small vanity and a shower/tub in the corner (enclosed by curtains), and the a separate toilet and bidet room that opened into both the living area near the entry and the bathroom. The windows all had slats that could be adjusted manually by opening the windows and adjusting them to control how much light you wanted or pretty close to entirely dark when sleeping. There also were heavy curtains that could be pulled to make it close to perfectly dark when sleeping/changing. Upstairs, accessing a fairly steep ladder, was a loft with two twin beds, a writing desk, and windows and curtains on either end.

Walking in the door, you can see the chair (to the side of which there was a table), the ladder up the loft, and the main "living area) with 2 chairs and a small coffee table, and the sliding doors to the deck:





Around the right corner was the bed area:



Lighting was actually decent, with both some recessed overhead lights and also the lamps.

The loft area upstairs with 2 twin beds and 2 desks on the other side:





The bath with the shower/tub in corner and vanity by the door:





There was a small closet with sections for hanging and shelves, as well as a safe:





Another view of the deck:





We did love the hammock, but the chairs were just so-so in terms of being comfortable--an area for improvement, we think.

Steps down to the beach, across the beach-side elevated wooden walkway. There were two of the same deck chairs down at the beach:



Overall, we liked the chalet. The air con worked great--we kept it set to 19 C and it held close to that even during the heat of the day. It was pretty dark at night with the shutter closed and the curtains drawn. It was a bit cramped but we consider the location. Obviously, it could have held a family of 4 with the upstairs loft, though going up and down for the bath in the middle of the night would be have been a bit perilous--and even more cramped. Still, there were quite a few guests with small children that obviously appreciated the lofts and made due.

Wifi was horrible in the chalets, but occasionally it worked--but it isn't advertised for the chalets at all. Wifi is available in the main lodge, but not surprisingly it isn't terrible good even there. I knew this going in. So while I missed having wifi, it didn't detract for us from the experience.

A shot of the pathway at night. It really is a beautiful property:



 

Food was a surprising highlight. Food wasn't Michelin star quality, but it often LOOKED that way--and still was very good, especially considering the location. We had a seafood salad with fish on our first full day by the pool, and it was so delicious that we ordered that at least once every day either by the pool or for lunch.

Wine service was a bit of an issue, but we figured it out. The wine list is, for the most, part, pretty reasonable. On our first night, we ordered one of the pricier red Burgundies, and it arrived pretty warm. This was a surprise after hearing Cedric tell us how he is so careful to cellar his wine at proper temperature. We tried to cool it down on ice, but then the meal arrived--and we want wine to pair with food. We had to send the food back--causing a bit of a scene, unfortunately, partly due to communication with the staff who understandably didn't quite realize the reason for our displeasure. We had to ask for Cedric to return to get it sorted. We finally got our lovely meal with the wine at proper temperature. We assumed that red wines were likely stored in closer to room temperature conditions, and we don't believe that to be proper for red wines.

We didn't have quite the same issue with their white wines, which seemed to be more properly stored at cooler temperatures.

After that, we only ordered white wine in advance--to be sure it was properly cooled before ordering our meal. But the staff seemed to recognize that temperature was important to us after that, as well--to their credit. If wine is important to you, then I recommend you do what we did and order the bottle first to make sure it's appropriate temperature and then order your food. (To be fair, we've been to several Four Seasons properties in Hawaii on several occasions that served wine at the wrong temperature despite charging far more for lower quality bottles.)

Seafood salad:



That did turn out to be the last fish we had, however, as there was no more fish for the rest of our stay. The GM Cedric apologized at the end about that, indicating that there were burnings upriver that were polluting the river causing it to be difficult to fish in the vicinity, even though he'd sent boats out into the ocean farther than usual. (Our 4 nights were also the LAST 4 nights of season, as the property closed after we departed, so we wondered if that might have had anything to do with it.)

Still, the food was quite good--and WORLDS better than anything that we had at Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge (or at Mozambique's Azura Benguerra Island during our honeymoon in 2010). Cedric is fanatical about providing good and well-prepared, hygienic food, and it showed. Some photos to give you an idea:








 

Lemurs!

The reason we came to Anjajavy was because my husband wanted a luxury beach/island escape and I wanted to see the lemurs--and Anjajavy offered us a chance for both. The property is part of a preserve that Cedric CLEARLY has enormous passion for--which supports wildlife and habitat for the area and brings economic benefits to the local Malagasy villages from which ALL of the Anjajavy employees come. (Even Cedric's family is Malagasy, though he was raised in France.) Cedric's passion for all of this is obvious and clear--and completely genuine. He is a true visionary trying to build a eco-luxe lodge to bring economic benefit and tourism benefit to this community.

There are several species of lemurs that live in the area, but the Sifaka lemurs are most plentiful (and adorable IMO) and constantly travel in and around the lodge property. You don't even have to leave the lodge to see the lemurs; at tea time every afternoon at 5 pm, the lemurs come to the same beautiful grove and you can't miss them.

Because of the heat and humidity, that is the ONLY place I bothered to see the lemurs. My husband did venture out on hikes (there are many in the preserve, which you can walk on your own or with a guide for a very reasonable fee), and he saw brown lemurs, as well.

My photo with the lemurs:




My video of a lemur jumping right at me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXqX...ature=youtu.be

And another video of a lemur climbing down a palm tree and jumping:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dur6...ature=youtu.be


The lemurs moved a lot like kangaroos while jumping on the ground. It was hilarious to watch.
 

I don't do massage or spa treatments--I'm just a very bad homo. My husband, on the other hand, loves massages, and so he scheduled 2 massages during our time here. The spa chalet is just a location for massage--there are no other treatments. But apparently it is quite a very good deal and he said both were very good and very cheap: equivalent to $45 for a 1 hr massage.
 

Service was to a high standard, but not to a 5 star standard like in a city hotel. There were mistakes with wine service, and there were mistakes in leaving the windows open in our chalet. But the service recovery and attempts to make us happy were tremendous, as well. Cedric and the whole team definitely want to take care of you, and they really do.

The location is everything we hoped it would be. It's obviously VERY remote--probablty the most remote location we've ever spent for holiday, and that's saying something! (Especially considering we just came from gorilla trekking in Rwanda!) The beach was beautiful. The grounds were beautiful. And yet, it's so remote that you can't quite believe that such a 4-5 star luxury lodge might be located here. 

Anjajavy L'Hotel is much more of a luxury eco-lodge than hotel IMO--and Cedric had talked to us about his thoughts on changing the name to better reflect that fact (and probably temper expectations, accordingly). I heartily agree with his assessment.

Cedric is one of the most passionate proprietors we've ever met. He is a credit to the property and to the communities he serves there.

I definitely recommend Anjajavy L'Hotel to those looking for a luxury eco-escape in a beautiful but remote land. From what we heard from other guests, almost all of whom had spent several weeks traveling throughout Madagascar, Anjajavy is certainly the nicest of all the many lodges throughout, though it isn't necessarily the best for viewing the different wildlife, even lemurs, and birdlife for which the country is known. Still, everyone agreed that it was the nicest place to end their journey. For others like us less concerned with all of the wildlife and more concerned with a beautiful and hearty place to relax in surprising comfort in a remote locale, enjoy the peace and serenity of nature, see some lemurs, and enjoy an amazing beach, Anjajavy certainly does not disappoint.