Antananarivo

• Bustling art and craft boutiques
• Beautiful scenery

Antananarivo (also known as Tana) means “City of Thousands”, however it is now a bustling city of 1.2million inhabitants.  

Tana is not only the capital, but is also the largest city in Madagascar, and the administrative, communications and economic centre too.

The city is built on two ridges which combine to make a ‘V’ shape.  On the tallest hill, dominating all the viewpoints is the ruined Queen’s palace or Rova and down the center of the valley runs a broad boulevard, “Avenue de l’Independence”.

Tana is conveniently divided into two main areas:

Analakely and Tsaralalana (Lower Town)

• Analakely (which means “little forest”) used to be famous for its large forest of white umbrellas. Tana’s Zoma market was famous world wide, now it has all gone and traffic and pedestrians can now move freely. 
  
  
• Avenue de l’Independence is a broad boulevard with shops, snack bars, restaurants and hotels running up each side.  However this is not a street that we recommend you take strolls through due to the many persistent beggars, souvenir vendors and relatively high petty crime rate.
  
  
• Tsaralalana is a more relaxing area of side street to the south of Avenue de l’Independence. 

Antaninarenina and Isoraka (Upper Town)

• This is the wealthier part of Tana, here are the jewellers, the art and craft boutiques, the atmospheric hotels, the inexpensive guesthouse, and a terrific but little known museum.

Both parts of the city are delightfully foreign and can hardly fail to impress the first-time visitor. During the dry season in Antananarivo, the sun is hot but the air is pleasantly cool due to the altitude.