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The world’s fourth-largest island, Madagascar is more like a mini continent. Its remarkable ecosystem supports large numbers of bizarre creatures, and an incredible 80 percent of the critters that call the forests home are endemic – they are not found anywhere else in the world. From lemurs to dancing sifakas and every rainbow-coloured chameleon in between, Madagascar is a wildlife-lover’s dream. And then there are the landscapes – eccentric, colourful and full of contrasts, from tropical jungle and parched desert to grassy plateaus and spiny forests. Add a blend of African, Asian and European cultures, and the country becomes one in a million. A Madagascar holiday may cost more than other destinations on the continent, but it’s worth every cent.

The remarkable fauna and flora is matched by epic landscapes of an incredible diversity: you can go from rainforest to desert in just 300km. Few places on Earth offer such an intense kaleidoscope of nature. There are sandstone canyons, limestone karsts, mountains, fertile hills cascading with terraced rice paddies, forests of every kind – rain, dry, spiny – and a laterite-rich soil that gave the country its nickname of ‘Red Island’. With 5000km of coastline, the sea is never very far, turquoise and idyllic in places, dangerous in others.