Madagascar · Vakinankaratra Region
Where to Stay in Antsirabe, Vakinankaratra Region
Antsirabe is a highland spa town of central Madagascar, a cool city of thermal springs and rickshaws set among old volcanoes and crater lakes.
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Where to stay in Antsirabe
Where you base yourself shapes the visit — here's the character of each area.
Where you stay in Antsirabe turns on the town or the lakes. The streets around the centre keep the thermal baths, the market, and the wide avenues within a walk, and staying downtown suits anyone here for the spa and the town. The old baths stand grand.
Rickshaws throng the road. Out toward the craters and the lakes, the town gives way to the volcanic hills, the crater lakes, and the paddy country. A room by the lakes trades the streets for the still crater water, the green highlands, and the quiet of the hills.
The cold air hangs clear. Stay downtown for the baths, or by the lakes for the hills. The crater lakes lie only a short ride out from Antsirabe's wide avenues.
About Antsirabe
Antsirabe is the spa town of the Madagascar highlands.
What is Antsirabe known for?
High on the cool volcanic uplands of the island's centre, it grew around warm mineral springs, and it keeps the old thermal baths and spa hotels of colonial days, the bright pousse-pousse rickshaws that fill its streets, the crater lakes of Tritriva and Andraikiba nearby, and the workshops of stone-cutters and craftsmen. The cool highland air holds clear. The old volcanoes ring the plain.
What are the main landmarks in Antsirabe?
The thermal baths are the heart of old Antsirabe. The grand colonial spa and its hot springs, where the well-to-do once came to take the waters, stand by a broad avenue in the town, the emblem of the city, at its centre. Bright rickshaws crowd the streets.
The painted pousse-pousse carry people all through the town, while the crater lake of Tritriva, the old hotel, and the stone workshops mark the country around Antsirabe.
What is the history of Antsirabe?
Antsirabe was born of its springs. Norwegian missionaries came to the cool highland in the 1870s, drawn by the healthful air and the warm mineral waters that bubbled from the ground, and they built a mission and a town whose name spoke of the salt in its springs. The waters made it famous.
Under the French the town became a spa resort, with grand thermal baths and a fine hotel where the well-to-do came to take the cure in the cool. The town grew by rail and trade. A railway climbed from the capital to Antsirabe, and mills, a brewery, and workshops rose on the highland, so that it became the third city of the island.
The pousse-pousse ruled the streets. Hand-pulled rickshaws in bright paint carried people through the town, and stone-cutters worked the agates of the hills, while Antsirabe kept its springs, its lakes, and its cool highland air. The baths still steam in the cold.
Antsirabe keeps its spa and its rickshaws in the highlands of Madagascar.
Where is Antsirabe?
Antsirabe lies in the central highlands of Madagascar, high on the volcanic uplands south of the capital. The town sits on a cool plateau of old craters and lakes at some fifteen hundred metres, where rice paddies fill the valleys and extinct volcanoes rise around, far above the heat of the coasts. Green paddies fill the vales.
Old craters ring the town.
What is the climate of Antsirabe?
Antsirabe has a mild, cool highland climate. Cool dry winters and mild wet summers hold on the uplands, with chilly nights the year round and rain in the summer months. The highland nights turn cold.
Days stay cool and bright.
How do you get to Antsirabe?
Antsirabe lies in the central highlands of Madagascar, south of the capital. Roads and an old railway run to it up the highlands from Antananarivo, and taxi-brousse vans crowd the route. Rickshaws fill the streets.
Antananarivo lies north up the road.
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Updated August 2026