Reserve Rules:

• NEVER TRY TO PICK UP A LEMUR. WARN CHILDREN ABOUT THIS. Wild lemurs may happily sit on your shoulder, but they bite if frightened.
• DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS in the forest or the restaurants - this provokes aggression among the lemurs and towards you. With 8000 visitors a year at Berenty, feeding lemurs teaches them to beg from all the tourists after you.
• Do not smoke in the forest.
• Please stay on the trails.
• Please do not litter.
• Have fun!


Book rooms at the Hotel le Dauphin and Berenty Lodge through travel agents. Scientists have no access or dealings with the hotel bookings. Many people come on package tours, others individually, but there is no email at the Hotel le Dauphin (as of 2005) and very limited telephone and fax access.

There are daily planes from Antananarivo. Buses from the Hotel le Dauphin and the other Fort Dauphin hotels meet every plane. Trips to Berenty are booked at the Dauphin, if your travel agent has not already done so. The ride over the “rainfall fault-line” from Fort Dauphin into the spiny forest takes 2-3 hours, for 70 km., depending how often you stop for photographs. One-day trips are possible; otherwise people usually stay for 1-2 nights. Each group has its own driver and guide, who make sure that you see the gallery forest, spiny forest, and Museum of Androy, at times appropriate for lemurs, birds, and whatever else may interest you.

Lodging is in bungalows or rooms in cement houses with the normal hotel facilities, although one is always aware that it is difficult to maintain standards in a country with few spare parts and no backup. Meals (set menu, though with provision for vegetarians) are in the restaurant, Breakfast in the open-sided bar and café.

Book early! Berenty is often sold out months in advance.