Grand Hotel Urban

The spacious communal areas are all wooden floors and clean white walls, giving the hotel a light and natural feel. There are several outdoor seating areas with comfy couches and dining tables, all elegantly lit at night, and occasionally with a dash of live music. The bar on the top floor is, however, the piece de resistance and has chic leather stools and excellent views. Expect a good range of Malagasy and Mediterranean dishes, including a delicious seafood paella, in the restaurant, and there's also a small wellness centre that offers a range of spa treatments and massages.

Unless you're in Antananarivo for business, you're probably just stopping over on your way to explore Madagascar's famed wilderness areas, home to some of the world's highest rates of biodiversity and endemism. But Tana is also worth a day or two of your time. Spread across a series of hills with several lakes dotted around, it's a city bursting with colour, history and culture; within a kilometre of the hotel you'll find the Musee Andafiavaratra, which used to be the Prime Minister's residence, the pretty yet politically fraught Ambohitsorohitra Palace, and the stunningly beautiful Andohalo Cathedral.