It's a mixture all right, in terms of its native species its like a slice of time from millions of years ago. There's every conceivable landscape, and every conceivable ethnicity amongst the people there. If variety's your thing, you've come to the right place.
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Accommodation on a Budget
There are no hostels as such in Madagascar, but there are plenty of good cheap hotel options, or guesthouses sometimes in the form of bungalows.
A Traveler's Budget for Madagascar
If you want to travel around the country by public transport, the only way to go is by Bush Taxi. This is the term for any kind of pubic transport ther than a large bus and they vary from the bâché, a pick up with a row of benches down each side in the back, through to the taxi-be, a peugeot. The price of course is reflected in the level of comfort! Otherwise cycle touring is a popular way to go and it gives you more time to look at the scenery.
Cheap eats are usually asian (rice) based and there's a lot of variety in what you can eat with your rice. For the cheapest locations use the street stalls or the hotely, the roadhouses, which are much cheaper than the restaurants but which are, in turn, much cheaper than reastaurants almost anywhere ese in Africa.
Activties on a Budget
Diving off the coast, particularly the south west.
Whale watching if it's migration time
Walk a trail in a national park (you'll robably have to take a guide)
Check out the paddy fields in the Central Highlands
Spend some time chilling out in the capital, Antananarivo.
