Tanà rewards the traveller with no money. Its best hours cost a 600 Ar taxi-be fare and legs willing to climb: free cathedral squares on the Haute-Ville ridge, the market pavilions of Analakely, and hotely rice plates under 3 500 Ar.
The 1873 stone cathedral stands on the square where Merina sovereigns delivered their kabary speeches to the people. Entry is free, doors open roughly 06:00–18:00, and the terrace behind it drops straight over the lower-town rooftops.
The cliff below the royal ridge where Queen Ranavalona I had Christian converts hurled to their deaths in the 1830s. The memorial church and the ledge beside it carry no fee, and the drop opens a 1 400 m panorama west over Ampefiloha.
The 1852 stone tomb of Prime Minister Rainiharo sits in a walled garden among Isoraka's pastel villas. There is no ticket booth — the caretaker simply opens the gate — and the quarter's steep lanes make the best free architecture walk in Tanà.
A terraced public garden on the ridge above Analakely, rebuilt on the old Ambohijatovo hill as a democracy memorial. Free and open until dusk, its upper wall catches the sunset directly over the Analakely market pavilions.
The twin colonial pavilions below the Escalier are Tanà's produce heart: vanilla pods around 2 000 Ar, litchis measured by the kapoaka tin, and towers of secondhand friperie clothing. Browsing costs nothing; haggling starts at half the quoted price.
Tin-roofed hotely gasy canteens ring the Petite Vitesse market serving vary sy laoka — a mound of rice with beans or zebu sauce — for 2 000 to 3 500 Ar, with free ranovola, the smoky burnt-rice water locals drink instead of tea.
Roughly 200 stalls of raffia weaving, zebu-horn spoons, embroidered lambas and recycled-tin toys line the causeway on the airport road. Sellers open at about twice the real price; a small raffia basket settles around 8 000 Ar.
After dusk the pavement around Lac Behoririka fills with charcoal braziers: zebu brochettes at 1 000 Ar a skewer, koba akondro banana-and-peanut cake for 500 Ar, and fried sambos sold three for 600 Ar.
The UNESCO-listed hilltop residence of King Andrianampoinimerina lies 21 km north: stone ramparts, a rosewood royal house and sacred bathing pools. Entry is 10 000 Ar, and a taxi-be from Ambodivona station costs about 2 000 Ar each way.
Half a dozen family hotely sit below the fortified gate serving vary amin'anana — soupy rice with greens — and grilled zebu for 3 000 to 4 000 Ar, eaten on benches under the eucalyptus while taxi-be drivers wait for a full load.
The national zoo-botanical garden holds ring-tailed lemurs, fossa, radiated tortoises and the reconstructed skeleton of the extinct elephant bird. Foreign entry runs 25 000 Ar, gates open 09:00–17:00 daily, and the lake loop stays shaded.
The road climbing past the University of Antananarivo campus in Ambohipo reaches an open shoulder where the whole basin — rice paddies, the water below and the royal ridge opposite — turns orange. It costs only a 600 Ar taxi-be fare.