From a very wealthy family, at the age of 20, he and his brother, Ernest Grandidier (1833–1912), undertook a voyage around the world.

Ernest Grandidier went to China and collected a vast number of specimens which are now in the Louvre and the Guimet museum.

Grandidier travelled to Zanzibar to recuperate, remaining some time and making important collections and publishing an account of his findings.

[3] Alfred Grandidier's work drew the attention of the French government to Madagascar, which it would annex at the end of 1890.

[7] Also, Grandidiera boivinii a flowering shrub from Africa was named after him in 1866 by French botanist Hippolyte François Jaubert.