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Africa is an ideal honeymoon destination. In our experience, honeymooning travellers require itineraries that are private, relaxing, organised and stimulating.
Accommodation options might include private houses, honeymoon suites, boutique hotels and small luxury camps. Extremely well managed, located in the most extraordinary of settings, these are efficient, luxurious and highly romantic destinations.
While each African honeymoon is specially designed to suit a specific couple’s needs, we tend to design itineraries that take account of the need to relax at the beginning as well as the end of the holiday.
The Serengeti National Park provides the stage for Africa’s famous Great Wildebeest Migration, but Tanzania is also a country of big cats, massive elephant herds and thriving chimpanzee-filled rainforests. And with Zanzibar and its Crusoesque Indian Ocean islands like Pemba and Mnemba within easy reach, it’s the perfect ‘bush-and-beach’ African honeymoon destination.
Once on safari, you can look forward to expertly guided game drives and there’s usually an opportunity to go hot-air ballooning. If you stay in private game reserves, you can also add walking safaris, night drives, off-road game viewing, and even mountain biking to your list of Africa honeymoon activities.
Although Tanzania is considered a great destination for year-round game viewing, the most comfortable weather conditions in the country’s safari regions like the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Tarangire and Lake Manyara are generally during the June to October dry season. To witness the spectacle of the Wildebeest Migration in the Serengeti, you’ll need to go on your Africa honeymoon between about November and August.
If it’s a tropical beach honeymoon in Africa that you’re after, the best time to visit Tanzania’s coast, Zanzibar and its islands is between June and March.
This friendly and easy-travelling country has excellent wildlife viewing in Etosha National Park, but its best African honeymoon destination has to be the Namib Desert.
During Namibia’s dry season between June and October, the Namib is a mesmerising land of silent, primal beauty and night skies spilling over with stars. A visit to the famous Sossusvlei dunes – towering hundreds of feet above you – is a must-do activity. You can walk up a dune to greet the rising sun or take a hot-air balloon flight for a birds-eye view. You’ll also explore the desert with expert local guides, on the lookout for unique wildlife in a surprisingly rich and diverse environment.
The dramatic dunes at Sossusvlei can be visited year-round, and the dry winter months between May and October are widely regarded as the best time for game viewing in Etosha.
Idyllic beaches, clear warm water and a massage for two – that’ll be the Seychelles. A scattering of islands in the Indian Ocean – some large, some not much bigger than a city block – the Seychelles has a well-deserved reputation for romance and enjoys equatorial weather.
Activities to look forward to include just about every water sport you can think of, but there is hiking and mountain biking too. As for where to stay, there’s no more iconic place than privately owned North Island. This scrap of jungle-clad granite is the favoured African honeymoon destination for royalty and rock stars, guaranteeing a stay of unashamed but gentle indulgence at North Island Lodge – the only accommodation on the island. Your palatial villa comes with its own pool and a lounge that can be converted into a private cinema. And chat to the chef about your favourite dishes and you can enjoy them at the restaurant or in your villa, served by candlelight.
Warm and sunny year-round make it a great spot for a honeymoon in Africa. The hottest months are December to April while the wettest are January and February. If you plan to scuba dive then April/May and October/November have the best underwater visibility.
With the mile-wide Zambezi River tumbling into the abyss, no wonder the Zambian name for Victoria Falls translates as ‘the Smoke that Thunders’. It is a destination as famous for its white-knuckle adventures like river rafting and bungee jumping as it is for romantic sunset river cruises and helicopter flights.
Experiencing Vic Falls as a best African honeymoon destination depends on your expectations. The waterfall is in full flow from about March to July – this is when you will get the most spectacular views. From about September to December, there can be very little water going over Victoria Falls, and this is usually the best time for activities like white-water rafting and swimming in Devil’s Pool.
A good time to combine a safari with a visit to Vic Falls is between June and October, when game viewing is at its best in easily accessible destinations like Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and South Africa.
Go on safari to Botswana and see what Africa’s wildlife was like in the days of the first European explorers: elephants in their tens of thousands, big cats, wild dogs and rivers full of crocodiles and hippopotamus.
Game drives are the main focus when on safari in Botswana. You’ll head out in the early morning and late afternoons to look for big game, then return to camp with a spotlight to catch nocturnal animals on the prowl. Many lodges are set on rivers or in the wetland wilderness of the Okavango Delta, enabling you to explore by motorboat and mokoro (traditional canoe).
Some camps have only three or four suites, making them very private and ideal for a honeymoon in Africa. Romance is provided by 4-poster beds, outdoor bathtubs and private plunge pools. And for a truly special experience, you can spend a night in a sky bed that is open to the stars.
Despite some camps being situated on remote islands in the heart of the Okavango Delta, they still take ‘glamping’ to a new level. Think spa facilities, swimming pool pavilions and in-room, wood burning stoves in the middle of the Kalahari.
Thanks to a mild climate and an abundance of wildlife in heavyweight destinations like the Okavango Delta, Moremi Game Reserve and Chobe National Park, Botswana delivers superb safari experiences any time of the year.
But if you want to go when temperatures are cool, there’s virtually no rain, and the risk of malaria is at its lowest, then opt for an Africa honeymoon during the dry winter months of May to October. This is also when animals are concentrated in ever increasing numbers around the dry season’s last remaining water sources, which makes for phenomenal game viewing.
Looking for that out-of-the-way beach retreat with plenty of romantic comfort and great weather for your honeymoon in Africa? Try the Quirimbas Archipelago. A string of coral islands set along Mozambique’s tropical Indian Ocean coast, the Quirimbas doesn’t get much colder than 24°C (75°F) at any time – day or night – and the water temperature starts at that and goes up to 30°C (86°F).
With much of the archipelago protected as a marine park, the Quirimbas is a natural choice for scuba divers and water sport lovers, but you don’t need to get your feet wet to enjoy the Quirimbas. This is also a destination of beachside massages and sunset cruises in a traditional dhow sailboat. Accommodation is lightly sprinkled across the islands – elegant, intimate lodges that tend to be the only one on the island.
Go between May and September when there is barely any rain, and avoid the peak rainy months of January and February.
Vineyards, semi-deserts and savannahs – the Rainbow Nation offers such a diverse set of destinations, it’s hard to remember you’re in the same country. And it’s this sheer diversity that makes South Africa one of the best honeymoon destinations in Africa.
In beautiful Cape Town, the attractions of the Cape Winelands are a little more sedentary and include fine food, wine, cheese and chocolate tastings. We recommend staying in Franschhoek while honeymooning in South Africa. Ringed by craggy mountains, this quaint town lies at the heart of the Cape Winelands and boasts the reputation as the culinary capital of South Africa.
Over in the Kruger, game drives are the main safari activity. We recommend staying in the Kruger’s private game reserves: conservation areas surrounding the national park that are famous for exquisite safari lodges and world-class service. Not only will you be lapping up luxury on your honeymoon in South Africa, but you’ll also enjoy Africa’s best Big 5 sightings and special activities like guided walks and spot-lit night drives. Plus, some of the best safari honeymoon destinations in South Africa offer star-bed sleepouts that will allow you and your partner to experience a night under the star-filled African sky.
Safari destinations like the Kruger National Park delivers sensational game viewing between May and October (dry season), but honeymooners thinking about visiting Cape Town and its Winelands should know that this period is generally the area’s rainy season – especially from June to August.
While the Kruger’s risk of malaria is at its lowest during the dry season (May to October), South Africa’s malaria-free safari destinations like Madikwe Game Reserve and the Eastern Cape’s reserves offer great game viewing year-round.
Victoria Falls may be the obvious choice for a honeymoon in Zimbabwe, but this is big game country and home to safari destinations that are just as romantic but with a twist of adventure.
Top of our list is the world’s largest manmade lake, Lake Kariba, where a handful of lodges lie on wild lakeside shores, offering land and water-based game viewing as well as walking safaris and local community interactions. It’s an unspoilt landscape of savannah, open water and distant mountains, with sunsets reputed to be among the best in Africa.
For a more traditional safari experience on your Africa honeymoon, head to Mana Pools National Park. Rugged and beautiful, Mana Pools’ abundance of water is a magnet for animals like elephant, buffalo, lion, leopard and rare wild dog.
Go during the May to October dry season to avoid heavy rains and mosquitoes – the weather is coolest and driest from June to the end of August. September and October are very hot and dry months, but game viewing at this time is spectacular.
Kenya’s Masai Mara, the destination that inspired Hollywood’s romantic ‘Out of Africa’, is indeed a land of sunlit savannahs, thundering herds of plains game, and the red-cloaked Maasai people.
And why not carry through the ‘Out of Africa’ motif to its logical conclusion? Angama Mara is an elegant safari lodge built where the film was made and you can even have a picnic for two in the very spot that every film buff will recognise. The ultimate activity on your honeymoon in Africa! Angama is also well located for the Wildebeest Migration as it enters its most dramatic chapter: the infamous river crossings.
We also recommend staying in the Mara’s private conservancies that neighbour the national reserve. These conservation areas are owned by local Maasai who lease it to safari operators in return for monetary compensation and other assistance like educational and healthcare programmes, or livestock and grazing management. That means your Africa honeymoon has a direct impact on wildlife conservation and community development. Furthermore, these exclusive-use areas offer discreet service at intimate camps and a more tranquil safari experience away from the national reserve – which can get rather busy when the Wildebeest Migration rolls in.
Morning and afternoon game drives are the best way to see the Masai Mara’s wildlife, but many lodges offer hot-air balloon safaris too – complete with champagne breakfast – as well as chances to visit a local Maasai community.
A generally benign climate and amazing year-round game viewing means it’s a place you can visit at most times of the year. Though we’d recommend avoiding the heavy rains during April and May.
Choosing the right time to go on your Africa honeymoon is important if you want to see the Great Wildebeest Migration. The herds usually cross into the Masai Mara from the neighbouring Serengeti from about late-July, and stay there until about November (depending on the rains).
Mauritius is a tropical playground set in the Indian Ocean, ringed by coral reefs, white sand beaches and clear calm water. It’s been one of the most popular honeymoon destinations for South Africans for many years.
World-class holiday resorts are scattered along the island’s coastline offering enormous swimming pools, endless water sports and shaded sun loungers a few steps from the sea. The service at these resorts is superb, the facilities excellent and all tastes are catered for: that’s the beauty of a Mauritius honeymoon – it’s easy and stress-free with everything conveniently close at hand.
This gorgeous island has a tropical climate with warm weather year-round, but the best time to visit Mauritius is between May and November when the weather is cool, dry and sunny. During summer (December to April), the days can get hot and humid.
To find out more about Luxury Honeymoon Experiences and to arrange your tailor-made trip, get in touch with us today.
concierge@uniqluxury.com
