An African Safari Honeymoon; Start Your Adventure with an Adventure

For many cou­ples pos­tu­lat­ing and pon­der­ing over where to go on their hon­ey­moon can be a tricky task and more often than not the last thing on their minds is the per­ceived rough and tum­ble of an African safari. Indeed usu­ally those first envis­aged flashes of inspi­ra­tion are embod­ied by three sim­ple ele­ments; a wide swathe of pow­der white sand, the warmth of an unbro­ken sun-filled sky and the gen­tle lap­ping waters of a gin-clear trop­i­cal ocean. Quite the pic­ture post­card; and who am I to argue that this Robin­son Crusoe-esque idyll isn’t the per­fect way to cel­e­brate a lov­ing new union?

A grow­ing num­ber of new­ly­weds are how­ever begin­ning to move away from this kind of arche­typ­i­cal encounter and are look­ing to explore a range of more unique and more adven­tur­ous hon­ey­moon ideas. One of the most pop­u­lar of these new expe­ri­ences is that of the African safari and a lead­ing pro­po­nent of this hon­ey­moon rev­o­lu­tion is spe­cial­ist African tour oper­a­tor, Mahla­tini. Mean­ing ‘lover of Africa’ in Swahili, Mahla­tini offer an eclec­tic range of African tours and safari hol­i­days across the sub­con­ti­nent, from Moun­tain Gorilla trekking in Uganda to hot air bal­loon­ing across the deserts of Namibia.

South­ern Africa remains one of the most cul­tur­ally and geo­graph­i­cally diverse regions on the planet. A place of star­tling con­trasts where the loom­ing grandeur of Table Moun­tain is jux­ta­posed against the bustling streets and fash­ion­able restau­rants of Cape Town; where the ancient and the mod­ern coa­lesce and where nature and cul­ture inter­min­gle to pro­duce a truly unfor­get­table cock­tail of sights, sounds and smells.

From the wide open plains of Tan­za­nia and Kenya to the cen­tral plateaus of Botswana and Zam­bia; the lush forests of Uganda to the still waters of Lake Malawi there is some­thing here to suit every taste and temperament.

We often think of a hon­ey­moon as the most mem­o­rable hol­i­day of our lives, an escape from the real­i­ties of the every day and a way to not only gal­vanise the new bonds of mar­riage but also to leave behind the stresses of wed­ding plan­ners, venues, seat­ing arrange­ments and the many other rigours that con­tribute to the big day. An African safari hon­ey­moon cer­tainly promises an expe­ri­ence quite unlike any other; the beauty and the drama of the vast and change­able land­scape; the warmth and hos­pi­tal­ity of the local peo­ple and the oppor­tu­nity to see some of the planet’s most iconic wildlife free and unfet­tered in their nat­ural environment.

Safaris for some may con­jure images of rick­ety tents, unyield­ingly rigid camp beds and less than inspir­ing cui­sine. Such is the evo­lu­tion of the African tourism indus­try though that today some of the most lauded and exclu­sive accom­mo­da­tion in the world can be found nes­tled amongst the savan­nahs and forests across this region, cul­mi­nat­ing this year with Travel + Leisure Magazine’s World Best Hotels list which in the top five fea­tured prop­er­ties all sit­u­ated in South­ern Africa.

Nei­ther how­ever, does that mean that a safari hon­ey­moon has to break the bank and in fact des­ti­na­tions such as South Africa have never been so afford­able. Fol­low­ing the crowds and higher prices drawn by last year’s Foot­ball World Cup, 2011 and the years pro­ceed­ing promise sta­ble and rel­a­tively low prices (which espe­cially in the wake of Europe’s sin­gle cur­rency conun­drum) means that you can still get more for your pound.

But what if you don’t sub­scribe to the con­cept of a safari and you would much rather just relax and appre­ci­ate the peace and recu­per­a­tive pow­ers of a hon­ey­moon? Of course not every tour in South­ern Africa has to involve wildlife and Mahla­tini offers a range of tai­lored pack­ages from wine tast­ing in the val­leys of South Africa to cruis­ing around the rugged Cape coast­line or embrac­ing the sheer scale of the vast Vic­to­ria Falls. But if after all that you are still left yearn­ing for the escape of a coastal retreat fear not as Mahla­tini are also a lead­ing oper­a­tor to the Indian Ocean Islands. So whether you want to unwind unin­ter­rupted on a remote beach in the Sey­chelles, Mau­ri­tius, the Mal­dives or Zanz­ibar or even com­bine a safari with an island stay to pro­duce the ulti­mate twin cen­tre hon­ey­moon, the choice is entirely yours.