Safari honeymoons are growing in popularity as people seek the chance to get up close and personal to the kind of wildlife we’ve only ever seen on screens, whilst enjoying the best in luxury living that Africa has to offer. Here are some of the best locations to do just that.
1. BOTSWANA – OKAVANGO DELTA
The Okavango Delta is the world's largest inland delta and offers an incomparable water-based safari adventure. With incredible wildlife and game spotting in and around the lagoons and grasslands of the region, it boasts large populations of lions, cheetah, leopards, antelope, African wild dogs, and hippos, plus the biggest concentration of elephant and buffalo in this part of the world.
2. SOUTH AFRICA – SABI SANDS GAME RESERVE
The sprawling Sabi Sand Private Game Reserve is considered the best safari destination in South Africa. The game and wildlife watching is known to offer sights around every turn, with hairs’ breadth close encounters possible with an array of animals, particularly the safari 'Big 5' (lions, leopards, rhinoceroses, elephants, and buffalos). Its luxury offering makes it the destination of choice for those that demand the very best service, guiding and culinary standards, as well as some of the finest safari sights in the world.
3. TANZANIA – SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK
The marvellous Serengeti is famed for its annual migration, when some six million hooves pound the open plains. Yet even when migration is quiet, the Serengeti offers some of the most spectacular game-viewing in Africa. It has four separate sections, each with its own unique features and landscapes: the Southern Plains, Seronera (Central), Western Corridor, and Northern Serengeti.
4. ZAMBIA – SOUTH LUANGWA
South Luangwa Park’s pronounced weather patterns and distinct seasons create very different safari experiences as the year progresses, so you’re in for a treat any time you visit. The area is absurdly rich in biodiversity, boasting a large natural population of leopards, groups of the very rare and endangered African wild dog, plus more than 400 species of birds resident at some point in the year.
5. KENYA - MASAI MARA NATIONAL RESERVE
Famously one of the most beautiful locations on earth, Masai Mara welcomes the awe-inspiring wildebeest migration every year. Millions of animals follow the wildebeest from the Serengeti in Tanzania through the area from July onwards resulting in the most abundant concentration of wildlife anywhere in Africa. You’ll be sure to catch an ample view of lions, hyena, cheetah, baboons, crocodiles, hippo, gazelle, zebra, impala and much more.
6. ZIMBABWE – HWANGE NATIONAL PARK
Located on the border with Botswana, the huge park has an impressive range of habitats from woodlands to grasslands and scrub. The park has one of the largest elephant populations in the world, and the groups of over 100 strong gathering around the waterholes are really a sight to behold. Hwange is also renowned for having the best surviving populations of African Wild Dog, a feral breed dog with large, bat-like ears, which can be seen happily playing and hunting all over the park.