South Africa or Tanzania for Your Luxury Honeymoon Safari?

By Neil Peacock · Updated 11 November 2026 · 7 minute read

Choose South Africa if you want variety: a city, wine country and a private safari in one trip, with almost no jet lag. Choose Tanzania if you want scale: the Serengeti, the great migration and then the white sand of Zanzibar.

Whether you choose South Africa or Tanzania, both make an extraordinary honeymoon safari in Africa. The right one depends less on the countries than on the two of you, and on the month you can travel. This is how we help couples decide.

If you are stuck between the two, my advice is to think about what you are looking for most at this moment, and what the occasion is for. To see either is to see Africa. To see both in a lifetime is to experience something uniquely profound. Knowing that can take some of the weight off the decision.

Most couples come to us with both countries on the list and no clear way to choose. Start with how each one feels. The practical differences come after.

South Africa as a country is the most varied. In two weeks you can sleep late in Cape Town, spend long lunches in the Cape Winelands and finish in a private reserve on the edge of the Kruger, watching leopard from an open vehicle as the light goes. It suits couples who want the safari to be one part of the honeymoon, not all of it.

The safari itself is intimate. In the private reserves around the Kruger only lodge guests drive, so a sighting might be your vehicle and one other. Guides can leave the road to follow a leopard, and drives carry on after dark. The lodges are some of the finest in Africa, and most suites come with their own plunge pool.

It is also the easier trip. Direct overnight flights, almost no jet lag, good roads, and the option of a malaria-free safari. We have set out the full route in our South Africa honeymoon itinerary.

Tanzania’s safari country is the scale one. The Serengeti National Park is a plain so wide it bends at the horizon, and for much of the year it holds the great migration: more than a million wildebeest and zebra moving in a slow circle with the rains. Add the Ngorongoro Crater, a collapsed volcano with its own world of animals inside, and the safari is the main event.

Then comes the island. Zanzibar is a short flight from the Serengeti airstrips, with warm, clear water, old Stone Town and dhows under sail at sunset. Bush first and beach second is the natural order of a Tanzania honeymoon, and it is why so many couples choose it.

It asks a little more of you. There is a connection on the way out, and the camps are further apart. In return you get the Africa most people picture when they close their eyes. See how we shape it in our Tanzania and Zanzibar honeymoon itinerary.

Tanzania and Zanzibar are malaria areas, so speak to your GP or a travel clinic a couple of months before you go, and read GOV.UK’s Tanzania health advice.

See how we plan a honeymoon safari →

Safari holidays in Kenya share the migration with Tanzania. From around July to October the herds cross the Mara River into the Maasai Mara, and the private conservancies around it give you the same few-vehicles feeling as South Africa’s private reserves.

We point honeymooners to Kenya when time is short and the dates fall in the migration months. Direct flights to Nairobi and a short hop to the Mara mean less travelling. For a beach, Kenya pairs with its own coast or with Zanzibar. Outside July to October, Tanzania usually gives you more for the same nights.

When you go is entirely up to you: straight after the wedding, a few months later, or for your first anniversary. Let us know which, because it helps us shape the trip and our advice around you. This is how the year looks for each.

A honeymoon in South Africa starts from around £20,000 for the two of you, and in Tanzania from around £25,000, depending on the season and the lodges you choose.

At the other end, there is almost no ceiling. Honeymoons of £100,000 and more open doors that stay closed to most travellers: villas to yourselves at the continent’s most celebrated lodges, time in the field with conservation teams, and private aircraft between camps. Every step up adds something you will feel.

Whatever the budget, the safari lodge is the largest part of it, and the season matters more than people expect. For the same standard, Tanzania usually costs more than South Africa: park fees are high, the camps are remote, and you fly between them in light aircraft. Travelling just outside the busiest months, and keeping to two or three bases, makes every pound go further.

Every honeymoon we plan starts with a conversation about what matters most to you. If you would like help weighing it up, talk to us about your dates.

If you are still torn, sit down together with a glass of something good and answer these honestly. Then bring both sets of answers to us. We always invite both of you onto the calls and emails, whenever you would like to be there.

• — Is the safari the honeymoon, or part of it?: If it is the whole point, Tanzania. If you want a city and wine country too, South Africa.
• — Long lunches or long drives? If wine country and a great table matter as much as the wildlife, South Africa. If you want the wild to be the whole story, Tanzania.
• — When can you go?: March to May points firmly to South Africa. June to October, or January and February, and both are excellent.
• — How much moving around?: Tanzania means light aircraft and a few early starts. South Africa can be done with two short flights.
• — What do you picture on the last day?: A beach in the Indian Ocean is Tanzania’s natural ending. South Africa ends wherever you like.

You can also do both. Some couples start in Cape Town and fly up to Tanzania for the safari and Zanzibar, and our bush and beach guide shows how the pieces join.

We cannot always see and experience it all. But you can come back, and having been on safari for your honeymoon in the years before, I promise that second trip will be just as magic as the first.

Is South Africa or Tanzania better for a honeymoon?

Choose South Africa for variety: a city, wine country and a private safari in one trip, with direct flights and almost no jet lag. Choose Tanzania for scale: the Serengeti, the great migration and then the beaches of Zanzibar.

Is a South Africa or a Tanzania honeymoon more expensive?

For the same standard, Tanzania usually costs more. Park fees are high, the camps are remote and you fly between them in light aircraft. In both countries the safari lodge is the largest part of the cost, and the season matters more than people expect.

When should you choose South Africa over Tanzania?

From March to May. The long rains arrive in Tanzania and some camps close in April and May, while the Cape is calm and golden, with the grape harvest in the Winelands. From June to October, and in January and February, both are excellent.

Can you combine South Africa and Tanzania on one honeymoon?

Yes. Some couples start in Cape Town and fly up to Tanzania for the safari and Zanzibar.