Honeymoon - combining Carribbean with Africa?

gaillimh

Just wondering if anyone has done the above combo for a honeymoon (say 2.5 to 3 weeks)?
Would love to do a week in St Barts and 2 weeks in South Africa as they are two places we both would love to visit and most likely would be our last holiday (long haul anyway) for a long time.

Looking at flights between the two areas (purely sky scanner searches) they seem to be very expensive and involve a lot of travel time.

Would specialist travel agents be able to provide this option for us more cheaply?
And is it crazy to do this combination given the distances and cost involved?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

marco_polo

gaillimh wrote: »

Just wondering if anyone has done the above combo for a honeymoon (say 2.5 to 3 weeks)?
Would love to do a week in St Barts and 2 weeks in South Africa as they are two places we both would love to visit and most likely would be our last holiday (long haul anyway) for a long time.

Looking at flights between the two areas (purely sky scanner searches) they seem to be very expensive and involve a lot of travel time.

Would specialist travel agents be able to provide this option for us more cheaply?
And is it crazy to do this combination given the distances and cost involved?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

I'd pop into trailfinders or somewhere like that and see what they have to say. But it might be more feasable\cheaper to combine SA with an African alternative like Zanzibar which would be worth considering imo

Arbiter of Good Taste

Seems like crazy travel for 2-3 weeks. As Marco suggested, something like Zanzibar with SA would make more sense.

schemingbohemia

gaillimh wrote: »

And is it crazy to do this combination given the distances and cost involved?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Yes, basically you're going to have to fly to either Europe or North America and then to South Africa, so probably 2 days travelling across multiple time zones that will likely leave you wrecked for another day after arrival and possibly more with being out of whack.

As said, Zanzibar or even Mauritius/Seychelles combined with South Africa are much better options.

Yamanoto

May also be worth considering luxury retreats on the Mozambique coast, which are popular with honeymooners and Saffers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/sunandsea/3195993/Mozambique-luxury-hotels-Three-of-the-best-hotels-on-the-Bazaruto-Archipelago.html

http://www.kiwicollection.com/hotel-detail/anantara-bazaruto-island-resort-spa

http://www.azura-retreats.com/azura-benguerra

http://www.vamizi.com/

MadsL

South Africa is going to offer you much more bang for your buck. A three week trip there could take in Cape town and a good week around the Garden Route (use a local travel agent to book some romantic options) then back to Cape town for first class travel up to Jo'burg - The SA rail Premier Classe travel overnight to Jo'burg is fantastic and far cheaper than Rovos Rail or the Blue Train.
http://www.southafricanrailways.co.za/premier_classe.html

From Jo'burg you can get a transfer up to Kruger National Park and go on safari...from DIY to 5* luxury.

Alternatively get a local safari company to arrange travel to Botswana for cheaper safari options.

I'd spend more time in Africa - and also avoid the jetlag as SA is only an hours time difference.

Peregrinus

I have to say that trying to do those two places in one holiday sounds insane. Just how much of your honeymoon do you want to spend on airplanes, in airports, and recovering from jetlag? Remember you're going to be pretty tired anyway after the run-up to the wedding and the excitement of the day. A honeymoon needs to be relaxing, chillout time; save the continent-hopping for your first anniversary.

sarkozy

They're two totally different kinds of holidays and very far apart from each other, with no direct way of getting between them besides coming home. Plus, Africa is huge, so even within that, you can have a very different mix of experiences. But, FWIW, here's my take on the African option (based on experience).

The Southern region, an area I know relatively well, is still huge but does combine an amazing variety of experiences in your own timezone. As mentioned, luxury retreats in Mozambique would be very, very nice. But even just off Maputo, which is a fantastic city with amazing food, there's Inhaca island. Being in this part of the region puts you in proximity to Kruger National Park if you want to do safari, and you can fly to a regional SA airport from Maputo or, if you're further north in Mozambique, you could fly from somewhere like Beira or Inhambane to Jo'burg and then on to somewhere else.

Also highly recommended is Nambia. We flew from Jo'burg to Windhoek and then hired a driver (we don't drive) to explore the Namib Desert until we reached the coast. It's really magical. But from there, you can go north to the Okavango Delta/Panhandle/Etosha for more animal action. Or you can go south, along the coast, down the Skeleton Coast and into SA, down Western Cape, to Cape Town, and from there, you can stay and come home, drive the Garden Route, etc.

I regret never seeing the Shona ruins in Zimbabwe, and I never got to Zambia.

If you're driving, you'll be fine in rural SA and Namibia is safe and rural and quiet anyway. Mozambique is a bit more work as it's a poor country, but there are some new roads up the coast, but traffic gets heavy. You can also bus it. Intercape runs a good, safe network with very nice buses, and if it's a 'backpacky' honeymoon you're looking for, the Baz Bus and similar services criss-cross South Africa and Swaziland (but unfortunately by-pass Lesotho where I lived).


Inland South Africa is really interesting and beautiful, so if you're into mountains, hiking, outdoor pursuits, the Drakensberg range is spectacular (the film Zulu was shot in Royal Natal national park, and you can see the 'amphitheatre' behind many of the film's scenes). Swaziland is another place to do some easy safari in a very pleasant sub-tropical climate.

But beware that our summertime is their wintertime, and the veld/inland SA and Lesotho gets very cold at night, but it's fine by day. People are well-used to it, and there's no reason you'd be cold at night.

As for other parts of Africa, obviously the north is Arabic, so Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia would be one type of holiday. The West I know nothing about, only I'd love to go some time, but I think you'd have a freer, more adventurous experience in the south. The East is another option; typically, people go to Kenya and Tanzania - I've been to Tanzania, but only the capital; I'd love to have got out of the city, and a day trip to Zanzibar may have been nice, but I wouldn't personally want to be stuck on a tourist island for very long. I *really* want to go to Ethiopia, but that's a way off alright. Of course, both Kenya and Tanzania are so geared toward tourism and safari, it'd be an easy enough option with a tour company and you just *might* find it's easier to get to there from the Caribbean via London if both countries are former British colonies. That tends to happen.

Stinicker

I have never been to either country but they are located very far apart. Travel between them would involve a flight from Saint Maarten to Atlanta and then direct to Johannesburg in South Africa which is the second longest non-stop flight in the world at 13,500kms and around 16 hours non-stop. Also there would be huge costs involved and I'd reckon you'd be lucky to get from the Carribbean to South Africa for €2k per head and thats in economy.