My wife and I scheduled our honeymoon through Discover Africa just by finding them through a simple Google search. A client of theirs called us right away and then over the next several weeks helped us figure out what package of travel we wanted.

We ended up going on a safari in Tanzania for 10 days while the wildebeest were migrating and then 5 days on Zanzibar to relax. We scheduled all of this in 2019, and when the pandemic hit Discover Africa was kind enough to allow us to simply reschedule to 2021. Once we finally did get to go on our safari we were with a guide almost the entire first 5 days of the trip, which was AWESOME.

A guide was there to immediately meet us after getting of the final airplane’s stairs to walk us through the Tanzania customs and Covid protocols. A guide was then there to drive us to the first hotel and was super informative and great to talk to after a long plane ride. We then met with our actual safari tour guide that night to walk us through what would be happening starting the next morning since we were getting up early to check out OH, and The African Tulip hotel was amazing and they treated us to a surprise, private honeymoon dinner by the pool as with our own little fire pit.

The next morning we went to Lake Manyara with our guide and were blown away right away with all the animals we saw. 5- 10 minutes in we saw a group of giraffes followed up almost immediately by 2 elephants crossing the road only a car’s length behind us. Absolutely surreal. The rest of the day was full of different types of gazelle, babboon, huge baobab trees, water buffalo, dik-diks, and others I’m forgetting. We saw several elephants very close to the car which was awesome. We ate a prepared lunch for us on the top of the overlook of the Lake. Nothing fantastic about the food but they were all designed to be “safe” food choices for everyone’s diet and sensitivities. The safari took up the entire day and we were exhausted and happy as the tour guide took us to our next hotel where we had our own little condominium room. This next place as well put flowers on the bed and treated us special for our honeymoon.

The next morning we had the same tour guide (who had 17 years experience by the way) and went to Ngorongoro Conservation. He drove us up the jungly, misty, crater outer mountain and stopped to look over the massive bowl. Then we descended into the crater and immediately saw zebra, tons of wildebeest, and a RHINO (from a distance). Again a day full of tons of HERDS of gazelle, ostrich, zebra, wildebeest and LIONS laying on the very side of the road, without a care in the world about us getting up close. We ate lunch by this body of water and even it had a herd of hippos popping their heads up out of the water looking at us eat our sandwiches! Again another exhausting, exciting day with elephants as well. Our tour guide took us back to the same hotel that night.

The next morning our tour guide took us to the airport and walked us through the little bit of security that they had to get on a small plane to head to the Serengeti. The plane was small but never felt unsafe. Once we arrived in the Serengeti we were given some tea and were immediately whisked off onto our next safari. There were a heard of hippos basically AT THE AIRPORT. Then we drove off and had lunch with a group of 20+ elephants and baby elephants drinking in the Mara river. Then we were abruptly told to hold onto our lunches to go see the RIVER CROSSING of wildebeest going nuts on the Mara and dodging crocodiles. The day was full of eagles, wildebeest, zebra, giraffe, a duo of MALE LIONS, and much more. The night was at a beautiful, huge tent with our own tent with a shower and double vanity mirror and huge bed. We fell asleep to the sound of wildebeest “moos” and hyena yelps.

The next morning we woke up at 4AM for a morning HOT AIR BALLOON ride. It was around $300 a person but so worth it. The safari car ride can be very bumpy so it was nice to see the Serengeti from a higher vantage point with a smooth voyage. We got the balloon up just as high basically to be above the trees and look down on the herds of animals from above. We also got maybe 15 feet from the center of the Mara river as we hovered directly down the center of it. We even got to see a LEOPARD from above! We landed smoothly and had mimosas to celebrate and were taken off to a hot breakfast in a place surrounded by trees. We got to meet other people safariing from all over the world and the staff everywhere was always so nice.

We then went off to Zanzibar for the last 5 days which was such a different pace than constantly safariing that it was a little hard to pump the adrenaline. The beach was nice but hard to relax with a pretty steady flow of people trying to sell you things or get you to go on excursions with them. We did go diving with DOLPHINS which was probably $120 and was absolutely worth it. We also went scuba diving briefly. Zanzibar was mostly for relaxing, which we definitely did, but looking back on it we wished we had spent more time safarring and maybe only two days on the beach.

All in all,everything with Discover Africa was fantastic. We would highly recommend to anyone willing to travel there.

Eric Holmes travelled to Tanzania in July and wrote the Honeymoon in Tanzania Review on 08 November 2021

The trip included: Tanzania Safari Vacation Zanzibar Vacation East Africa Trips Manyara Wildlife Honeymoons in Africa Luxury Safaris Migration Safaris Walking Safaris