Hello everyone! In this post we will explain why Tanzania is an ideal destination for your honeymoon. We are Raquel and Xavi, and this is our first post in Trip to Help.
A bit of history:
Trip to Help was born because traveling is what we like the most in our lives and if while we travel we can help (or not) the territory we visit.
In addition, little by little we have become mini influencers in our environment. Whenever we come back from a trip our friends and family ask us how was the trip, how is it like touring Tanzania, how is Machu Pichu in Peru or the Rocky Mountains in Canada, and whether we recommend it or not, that is to say there is a lot of interest and they always ask us for advice. That is why we have decided to capture all our travel experiences in this blog and in Trip to Help.
Why go to Tanzania on your honeymoon?
The truth is that we were a bit overwhelmed with work and the city, and we wanted a drastic change. Traveling in Europe or North America is not a drastic change, Latin America we know quite well, Asia was closed due to Covid issues and Africa we had never been to. We started looking for African countries that would accept tourism without many COVID restrictions.
Once we decided that Tanzania was the ideal destination for our honeymoon, and that we would do a Safari and then end up in the beautiful island of Zanzibar and rest on one of its beaches, we started looking for information on what to do in Tanzania. There we found, as usual, a thousand blogs, bought a guidebook and contacted several travel agencies.
The main surprise was when we saw a great disparity in prices between travel agencies. Let’s not kid ourselves, travel to Africa is expensive, sometimes unaffordable, but too much disparity made us suspicious. For example, they gave us a quote of 4,600 euros per person for an 11-day tour of Tanzania, not including flights and travel insurance. We knew Africa was expensive, but that much?
Through some friends we met a local agency in Arusha that passed us safari prices that seemed more affordable. After finding out that we could afford to do a multi-day safari during our honeymoon, we decided to buy round-trip tickets from Barcelona with Qatar Airways.
Honeymoon in Tanzania: what to do
Once we arrived at Kilimanjaro International Airport, there were about 30-40 people waiting for tourists, except for our driver who took about 15 minutes. Luckily the people there were very polite and when they saw that our driver had not arrived, one of them called him and told us that we were waiting at the airport. That arrival experience in Tanzania was calm and at no time did we feel “overwhelmed” by the people.
Our first day we decided to spend the day in Arusha to rest and recover from the flight, the next morning we started the 5-day safari.
Of the 22 days we had to visit Tanzania, we only had the 5-day Safari and return flight booked, so we had to decide what to do on our wedding trip after the safari. We had 15 days free and we had several options to choose from:
- Safari through several national parks in Tanzania.
- Get to know and be in contact with the Maasai culture.
- Climb Kilimanjaro.
- Visit the chimpanzees in Western Tanzania.
- Visit Zanzibar and relax on a paradisiacal beach.
Of all these options we decided to forego the Kilimanjaro climb. Mainly because it was a 6-day excursion and the price seemed very high. And since we were quite tired from the wedding, we decided to make less demanding plans, i.e. to go on a Safari, visit the Chimpanzees and spend the last days of our vacation on a paradisiacal beach in Zanzibar. In addition, once in Tanzania, we met a German girl who told us about an NGO that had several projects in the north and that we could visit through their accommodation run by Maasai. We found it ideal to practice solidarity and sustainable tourism and decided to spend 4 days with them.
5-day safari
5 days of Safari in Lake Manyara, Serengeti and Tarangire National Parks and Ngorongoro Crater. During the first days of our trip we completely disconnected from our day to day life in Barcelona. It is to see the first elephants and forget about everything, it really is a unique experience that is very worthwhile.
We had encounters with all kinds of animals, the most impressive were the elephants and lions, which are animals that with a little luck can be seen up close and at the same time are beautiful.
We spent 5 days on safari in a lodge type accommodation (medium) and it was truly an unforgettable experience. It is 100% advisable to do it at least once in a lifetime. If you want to see more pictures and have more details of the 5 day safari we did you can read this post.
But basically we did the most typical route:
- Tarangire National Park
- Lake Manyara
- Serengeti National Park
- Ngorongoro Conservation Area including its crater, one of the most beautiful things you can see.
Solidarity and experiential tourism for 3 days
After the safari, a highly recommended experience on your honeymoon in Tanzania, we decided to go on a 4-day immersive tourism trip with the Maasai through an NGO. The project was a great eye opener when we were told that it was a lodge controlled by Maasai and that the money from tourists was 100% dedicated to NGO projects (schools, medical center, orphanage…). The lodge was in a remote area in the north, located between Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru, so we would be off the tourist safari route. Everything seemed to fit. So, we decided to go and met them in Arusha where we were picked up by a Maasai guide.
We stayed 4 days, and each day we had different activities. The main one was to go and see the NGO’s projects, i.e. the children who receive free, quality education in English thanks to the NGO. Another of the activities we did was to climb Mount Mukuru, a sacred volcano which you can only visit if you previously ask permission from the community that watches over it. On the way back we went to eat at the NGO’s restaurant in Momella and there we met Cornelia, the daughter of the founder and the head of the NGO. To be able to talk to a woman like that, and to have her open the doors for us to accompany her to see families in the area was quite an experience. There we sponsored a 4-year-old girl named Glory.
After 4 days, we were dropped off at Arusha Airport to catch a light aircraft that would take us to Dar es Salaam, from where we would go to Kigoma, our next destination.
See chimpanzees in the wild in Gombe National Park – 3 days
Another piece of good news is that after a lot of searching we found a way to visit the chimpanzees in Eastern Tanzania, and it didn’t cost us an arm and a leg! We went to Gombe National Park where James Godall spent decades studying chimpanzee behavior. We even ate at his house!
Seeing chimpanzees in the wild is much more complicated than seeing lions or elephants, since in Gombe you have to walk and you need to be in optimum shape.
The amazing thing is how nature changes so much in Gombe. Here the savannah disappears and you end up in tropical rainforest mixed with steep valleys. Gombe is the smallest National Park in Thailand and very different from the typical safari parks.
If you want more information about seeing chimpanzees in the wild in this post you have all the information.
Stone Town and Zanzibar beaches – 11 days
And finally, we spent 11 days in Zanzibar, 3 days in its capital Stone Town and then 8 days in the rest of the island.
As you can see in the photos, both the beaches and the hotel pools are a real luxury. Besides, Zanzibar is not particularly expensive, so you can extend several days without your economy suffering. Zanzibar is an ideal destination for independent travelers.
Did you know that Zanzibar has a Muslim tradition because it once belonged to the Sultan of Oman? Or that it is where Freddy Mercury was born? What is known as the island of species? But unfortunately it was also a famous place for the slave route…
And it is this mix of nature, culture and beaches that make Tanzania and Zanzibar an ideal destination for your honeymoon.
If you want more information about Zanzibar, we have two posts that may interest you:
Price of our honeymoon in Tanzania and Zanzibar
At this point, you may be wondering what it costs to make a honeymoon in Tanzania. We are going to be transparent and share the costs we had:
The total price for our honeymoon in Tanzania and Zanzibar was 5,200 euros per person for the 22 days of travel. The 5,200€ cost of our honeymoon includes all expenses, from the smallest, such as tips, to the largest, such as the 5-day safari. Keep in mind that the US dollar is used in Tanzania and that when we went there the exchange rate was 1.10€/USD. If the € depreciates, the trip may become more expensive. This travel was during the Covid, so the prices of the flights and hotels dropped a lot due to the lack of tourism.
So, between the two of us, we spent 10.400 euros on our honeymoon in Tanzania and Zanzibar (on 2021). A high amount but well worth it.
How to book your sustainable honeymoon in Tanzania?
It’s very easy, send us a whatsapp or call us at +34.623.260.250 (or send us an email ) and we will contact you. We can make a video call to get to know each other. After the call we will send you a travel proposal with the final price. We will accompany you on your trip until you return from Tanzania.
If you want more information, here is a selection of plans for your honeymoon in Tanzania.
Take out insurance for your honeymoon in Tanzania and get a 5% discount:
Iati insuranceAnd with Chapka, we offer you a 7% discount . For travel insurance in Tanzania, Chapka is usually cheaper than IATI. However, you can check it yourself by clicking on the following banner that will redirect you to Chapka’s page with the discount included.
Booking through our links helps us to maintain our blog and our Trip to Help project. We will be very grateful 🙂