Honeymoon safaris

The classic East African honeymoon runs a safari first and a beach second — several days of early starts and extraordinary wildlife, followed by three or four nights of doing very little beside the Indian Ocean. It is a well-worn shape because it works.

Zanzibar is the natural second half for a Tanzanian safari, a little over an hour by air from Arusha or directly from a Serengeti airstrip. The ten-day Northern Circuit and Zanzibar routes in this catalogue are built exactly this way, with the safari front-loaded and the coast held back as recovery.

For the safari half, the private conservancies are worth the premium on a honeymoon in a way they might not be otherwise. Capped vehicle numbers mean sightings you are not sharing with a queue of cars, and premium camps handle privacy, dining and small celebrations as a matter of routine.

If you would rather stay inland, Lake Bunyonyi plays a similar role in Uganda after gorilla trekking — a deep lake ringed by terraced hills, with water activities subject to current local guidance, and nothing more demanding to do than take a canoe out.