May 16, 2025 5 min read Travel Tales

Tanzania | Why we chose Safari & Zanzibar for our Honeymoon

In a few weeks we will be celebrating our 10th anniversary which will also be our 3rd wedding anniversary. Yes, we got married on the same date we met in 2015 to make things easier for our celebration schedule! It's the best idea, let me tell you!

After our wedding, we went on honeymoon to Tanzania and all the preparation and the trip in itself were such a journey for us. We invested our savings and time into the two most wonderful weeks and years later, we cannot but stop praising it every step of the way.

The fun part of reminiscing and writing about it is that is makes my husband and I relieve the best moment of our lives again and again. We absolutely love it!

Let's dive right back in, shall we?

*Rain looming in the Serengeti National Park - over a zebra herd*

Why we chose Tanzania for our honeymoon

As soon as we got engaged in Edinburgh, Scotland we quickly decided we wanted to go back to Africa. It is where we first met in 2015, in Luanda, Angola. We wanted to discover a new country for both of us as well. Bruno's life dream was to go on a safari and my dream was to go to Zanzibar. Yes, I used to cry when people used to tell me they had already been to Zanzibar. I never understood why.

We looked into several options but I was influenced by the delightful Ana O'Reilly (Mrs O Around the World) to look into luxury travel design with Sarah Ives, a Luxury Travel Concierge. We have always loved designing our own trips (just like the dreamy road trip we did in Central and Northern Portugal in May 2024) but we wanted to feel especially pampered for our honeymoon. When else could we really?

After several video meetings, emails and brainstorming sessions, we opted to go to mainland Tanzania for a Safari + a beach combo in northern Zanzibar.

Other options that were presented to us were Mozambique, Seychelles or Mauritius. These destinations were all on our mind (NOT THE MALDIVES, NO) but Tanzania was it and we are now so glad we did it!

What we thought about Locals

We hope this post and all the subsequent articles, the experiences, the photos helped convey how much we appreciated the people of Tanzania. And we know we are talking mostly about people who work in service but we have also had to endure bad service all around the world so we know when it's genuinely good. Tanzanians are the nicest and sweetest people, with genuine smiles and stories to share. We have yet to meet more generous being in our jetsetting journeys. I hope we never forget the stories we heard from this incredible country who has never known a mainland civil war (unlike its neighbours!) and has focused its future in the cooperation of its institutions, in the education of its citizens and tourism to thrive. Julius Nyerere, one of Tanzania's most prominent leaders, from 1961 to 1985, called this philosophy Ujamaa. It is clearly working. As an Angolan and fellow African, it pinched me to see that a country can have such a vision and mine doesn't. But I am glad I have set foot on one who is doing it and thriving amongst the difficulties of the world and our continents. No better place to invest our honeymoon savings, I might say!