Honeymoon in South Africa

South Africa is the country we most often suggest to couples who want Africa but are nervous about it. You can drive yourselves, drink the tap water in most places, eat exceptionally well, use your card everywhere, and still be watching leopard from a Land Cruiser two days later. It also has something no other African honeymoon destination offers: a genuinely great city. Cape Town is worth four nights on its own merits.

Budget around US$7,000 to US$18,000 per couple for twelve nights including international flights. It is one of the better value destinations in Africa, largely because the exchange rate works hard in your favour once you land.

Where to go

Cape Town

Table Mountain, the Atlantic seaboard, Camps Bay and Clifton beaches, and a restaurant scene that punches far above the price. Four nights minimum. Stay in Camps Bay or Bantry Bay for sea views, the City Bowl for walkability, or Constantia if you want quiet and vineyards on the doorstep.

Do not miss the drive down to Cape Point via Chapman’s Peak, and Boulders Beach for the penguins — touristy, and still delightful.

The Winelands — Franschhoek and Stellenbosch

Forty-five minutes from Cape Town and one of the great wine regions of the world, at roughly a third of Napa’s prices. Franschhoek is the more romantic of the two: a single beautiful street, mountains on all sides, and the Wine Tram if you would rather not choose a designated driver. Two or three nights.

Sabi Sand — the best Big Five safari

A private reserve sharing an unfenced border with Kruger, so the animals move freely, but with private-reserve rules: off-road driving, night drives, and no minibuses. It is the most reliable place on the continent to see leopard, often at very close range. Three or four nights. This is where the money goes on a South African honeymoon, and it earns it.

Eastern Cape and Waterberg — malaria-free safari

If you would rather not take antimalarials, these reserves are genuinely malaria-free and still deliver Big Five. Game viewing is a step below Sabi Sand, but the convenience is real — and the Eastern Cape sits at the end of the Garden Route, which makes a neat self-drive loop.

The Garden Route

The coastal road from Cape Town toward Port Elizabeth — Hermanus for whales between July and November, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay, Tsitsikamma. Best as a self-drive over four or five nights. Lovely, but be honest with yourselves: if you want to lie still and do nothing, this is a driving holiday, not a beach one.

Best time — and the season conflict

South Africa’s two headline attractions run on opposite calendars, and no month is perfect for both.

If you want both at their best, travel in late March, April, September or October. If safari is what will define the trip, go May to September and accept that Cape Town may be grey. If Cape Town and the winelands are the point, go December to February and treat the safari as a bonus.

What it costs

Per couple, twelve nights, including international flights from Europe, internal flights, car hire where relevant, accommodation and safari activities.

Sabi Sand lodges run roughly US$450–900 per person per night mid-range, and US$1,200–2,500 at the top, fully inclusive. Everything outside the safari is comparatively inexpensive: an excellent Cape Town dinner with wine runs US$60–90 for two, and a good bottle at a wine estate is often under US$15.

Sample itineraries

Ten nights — the classic (from about US$8,500 per couple)

• Nights 1–4: Cape Town — Table Mountain, Cape Point, Boulders, a day doing nothing on Camps Bay.
• Nights 5–6: Franschhoek — the Wine Tram, one long lunch.
• Nights 7–10: Fly to Sabi Sand for Big Five.

Fourteen nights — adding the coast (from about US$13,000)

• Nights 1–4: Cape Town.
• Nights 5–6: Winelands.
• Nights 7–10: Garden Route self-drive — Hermanus, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay.
• Nights 11–14: Eastern Cape malaria-free reserve, flying home from Port Elizabeth.

Twelve nights — South Africa and Mozambique (from about US$14,000)

• Nights 1–3: Cape Town.
• Nights 4–7: Sabi Sand.
• Nights 8–12: Fly to Vilanculos for the Bazaruto Archipelago — the beach half South Africa itself does not really have.

Practical details

Getting there

Cape Town and Johannesburg both have direct flights from London and several European hubs, plus routes via the Gulf. Flying into Cape Town and out of Johannesburg (or vice versa) avoids backtracking — ask for an open-jaw ticket, it usually costs little or nothing extra.

Visas and entry

UK, EU, US, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand passport holders do not need a visa for tourist stays of up to 90 days. Your passport must have at least two entirely blank facing pages and six months’ validity beyond your departure date — South African immigration enforces the blank-page rule strictly and people are refused boarding over it.

Health

Cape Town, the winelands, the Garden Route, the Eastern Cape and Waterberg are malaria-free. The Kruger and Sabi Sand area is a low-to-moderate malaria risk, higher in the wet summer months; prophylaxis is normally advised. Speak to a travel clinic.

Driving and safety

Driving is on the left and the main routes are good, which makes self-drive genuinely viable — it is the main reason South Africa costs less than East Africa. Take the ordinary precautions of any large city: don’t leave anything visible in a parked car, use ride-hailing at night, and ask your hotel which areas to avoid. Millions of tourists visit safely each year, but the advice is worth following rather than dismissing.

Worth asking for

• A private vehicle at Sabi Sand if the budget allows — several lodges include it in their top suites.
• Sunset on Table Mountain — go up late rather than at midday, and book the cable car online to skip the queue.
• A helicopter over the Cape Peninsula — about US$250 per person and genuinely spectacular.
• An open-jaw flight so you don’t backtrack.
• Whale watching at Hermanus if you’re travelling July to November — southern rights come remarkably close to shore.