Travel agent for £7k honeymoon

[HoneymoonHelpThankYou]

My partner and I would like to book a long haul 10 day honeymoon (budget £3.5k per person) in September. We would love to include safari if we have the budget.

We have only done short haul trips before (1 week max) so we aren’t experienced with booking these kinds of trips and really want it to be special! We wondered about using a travel agent but not sure what a good deal is. We don’t want to overpay but also don’t want to scrimp and have a low-key experience. Feeling a bit overwhelmed by it really, we want to get this right as we are planning to elope a couple of days before.

Does anybody have any recommendations for great travel agents that would suit our budget? Thank you!

Travel Counsellors are pretty good.

Trailfinders are good or fleewinter

We used Kuoni for our honeymoon, 2 and half weeks in Sri Lanka and the Maldives and came in at around 9k.

We had a really positive experience, so would recommend them.

Abercrombie and Kent also have been recommended to me!

Trailfinders are good

Trailfinders

Travel Nation over Trailfinders any day, service doesn’t compare

Travel Counsellors are also good, as is Kuoni directly

I would try all 3

I am afraid I have never heard of Travel Nation…..

They seem to only be based in Brighton and don’t have great Google reviews

Christine at Go2Tanzania, based in Bradford. Met her at an Earls Court travel show. Organised a fabulous bespoke honeymoon for us in Tanzania/Zanzibar (with private safari covering 3 national parks) for less than a group trip with the big companies. Couldn’t believe what we got for our money. A good few years ago now, but worth sounding her out as to whether it is do-able for your budget.

Definitely Kuoni

You’ll need to book it yourself if you want a safari at that budget.

You could try something bespoke with a company like Responsible Travel.

A while ago now but we used trailfinders for honeymoon safari in South Africa and then hotel in Mauritius. They were excellent, and very reasonable

That doesn’t mean they aren’t worth considering, high ratings on trust pilot etc.

They give a very personalised service, Trailfinders currently is same set-up as getting a GP appointment, number 20+ in the phone queue and no ability to email them which is very frustrating and that is before they have had your cash

Audley Travel.

Kuoni have very good customer service and have the luxury feel, but their hotel options etc are more limited and they are expensive.

Trailfinders are a good middle ground, can tailor make anything and staff are knowledgable.

We tend to book with travel bag for anything tailor made or longhaul. The service isn't as good but they always come up considerably cheaper.

Shop around, different agents have different deals. And always have a look on trip advisor to check your hotel choice.

Good luck with your planning!

These comments about Trailfinders are totally untrue. You can get through almost immediately and once they have put together an itinerary you get given access to ViewTrail which allows you to message your agent.

They do all of my travel arrangements and have been consistently cheaper than Kuoni, Audley, Turquoise, Steppes etc and usually cheaper than booking everything myself.

I think you would really struggle to get a safari on a budget of £3.5k each though regardless of who you book with.

Another vote for Trailfinders.

We've been organising a trip with them since before lockdown and they have been very straightforward to contact by email or by phone. I've been in contact with them several times this week and have got through on the phone without no problem

I like trailfinders but I don’t think you’ll get a safari for that price

I’d also say Trailfinders, but I think you’d be looking more like 10k for a trip including a safari. You could probably do it for 7k but you’d have to do self book and book cheap places. We’ve been recently and paid 14k (although that included bus class flights).

Snorter vote for Trailfinders. I have used them several times over the last 20+ years, most recently booked a holiday about a month ago over the phone. Quick, efficient, friendly service.

They were absolutely superb when the cancelled our trip to Iceland that we were meant to take in April 2020. They cancelled it before global lockdowns had come in, but travel was looking like a very silly thing to do. We got every penny back, no quibbles, by the date they said.

On that budget if you fancy Namibia and don't mind fairly basic accommodation try Safari Drive. But if you want Africa flights alone are going take a sizeable chunk of your budget.

We looked at safari for our honeymoon several years ago and doing anything semi decent with a few days in Zanzibar was way over your budget op.

Can you research and self book instead? Abercrombie etc are not cheap.

Thank you everyone, this is so useful and I really appreciate it. I am going to start with Trailfinders and then compare with the other suggestions as others have suggested. Thank you!

I understand safari might be out of budget, which is a shame. We have some more savings but trying to keep them back to overpay mortgage when we have to move to a higher rate. Also skipping a wedding to save money. Appreciate we’re in a lucky position. I don’t know how everyone does it all. ❤️

Does anyone have suggestions of where we could go that would feel really special for our budget? We’d love to go further afield than Europe. Prefer a mix of relaxing and culture. I have some chronic injuries so can’t manage anything too active like hiking sadly.

We went on safari in Kenya and honeymoon in Zanzibar and used a company called rainbow tours which were great but no idea if they are still around

however I think you will struggle to safari wirh that kind of budget. Our trip was not particularly extravagant and cost £6k 12 years ago. Which I thought was extremely expensive at the time.