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!

@HoneymoonHelpThankYou
This company, Wildlife Worldwide do understand safaris. I’m attaching some ideas for you. Namibia snd Kenya are cheaper and if you talk to them, you might get a package that’s right for you. The prices are “from” and that’s the big issue. Flights are ££££ these days. Early bird prices are best.

A lot of the suggestions are for tour operators, who only offer their own packages.
An independent travel agent might be a better idea.

They rarely are. They simply don’t have enough knowledge. They just flick through the web sites and brochures. What they don’t have is experience of safaris over numerous years in many countries. You need good expertise and you must know where the animals are at a given time. The people at specialist companies really do know more. I can always tell who’s been on Safari with a high street outlet. Where you go, what you see and special experiences like walking safaris snd night drives are rarely offered at standard lodges for example.

We went to Sri Lanka and booked through Red Dot, they were excellent. It was a really incredible trip and I'd love to go back.

Audley are good if you get a good advisor. But you pay a premium.

Safari in Africa might be tight on budget and the budget safari experience can be a let down with packed mini buses all in convoys chasing down a bored looking lion.

If it's your Honeymoon maybe just choose a gorgeous resort in Asia or the Caribbean and just indulge yourself.

We booked a safari honeymoon with Trailfinders. It was absolutely amazing and couldn't fault their help with choosing our route. We did 2-week self-drive along the coast from Cape Town ending in 4 day safari and we stayed in luxury hotels along the way (eg Oceana Beach & Wildlife Reserve was superb) and didn't spend much more than your budget. If we'd gone for Kruger, it would have been much more expensive.

I’d really recommend original travel, they have done a couple of amazing holidays for us (honeymoon and 30th)

@dindot That is not a safari holiday though is it? It was 4 days st the end somewhere? Car hire and decent places to stay aren’t that expensive in SA. However all inclusive, safari drives, expert staff and other facilities really makes a difference to price. It is doable but it’s best to spend money on a safari with the best advice on location, animals and seasons. I agree SA is fantastic!!

OP said they'd like to include safari, which I interpreted as not spending their whole 10 day holiday on a safari reserve. Four days with 2 long game drives a day was more than enough for us.

We had luxury all inclusive at each place we visited too and the safari reserve was incredible, we saw the big 5 every day.

if you want to enjoy your honeymoon in Africa especially Tanzania and Zanzibar Dream to view Tanzania are the best