On December 24th we went to the airport to begin our honeymoon/ trip of our lifetime. We decided that we would miss Christmas with our family in Canada to experience somewhere we have never been before, South Africa.

Mfolozi River on our way to St Lucia

We left for the Airport just after a family Christmas eve dinner for a 10pm flight to New York. I was surprised at how busy the airport was on that day. For some reason I thought late night Christmas eve would be quiet, it wasn’t. Our flight to New York was overbooked and Air Canada placed us on standby. We usually use Westjet for our flights in North America cause there is no nonsense and we get to our destination without hassle. I was quite nervous about missing this flight, but realized that we would be going to New York that night because we had a connecting flight the next morning to Johannesburg, South Africa. 

We made it to our hotel in New York that night near JFK airport and were able to get about 6 hours of sleep before waking up before sunset and heading off to the Airport. It was Christmas morning but it didn’t really feel like it. There were no gifts to open, Christmas trees or large family dinners. Our minds were set on getting to our destination. The airport was extremely quiet. Christmas day is a great day to travel if you are fine with missing holiday festivities. We booked our flight with South African Airways. They are a great airline with fantastic service. It was a long 15 hour flight which is the longest flight I have ever been on. We spent that time sleeping, watching movies and discussing our itinerary for next few weeks.

I remember that people would always ask us why did we choose South Africa as our honeymoon destination?!? We wanted to experience something different. A place that I’ve dreamed about visiting for a while. We love animals, hiking and wild landscapes so those were a big attraction. There are few countries where you can experience the ocean, safaris, hiking in the mountains like in South Africa.

How did we plan this trip? We didn’t use a travel agent. I researched our destinations and already had an idea of the types of places we would like to stay. Then I booked out the hotels, flights, cars and activities. It was  lot of work to make the itinerary work, but well worth it. 

We stopped in Johannesburg, the Drakensberg mountains, Durban, Uhmlanga, St Lucia, Tembe Elephant Park, Hout Bay and Capetown. In the next few posts I look forward to sharing some of our adventures.