If a safari honeymoon is on the cards, but you’re angling for an alternative to the age-old African safari-and-beach formula, consider Australia’s Ocean to Outback Safari – a truly epic three-week adventure featuring Perth, Ningaloo Reef, Adelaide, and the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park. Curated with minimal travel in mind to free up those sacred honeymoon hours, this highly tailored safari serves up some of the world’s most evocative landscapes, with thrilling wildlife encounters and gorgeous beaches which you can have all to yourself. Honeymooners visiting between March and October will be treated to civilised temperatures and the chance to swim alongside the gentle giants of the ocean (whale sharks) up at Ningaloo Reef, along with those bucket-list Australian wildlife sightings (kangaroos, emus, koalas and rare birds).
This trip-of-a-lifetime begins in Australia’s nature capital, Perth, where photogenic beaches, a wine region and an island paradise brimming with wildlife keeps honeymoon itineraries wonderfully varied without needing to cover vast distances. Honeymooners then fly north to the ethereally-turquoise Ningaloo Reef – a UNESCO listed site that thrums with kaleidoscope marine life, and is famously one of the best places in the world to swim alongside the majestic whale shark.
Having marvelled at the wildlife and glossy magazine-worthy hotels in Western Australia, it’s a short flight from Perth onto the vineyard city of Adelaide, where the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park lie an easy drive away– a rugged landscape of mountains and deep gorges, where impressive conservation programmes have allowed rare species, such as the yellow-footed rock-wallaby, to thrive, and where couples can zigzag through the landscape, via the wineries of the Clare Valley.
The five star hotels, luxury lodges and romantic tented camps dotted along the way integrate show-stopping sleepovers into this outdoorsy, big-sky adventure Down Under. Foodie couples are also in for a treat with delicious local produce championed on menus up and down the Western Australian coast and right across South Australia. Throughout the trip, meals are served in stunning settings, often under big sunny skies or a ceiling of stars. Australia’s Ocean to Outback Safari offers the ultimate tailor-made safari honeymoon for adventurous couples with lofty sleepover standards and it’s worth noting that the entire safari itinerary can be rolled out in reverse.
Here’s how to do it.
Perth
Couples flying into Perth are in for a treat. This lively city-on-sea edges towards flawless, Indian-Ocean beaches – the easiest way to shake off that initial jet lag and feel that thrilling jolt of being far, far away is surely to snooze on soft, warm sand and slowly absorb the dialled up shade of turquoise water, rubbing your eyes before taking a well-deserved dip. Newlyweds have the option of exploring Perth and Fremantle at their own pace or taking a gourmet wine and food cruise along the serene Swan River.
As is typically the form in Perth, a seaplane beckons, whisking visitors to Rottnest Island just off the coast, where unspoilt coves and empty strips of ivory sand have an otherworldly allure. Swims are almost obligatory here, in bath-warm water and couples will soon feel that wedding fanfare, noise, cortisol evaporate as the thrilling reality kicks in that they’re embarking on an epic ocean to outback safari adventure. The car-free island is best explored on bike, with breaks occasionally screeching with adorable quokkas sightings (tiny inquisitive marsupials only found in Western Australia). Couples are free to discover these coves and secluded beaches under their own steam, before settling in for sundowners from the balcony of their sumptuous beachside tents as the Indian Ocean moves through various shades of red and orange.
Ningaloo Reef
Aerial View of a Swimming Whale Shark, Ningaloo Marine Park
These are the idyllic, spine-tingling days safari honeymoons should be made of. Following a 2-hour flight from Perth to Exmouth (a tiny resort town that edges towards the sun-bleached tip of Western Australia’s North West Cape), couples will hardly believe the dreamlike setting of the Sal Salis Safari Camp – a luxuriously tented camp positioned like old world theatre seats between the fringing coral reef and the dramatic, wild range behind it.
While guests would be forgiven for never leaving the canvas confines of their suites – snorkelling trips over Ningaloo Reef (the world’s largest fringing reef) await, with vibrant corals, turtles, a bonkers array of colourful fish and hypnotic rays found just metres from the shore. The main act, however, between March to August is to swim with whale sharks (one of those thrilling, pinch-me experiences) – gentle giants who glide gracefully in the deeper waters of the reef. From July to October couples can also swim with humpback whales who pass through here in their thousands, filling the water with their ethereal song. Back on land, there’s the opportunity to follow an expert guide through Cape Range National Park’s gorges – keeping eyes peeled for honeyeaters, eagles, black-footed rock wallabies and emus.
Adelaide and the Adelaide Hills
Swap the deep blue for Pinot Noir, with a tour into the green viticultural heart of Australia: the Adelaide Hills. Fly from Perth to Adelaide and after spending a night sampling the city’s foodie scene in the laneways and checking out its small-but-mighty bars, hire a car and drive 20 minutes into the Hills – all vine-covered and postcard-pretty. World-renowned Penfolds Magill Estate winery is just eight kilometres from the city centre en route.
Check into the divine adult-only Sequoia Lodge, curling up in its blonde-timber rooms, spotting wallabies and kangaroos darting through the valley, or unwinding in the artesian spring-fed hot pools before a delectable dinner worth donning your finest linen for. Use the lodge as a base to explore some of Australia’s best boutique wineries, indulging in long vineyard lunches and chatting to local winemakers over a tutored tasting.
Flinders Ranges road trip, via the wineries of Clare Valley
The drive on from the Adelaide Hills to the Clare Valley is a scenic one, taking couples into this world-famous wine region best known for its Riesling and home to one of the oldest wineries on the continent. Famed for its pink hues, the serene Lake Bumbunga should be prioritised as a photogenic pitstop before driving to one of the Clare’s fifty cellar doors for a glass of the local Riesling. You could keep heading north to reach the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park in less than a day, but honeymooners should make the most of this exquisite part of the country, parking up the car and leaning into a section of the Clare Valley Wine and Wilderness Trail. The route winds through vine-combed valleys via cellar doors such as Sevenhill Cellars and Skillogalee Restaurant and Cellar Door, all offering tours, tastings and fresh seasonal food. Couples in the Clare can hit the hay and stay overnight at an historic stone cottage or romantic heritage-listed farmhouse combined with a celebrated gourmet food scene.
The following morning, honeymooners can embark on a short-but-sweet drive north (only three hours) to the Flinders Ranges, with tip-top phone reception and sealed roads you’d rarely associate with such ravishing, remote landscapes.
This is a wild, sun-bleached and wildlife-heavy land steeped in Aboriginal culture where you can check in to a luxury eco villa or lodge to enjoy big starry skies by night and emus, kangaroos, yellow-footed rock wallabies and rare birds by day. For a true Aussie safari adventure we recommend booking the Arkaba Walk by Wild Bush Luxury, a three-day guided safari walk that traverses the ancient Ikara-Flinders Ranges and the private Arkaba Nature Conservancy, weaving stories of the land and its previous life as a sheep station as striking features of the outback (from craggy sandstone bluffs to dry creek beds) unfold. Well-earned rests along the way get couples as close to nature as possible without sacrificing on those honeymoon luxuries: starbeds, hot showers, canapés and delicious three-course, fire-cooked dinners in the bush served with top Australian wines; and a final night at Arkaba Homestead – one of the Luxury Lodges of Australia.
As an alternative to an outback safari, you might want to hop across to Kangaroo Island for a few nights. This is Australia’s wildlife haven where you will see kangaroos, koalas, rare Australian sealions and enjoy fresh island produce plucked straight from the ocean. And when it comes to lying your head for the night, there’s no shortage of options from the wonderfully luxurious Southern Ocean Lodge to Sea Dragon Kangaroo Island.
Where to Book
Inspiring Travel are experts in creating truly individual, personalised luxury holidays to the world’s most iconic destinations including Australia. Getting to know what each client wants and providing personalised recommendations is at the heart of what they do – so, all you have to do is relax, and Inspiring Travel will take care of everything else.
For more information on the Ocean to Outback Australian honeymoon or to book, visit Inspiringtravel.co.uk
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