Make a difference with a Madagascar honeymoon
How about a honeymoon with a difference? If you’re looking for unusual honeymoon destinations or ideas you’ve come to the right place.
A programme with SEED Madagascar can offer a unique “honeyteering” experience, combining staying in one of the most beautiful countries on earth whilst making a real difference to the lives and landscapes of Madagascar. What a great way to start you on the path of married life!
There are two main ways you can get involved in honeymoon volunteering through SEED, a short term two week visit with our conservation programme, or a more long term volunteer project combining your honeymoon with an extended career break.
Short-term conservation projects
Our short-term conservation projects give you the opportunity to spend a 2 week honeymoon immersing yourself in Malagasy culture whilst getting stuck into vital conservation initiatives with communities in the beautiful village of Sainte Luce. This is combined with community work, which may include teaching local children about precious environment they have around them, or helping with tree planting to restore vulnerable rainforest.
What an amazing story to share with your family, to say that you helped with research into endangered lemurs in an entirely unique forest environment not found anywhere else on the planet!
Past honeymooners Jessica and David McClosky spent two weeks in the beautiful Sainte Luce region on the SEED Madagascar Conservation Programme and are incredibly enthusiastic about their experience.
My husband and I joined the conservation program for two weeks as our honeymoon, and it was an all-around amazing experience. The staff and our fellow volunteers were great, the community was awesome, the work was fun and rewarding, and the landscape/wildlife were incredible. We also learned a ton about the region and all of the complex challenges the people there face going forward. SEED Madagascar is really making a difference, and we definitely recommend joining them! Our only regret is not staying longer...
Jessica McClosky
Longer term projects
A second option is to volunteer for an extended honeymoon or career break on our Conservation programme; involving volunteering for up to ten weeks and allowing you to get away from everything post wedding and spend an extended time in this incredible country.
Past honeymooners Matt and Delphine O’Keeffe completed a volunteering programme with us in 2013 and enjoyed extensive sightseeing and travelling around the island as well as volunteering. Matt also created a large informative board for the wedding guests to understand more about the project with SEED Madagascar.
Here Delphine talks about a trip on one of their free days to a remote beach around Sainte Luce:
‘On a day off we had the opportunity to go to an area of Sainte Luce called S17. I may sound like an old broken record, but it’s another beautiful deserted beach! We took a pirogue to go to S17 and trekked through the dense forest. We found a beautiful sheltered spot, where we could swim and sunbathe for the day’
You can find out more about their trip here: https://okeeffeinmadagascar.wordpress.com/
Make lasting memories for your life together on our Conservation Programme.
Combine volunteering with travels around Madagascar!
Volunteering on your honeymoon, or ‘honeyteering’, doesn’t mean that you can’t spend some time relaxing and sightseeing in this wonderful country.
There are various amazing beaches to discover, including St Luce and Evatra around Fort Dauphin, and how about a stay in Antananarivo, Madagascar’s unique capital? Or having the privilege of being surrounded by lemurs in the jungle at Berenty Lodge?
Previous honeymooners have also visited destinations such as Ile Sainte Marie, a stunning island in the north of Madagascar famous for whale watching and its pirate legacy.
We will be happy to aid you with suggestions for further visits and time spent in Madagascar so please get in touch!
How about turning your whole wedding into a Malagasy spectacle?
Many of our honeymooners have made their whole wedding a Malagasy affair asking for donations towards their project, such as tents and even malaria tablets (!) as wedding gifts and fundraising through wedding favours. Our Stitch Sainte Luce project would also be able to make any customised embroidery you may like to “Malagise” your wedding with, such as wildlife bunting or embroidered favours of your own design.