Garden Route Road Trip Itinerary Part 1: Intro and Addo Elephant Park

One of the few things I knew about South Africa’s vacation destinations before moving here was an area called the Garden Route. Nested between mountains and the Indian ocean coast of South Africa, this stretch of 800km is home to some of the most breathtaking and diverse landscapes, beaches, forests, lagoons, game reserves, and overall greenery giving it its name. According to the Guinness book of world records, it has the second mildest climate after Hawaii. Year round, it ranges from 10-30 degrees. I had been planning this trip for awhile and what a trip it was! Great decision I could have made doing this trip in the South African summer. Enjoy my recounts of the trip!

In addition, for those looking to visit South Africa for longer but plan to visit the Garden Route, read my post about the perfect two, or three week South Africa itinerary as well as the ultimate South Africa honeymoon itinerary.

Garden Route Trip Summary


The Garden Route is simply the area along the coast between Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. We landed in Port Elizabeth, rented a car, and drove all the way to Cape Town via the scenic N2 highway. Having a GPS is absolutely necessary and it saved us everywhere we went. A combination of GPS + Google Maps is the best choice as a GPS won’t know where a hotel or restaurant is.

The airports all over South Africa sell pay as you go sim cards and Vodacom is what I recommend for this part of the country as there are plenty of remote areas and Vodacom has the biggest cellular network.

COUNTRIES VISITEDSouth Africa
MY TRIP DATESDec 22, 2013 – Jan 1, 2014
TRIP HIGHLIGHTSAddo Elephant Park, Plettenberg Bay, Bloukrans, Oudtshoorn, Beaches, Hermanus, Cape Town
TRIP STYLERoad Trip
TRIP COST~30,000R for two
TRIP START AND ENDPort Elizabeth –> Cape Town
Our Garden Route Roadtrip map. Point A is where we started in Port Elizabeth. Thank you Google Maps!
Our Garden Route Roadtrip map. Point A is where we started in Port Elizabeth. For the full Google Maps, click here

 

Rent a car for the Garden Route, this is a road trip

The Garden Route is located solely in South Africa. This is a proper developed country and the roads are proper roads (unlike the dirt roads of Tanzania). There are tours done by all the major operators like Nomad, Acacia, AfricaTravelCo, etc. that do overland tours through the Garden Route but I don’t see the need unless you’re traveling on your own and want some company. I did this trip with my girlfriend who flew in from America and this is the ultimate road trip in South Africa!

There is SO much to see on this stretch of land that you may miss it if you’re following someone else’s agenda. The roads are perfect, the signs are clearly labeled and helpful, everyone speaks English, and the weather’s great. As long as you have some good company, music, and a good sense of adventure, this is the trip for you. All the big car rental companies are located at the Port Elizabeth airport. Picking up from PE, and dropping it off in Cape Town is not a problem at all.

Nothing like starting a roadtrip with only 44km on the dash of your rental car
Nothing like starting a roadtrip with only 44km on the dash of your rental car

Plan, but be Spontaneous

Like any trip done in Africa, a well thought out itinerary is a good thing to have. However, the Garden Route is a very developed part of Africa. Many of the towns on this stretch of land are very western and you would need to think twice to remember you’re in Africa. Everyone speaks great English even if people’s first languages are something else (Afrikaans, Xhosa, Zulu etc.)

DO make a plan for this trip, and have some semblance of an agenda. Depending on how much time you have for this trip, be spontaneous as well. There are so many little stops along the road, whether it is a game farm, wine estate, beach, hike, biltong, etc, you want to soak in as much as you can.

We stopped for a canopy tour because why not? And it was right off the N2.
We stopped for a canopy tour because why not? And it was right off the N2.

You’re likely not going back to this area of the world anytime soon, so make the best of it. Have a rough idea of what you want to see and where you want to stay the night and take it from there. The drive from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town is around 800km. By the time I arrived at Cape Town, my trip odometer read 1600km! So that’s 800 extra km that I drove to go off the beaten path and see what I wanted to.

We could have driven straight to Cape Town and did wine farms another day but we were already here . . .
We could have driven straight to Cape Town and did wine farms another day but we were already here . . .

I made a plan initially, taking note of where I would be staying, and what activities I would do but things changed as I started the trip. For example, I saw in one of the airplane magazines on my flight to Port Elizabeth that Sardinia Bay is a beautiful, less crowded beach near Port Elizabeth. Never heard of it before but we decided to go just because and what a winning decision that was. You can click on the links and see how much itinerary changed from pre-trip to post trip.

» Pre Trip | Post Trip «

How Long for Garden Route?

I hate these questions, usually because I’m always on the “not enough time” side of things. The Garden Route is only 800km and can easily be driven in a day but there’s no fun in that! With so much to see, it’s all about how much time you can allocate. But alas, we live in an on the go, vacation strapped world so we have to be realistic as well. We spent 7 full days and 6 nights on our trip. We then spent 4 nights in Cape Town as CT is a trip on its own.

I felt this gave us enough time to see most of what we wanted to see. We wasted no time however, were constantly on the go, and made it a point of emphasis to do as much as possible. Resting and relaxing were not high on our priority list. Who needs to rest? You’re only here once. There were some places I wish we could have stayed another night like Hermanus, and a night or two in the winelands. As I lived in South Africa, I went back to the wine country of Stellenbosch numerous times.

clouds estate south africa
Clouds Estate in Stellenbosch with amazing views of the valley

In the end, we came out satisfied with our trip. Ideally, I’d recommend people to allot 7-10 days for this trip. Minimum, I’d say 4 days.

Peak Season Visiting for the Garden Route

The towns along the Garden Route are not just meant for foreign tourists; the South Africans appreciate the beauty of this part of the country just as much as us foreigners do. This is never more apparent than during the times we decided to do our road trip, late December during the Holiday Season.

It’s absolutely packed. 

Plettenberg Bay was a complete zoo, and Cape Town may as well have been bourbon street during Mardi Gras. The whole of Gauteng (Johannesburg, Pretoria etc), migrate to the coast during the holiday season and combine this with all the tourists from America and Europe, and you have a recipe for mayhem.

I came here in the winter and there wasn't a single car.
I came here in the winter and there wasn’t a single car.

Visiting during South Africa’s summer months, you’ll be expected to pay more for lodging but not quite as much as peak season which is during the holidays. However, the summer months are the beautiful months and weather really makes a huge impact on this road trip. When it is nice and sunny out, it is REALLY nice. When it is cloudy, which we had 1 day of, it is still rather nice. The Garden Route can be done year round but if I were to do it again, I’d probably go sometime between March-May when the weather is still very nice and peak season tourism is nearing an end.

To put it in perspective, if we had visited during the off season or just at a time that wasn’t during the Holidays, we could have just driven into a town and picked out our accommodation the night of because there would be such higher vacancy.

Booking Accommodation

With more people, comes more demand for lodging and your hotels and B&Bs will be booked full. If you’re planning on doing this trip during the holiday season, absolutely make sure to book months in advance, perhaps even a half year! Expect to pay about 50% more during the holiday season.

For booking accommodation, I can recommend using Booking.com which always has the best deals in my opinion. Airbnb is also a great option to find unique accommodations in places like Cape Town.

TripAdvisor

I’m of the new school of thinking in that if hundreds or thousands of other people have visited something I’m interested in visiting and have given it rave reviews, who am I to say I’m better than those people and that I’m too good to bandwagon with the crowd? Sure tourists aren’t the same as locals but you’re not likely to find knowledgeable locals wherever you go so thank god for TripAdvisor because it’s the next best thing. I used TripAdvisor to choose all my restaurants, and book my lodging. It didn’t lead me wrong and I’m incredibly happy with all the restaurants I went to and all the places I slept at. So make sure to download the TripAdvisor app and use it liberally.

Eating Out

If you’re like me, one of the biggest and most exciting parts of traveling is sampling the local fare. South Africa has no shortage of great restaurants and the Garden route is home to many. There’s really nothing distinctive about South African cuisine but they do everything well, especially steaks and seafood, two things one can never complain about. For all our meals, we just alternated between one and the other. Some days we’d feel like steak, others we felt like we had too much red meat and it was time for some fish or prawns. Tough life. Game meats are also readily available at most restaurants and this is a must do for anyone visiting SA.

Also make sure to absolutely make restaurant reservations in the bigger cities like Plettenberg Bay, Knysna, Hermanus and Cape Town.

Lemon Butta hermanus
Seafood Paella at Lemon Butta in Hermanus. Let’s be clear here, you will not go hungry on this trip.

In this post, I’ll just be writing about the places we ate at which was usually one or two places per stop so in no means will this be a restaurant guide to the Garden Route (that’s what TripAdvisor is for) as I would need at least a month to be qualified to write that!

Garden Route Day By Day Itinerary


Here is a day by day breakdown of my Garden Route Itinerary

Day 1: Land in Port Elizabeth, explore the town and drive to Addo Elephant Park, afternoon game drive
Day 2: Early morning Addo Elephant Park game drive, drive to Jeffrey’s Bay, and spend night in Plettenberg Bay
Day 3: Explore Plett, swim with seals, hike Robberg Mountain
Day 4: Natures Valley Beach, Bloukrans bungee jump, explore more of Tsitsikama area
Day 5: Visit Knysna in morning, drive to Oudtshoorn, afternoon ostrich visit
Day 6: Cango caves in the morning, drive to Hermanus
Day 7: Gansbaai shark cage diving in the morning, relax around Hermanus
Day 8-12: Cape Town and surrounding areas

Day 1: Port Elizabeth


And finally, the trip begins! Our flight from Joburg to Port Elizabeth landed 9am in the morning so we had the whole day to explore. Upon landing, I pick up my car at the Avis booth expecting the usual Volkswagen Polo, Honda Jazz or some other boring car but nope, we are upgraded to a brand new Mercedes C200! It only had 44km on the clock! 

After spending some time configuring the car’s bluetooth capabilities so it would connect with our phones to play music (highly important), we are on our way. We decide to drive into Port Elizabeth and check out the city in the morning.

Our roadtrip vehicle. Wish it had a sunroof but can't complain!
Our roadtrip vehicle. Wish it had a sunroof but can’t complain!

 

Port Elizabeth Town

Located in the Eastern Cape province, Port Elizabeth or PE as the locals call it, is one of the largest cities in SA and home to one of its major ports. There isn’t a whole lot to do in this city and we weren’t here long enough to explore it.

The city is rather large and coming from the airport you’ll come to a T intersection where one side leads to the city and the other leads to Summerstrand. Without a doubt, take the turn to Summerstrand. We drove around the city for all of 5 minutes initially before realizing this isn’t where we want to be and turned around to Summerstrand.

Summerstrand in Port Elizabeth
Summerstrand in Port Elizabeth

Summerstrand Neighborhood

This is the wealthy beachfront suburb right next to PE where everyone flocks to during the summer. The beach here is gorgeous! Long stretches of sandy beaches, tropical colored water (this is the Indian Ocean), and perfect weather. We came right around Christmas time and it was completely packed on the beach. This would be the theme for most of the trip as the entire country flocks to the coast for the holidays. A perfect time to park the car and walk around.

Summerstrand Boardwalk. Popular place for the locals.
Summerstrand Boardwalk. Popular place for the locals.

The beach stretches on for miles and the sand is incredibly soft. We thought how great it would be to have a place here in one of the many modern condo buildings and be able to visit whenever. While we thought this beach was very nice (which it was), the beaches would actually only get better from here on out. There is also a boardwalk area with restaurants, shops, and other things.

Ginger restaurant on the water.
Ginger restaurant on the water.

We spend an hour walking along the beach before breaking for lunch. There are some very good restaurants in Port Elizabeth but we only had time for lunch. There are many restaurants in Summerstrand and we picked a place called Ginger right by the beach. Other restaurants that looked appealing to me were De Kelder, The Bayside Pantry, El Greco. Ginger did not disappoint as I had some grilled fish with a beer, which would be a common theme throughout the lunches. Seafood lunch with beers for two came up to 200R.

Sardinia Bay

Sardinia Bay.
Sardinia Bay.

After lunch, we walked around the boardwalk which took no more than a half hour and it was only noon. Addo Elephant Park was the end destination for the day but we had 5 hours to kill before our scheduled game drive and it’s only 1 hour drive to the park. We decided let’s check out the beach we read about in the airline magazine on our flight down here. It was highly recommended and gave us something to do. Why not? Plug this place into our GPS and 25 minutes later, we’ve arrived.

Erica getting a shot on the dunes.
Erica getting a shot on the dunes.

Wow. Now THIS is the beach to be. Not only were there just a fraction of the people here, the beach was absolutely breathtaking. No buildings or signs of civilization was the theme of this place. To top it off, we had to climb a dune from the parking lot to actually get onto the beach. There were dunes everywhere! Dunes and beaches, it’s hard to beat that combo.

I felt like I was in Namibia again. The color of the water was even prettier here and the long evenly distributed waves crashing into the shore added to its beauty and this style of beach would be something we’d see many more times along the Garden Route. We ended up hiking up a dune, and passing the hell out for an hour. It was great but now I had sand all over me, a small price to pay I suppose. If you’re in Port Elizabeth for a few hours and want to see a beach, make sure to come to THIS one.

Day 2: Addo Elephant Park


Around 3pm, we figured it was probably a good time to start driving to the Addo Elephant Park as our game drive was scheduled for the sundowner at 6pm. The drive took around 1.5 hours from Sardinia Bay and we arrived to our accommodations right outside the park around 4:30. Turns out, the sunset drive which we booked starts at 5! We so droped off our bags and drive the 10 minutes to the park to make it in time.

Entrance for the Addo Elephant Park.
Entrance for the Addo Elephant Park.

The Game Drive

The Addo Elephant park is one of 19 game reserves in South Africa and the third largest by size at 1600 square km. This area along the Garden Route was once home to thousands of elephants until the European settlers came in and hunted these elephants for ivory until near extinction. There were only 11 elephants left in this area until this area was turned into a sanctuary dedicated to the revival of the population. Now there are almost 500 elephants here which is a massive number for a park this size.

Expect to get many pics like this.
Expect to get many pics like this.

There are other animals on the game reserve like warthogs, jackals, kudu, and Cape Buffalo. The owners have also introduced a few lions into the park to control the animal population but at the end of the day, the name of this place is elephants and that is what you’re here to see. You should have zero problems spotting elephants and a lot of them at that. The drive was lasted two hours which is ample time to see this park.

Cape Buffalo staring as us.
Cape Buffalo staring as us.

As we started our drive, it took maybe 5 minutes before we saw our first group of elephants. Our game vehicle was fully packed with 20 people so cue the cameras here as everyone scrambled to get pics. Eventually, we saw so many elephants that no one took out their cameras unless the elephants got very close to the vehicle which is ALWAYS cool.

We probably saw at least 50 elephants here. Our guide told us the best time to see them is actually during the day when it’s been dry for awhile, similar to the Etosha Park in Namibia, as the elephants all congregate to the watering holes and at times you can see 100 of them at once! We didn’t see that many, but we did have a herd of 15 of them walk within a meter of our truck as they crossed the road (Look at the picture at the top of the post). We saw some cape buffalo too which is always cool

Kudu sighting!
Kudu sighting!

As the sunset, we parked in the middle of the road to have some beers and biltong that our guide had set up. The herd of buffalo we just saw were about 50 meters from us at the watering hole and a few stray bull elephants were near us as well. This was pretty cool how close we were to the buffalo. These are dangerous animals as they account for more human deaths than any other animal in Africa and we were questionably close to them.

As we finish our snacks, we get back into the car, content with what we had seen in the last two hours (many elephants, buffalo, zebra, kudu etc.) and headed back. I was planning on going for another drive the following morning but I feel that a two hour drive here was all we needed. This park felt more like a giant zoo and while it’s incredibly easy to see big animals, it didn’t really feel like a proper safari. To put it in perspective, the Masai Mara in Kenya is about the same size and there must have been 10x the diversity and amount of animals.

More Pictures

Where we stayed in Addo Elephant park

All the major game reserves in South Africa are very developed and there is a wide spectrum of lodging available to everyone. Whether you want to camp for cheap or stay in a super fancy luxury lodge for 1,000$ a night, everything is possible.

Our Chalet at the Aardvark Guesthouse.
Our Chalet at the Aardvark Guesthouse.

I ended booking a night at the Aardvark Guesthouse after reading great reviews on TripAdvisor and Booking.com. It’s located 10 minutes outside the park and it was the perfect first night stop for us. We had a small chalet but the beds were comfortable, the showers strong, and there was a fan to keep us cool at night. For 550R a night, it is a bargain for two people and that was during peak season too so I’d expect that price to drop significantly in other months.

For a more luxurious stay, I would recommend these places:

Where we ate

Our lodging for the night is conveniently located right next to Hazel’s, a restaurant with the top ranking on TripAdvisor for the PE area famous for serving up game meats. What better place to eat at after seeing so many animals than to a restaurant that is famous for serving them hot? We made a reservation before we left for the game drive and we arrived promptly at 8pm. Wow, what a great first dinner to start the trip!

Deliciously cooked game meat at Hazel's.
Deliciously cooked game meat at Hazel’s.

We got springbok carpaccio to start, and Wildebeast and Blesbok steak for our mains. Mmm, wow. I’ve had many game meats but never even heard of Blesbok until this place so it was good to check that off the list. This place deserves its #1 rating on TripAdvisor. The meat is cooked perfectly.

The chef even told us that cooking game meat requires a different skill than beef. Cows are all killed at the same age so the meat is consistent but game is hunted and they could be any age. A young springbok will have different meat texture to a fully grown springbok so it’s up to the chef to feel out how it should be cooked and these guys are damn good at doing it. Highly recommended.

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  1. Hi Johnny, I have been following your fantastic blog on and off since inception in 2014. Mainly because I had set-up a similar blog on the same platform and had come across your website on a technical forum. Anyway, my website fizzled out, but yours is going strong – well done! and congratulations on your travels and early retirement from the rat race.

    My wife and myself will be flying in to Cape Town this year on February 26th and flying back out of the country on March 12th. We only want to do Cape Town, Wine country and the Garden route, at a relaxed chilled out pace, not so young anymore but more time on our hands. So far I have been looking at the Honeymoon itinerary, minus Mauritius and the Safari (We have done Serengeti and Masai Mara, so Addo does not appeal following your description in this blog post).

    So far our plan is 4 nights Cape Town, 2 nights Stellenbosch, 1 night Hermanus, 1 night Oudtshoorn, 3 nights Plettenberg Bay. That still leaves 4 nights spare to get back to Cape Town and fly back out. Elizabeth Bay does not really appeal, so I am thinking to stick to the Garden Route district itself as far as Storms River. Maybe spend one extra night in Stellenbosch.

    We do fancy some extra time in a quite beach somewhere if possible and would appreciate any guidance you can give. Also if we should spend any extra time somewhere along the route. Finally should we drive back to Cape Town, or fly back from George/Elizabeth Bay airport? Any and all guidance you can give would be appreciated.

    • Hi Kailas, so happy to hear that you like the blog and crazy you’ve followed me for that long. I really wasn’t even properly blogging back in 2014 as it was more of a journal that I was writing.

      Since you have more time on your hands, I would maybe stay an extra night in Stellenbosch to enjoy the wine country so you don’t have to rush through it as much. I would spend some time in the Tsitsikama area to get some hiking in as I really love that area of the Garden Route. Finally another night in the Plett area never hurts. This way you can spend a day in Knysna as well.

      If you don’t want to drive all the way back to Cape Town, I would just drop off the car one way in George and fly back to Cape Town. If it was me, I would do the one way drop so I would spend less time driving.

      • Hey Johnny.
        Thanks for getting back to and really appreciate your help. All of your recommendations made sense.
        I have booked the internal flight back to Cape Town from Gerorge. Extra night in the Wine Country and also an extra night in Plett to explore the surrounding area including Tsitsikamma. I have also allowed two nights Hermanus, as it seems nice with stuff to see and do, but also to allow for an earlier and relaxed drive to the the Garden Route (Oudtshoorn or Mossel Bay) with potential sightseeing stops along the way.
        We still have one further night to spare which I am mulling between a night in Mossel Bay or an extra night in Oudtshoorn. Do you think Mossel Bay is worth an extra night, or would you advise driving straight on to Oudtshoorn (especially with an earlier start from Hermanus), and spend the extra night in Oudtshoorn or even in Plett or Tsitsikamma.Cheers, Kailas

        • I’ve only been to MOssel Bay for lunch once before. It was nice but I’m not sure what there is to do there that is mor eunique than other stops on the Garden Route. It’s a good way to break up the drive between Hermanus and Oudtshoorn but no tusre if it is necessary. I would probably just spend another night in the Plett/Knysna area. I didn’t think I needed another night in Oudtshoorn.

  2. Hello

    Planning a trip for later this year in December. This is the vague itinerary I have so far, Cape Town 3 nights- Stellenbosch 1 night- Hermanus 1 night- Outsdhoorn 2 nights- Kynsa 1 night- Stormsriver 1 night- Plettenburg Bay 2 nights- Port Elizabeth 2 nights

    Do you think itinerary will work?

    • Hey sam, looks like a solid itinerar. i would spent one less night in PE and one extra night in Cape town or Stellenbosch! Also 2 nights in Oudstrhoodn might be too much, I would spent more time along the coast personally!

      • Sounds like great advice, I’ll add an extra night into Cape Town.
        Was only thinking 2 nights in Oudtshoorn as it’s the longest drive and didnt want to rush.

  3. Hello Johnny!

    I am Eirini and am from Greece. I am writing to you because we will travel (me and my 2 besties) to South Africa for Christmas. Unfortunately, Auto Europe cancel our car reservation and we don’t know how we can go from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town. We will really appreciate if you could inform us if it is safe to travel by bus or if you know any other option (something like 1-day tour or taxi).

    Thank you in advance,
    Eirini.

    • Hi Eirini, sorry to hear about your car! But yes, it is totally safe to take a bus. I’ve taken teh Bazbus before but that is a hop on hop off type of bus, but you can definitely just take it straight one way as well from PE to Cape Town. Alternatively, you can just fly. It is quite cheap with all the discount airlines in South Africa and will be much faster.

  4. Hi, Thanks for this article. I have a question which I don’t have any answer to. Me and my husband will be arriving in Cape town on September 16 in the evening from Durban. We will have 13 days until we take our flight back home to Europe on September 23 in the evening at about 10pm. we have planed on renting a car of course. Was thinking 3 days to explore Cape Town and then 5 days on the Garden route. Big question, what would you recommand we do: drive the garden route, but where should we stop because of our return flight constraints ? should we go back to cape town by car ? Or drive the garden route for 5 days and then flight from George to Cape town to get the best of it, to avoid waisting time in the car on our way back.. which stops will you recommand on a 5 days trip on the garden route then, keeping in mind our return flight is in Cape Town. plus we would have been in Kruger already so no need to stop for Safari. Hope you can help me figure that out –)

    • Hi Debby! I think you have a good game plan. If you read through my post, you can see exactly what I did for those days on the Garden Route (hermanus, knysna, plett, etc.) i also spent 5-6 days on the Garden route and another 4 days in Cape Town. I think if it makes financial sense, then def do a one way rental and drop it off in George or Port Elizabeth. I have helped many people plan their trips with one way drops and the prices are not that much more if at all.

  5. Thanks for sharing ur adorable experience,I’m going to SA alone for 7 days next month and I don’t have driving license. But still, I want to seek the beauty of Garden Route too. Think of the times changing,for my case,do you think I can make it on my own or I should go for operators you mentioned like Nomad, Acacia, AfricaTravelCo ?

    By the way,I’m not a dude so I also wanna know is it safe to go out during the night or not in Cape Town?

    Waiting to ur reply.

    • Hey Summer, thanks! I would say if you’re a solo traveler, then an overland tour around the region makes sense. Nomad, Acacia, dragoman, g adventures and lots of other companies do group camping and glamping tours of the area. 7 days might be a bit short to do the garden route and cape Town but you should be able to find something accommodating of your schedule. As for Cape Town, it is fine to walk around at night. Just exercise the same caution you would going to any other large city in the world. Enjoy!

    • ok you know what ! I did not even think to drop it off at Port Elizabeth, I will look into that then. Good advice. thanks a lot -)

  6. Thanks for this detailed write-up of the Garden route! I am also thinking of doing this over the holidays this year. Do you have any tips to avoid the crowds?

  7. Great write up! This has really been helpful in our planning for our trip to the garden route. Really liked your map and spreadsheet too!

      • Hi. My husband and I are thinking of doing the same, driving the garden route from cape town to Port Elizabeth May 2018. In present climate did you encounter any problems on your journey from any locals etc. I’m led to believe that the situation in SA is changing and problems are on the rise. I look forward to your response.
        Many thanks for reading.

        • Hi Christine, times have changed since I’ve visited but it’s nothing drastic. I don’t think you’ll encounter any problems, especially along the Garden Route which is both safe and beautiful. Enjoy your trip!

  8. This is incredibly helpful and great pics especially the map you made!

    We are planning a garden route trip in October and thinking of starting in the Durban so we can do some of the Wild Coast. We’re thining of spending two weeks going from Durban to Cape Town. Do you think this is enough time for us? Thanks!

    • Hi Ellie, I think two weeks is plenty of time and you’ll be able to see so much, even from Durban. I’ve never driven the area between the Durban and POrt Elizabeth but have heard so many good things. Coffee Bay I hear is absolutely stunnign and if you’r einto diving, Aliwal Shoal is one of the best places to see sharks of all sorts in one place!