The Garden Route from Cape Town
The Garden Route is a stretch of coastline running east from Cape Town toward Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha) — not a single-day trip, but one of the best road trips in the country if you have time to spare.
Can you do the Garden Route as a day trip?
Not really — the closest highlights of the Garden Route start several hours' drive from Cape Town, and the route's appeal is the journey itself: small towns, forests, lagoons and beaches strung along the N2 highway. Treat it as a multi-day extension to a Cape Town trip rather than an add-on day, and budget travel time between stops rather than trying to rush the whole route in one go.
How many days do you need
Three days gives you a taste — typically as far as Hermanus or Mossel Bay and back. Five to seven days lets you comfortably reach Knysna, Plettenberg Bay and the forests around Tsitsikamma, widely considered the highlights of the route, with time to actually get out of the car.
Key stops along the way
- Hermanus — one of the best land-based whale watching spots in the world (June–November).
- Mossel Bay — a practical, low-key stopover roughly halfway.
- Knysna — a lagoon town known for oysters and the Knysna Heads.
- Plettenberg Bay — beaches, and a base for nearby elephant and monkey sanctuaries.
- Tsitsikamma — indigenous forest, the Storms River suspension bridge, and (for the brave) the world's highest bridge bungy jump nearby at Bloukrans.
How to do it
Self-driving gives the most flexibility and is the most common approach — South Africa's roads on this route are generally in good condition. Multi-day guided tours exist for those who'd rather not drive, and one-way car rentals let you fly back from Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) instead of retracing the route.