South Africa: Cape Town, the Garden Route and Addo
Table Mountain, the winelands, a coast road east to Tsitsikamma and a malaria-free Big Five park at the end — the most straightforward introduction to Africa there is, self-driven.
Cape Town
Take the cable car up Table Mountain on the first clear morning you get — the cloud closes it without warning and people leave having never been up. The city sits between the mountain and two oceans and is the most dramatically sited major city anywhere outside Rio.
Robben Island and the District Six Museum
The island ferry runs from the Waterfront and the tour is led by former political prisoners; book days ahead and expect it to be cancelled in swell. District Six, in the city, records the forced removal of 60,000 people from a neighbourhood that was then bulldozed and largely left empty.
The Cape Peninsula
A full-day loop — Chapman's Peak Drive on a road cut into the cliff, the Cape of Good Hope, Boulders Beach's African penguin colony and Kalk Bay on the way back. The Cape is not the southernmost point of Africa; that is Cape Agulhas, two hours east, and the sign there says so.
Kirstenbosch and the Bo-Kaap
Kirstenbosch is on the eastern slope of Table Mountain and is among the great botanic gardens, planted almost entirely with South African species. The Bo-Kaap, the historically Cape Malay quarter, has the painted houses everyone photographs and a museum that explains why they are painted.
The Winelands: Stellenbosch and Franschhoek
Forty-five minutes inland. Stellenbosch is a university town of Cape Dutch gables; Franschhoek was settled by Huguenots and has the food. The wine tram is a genuinely sensible way to do this without anyone driving, and the drink-driving limit here is low and enforced.
Over the Franschhoek Pass to Hermanus
East over the pass and down to Walker Bay, which from roughly June to November has southern right whales calving close enough to the shore that you watch them from a clifftop path. Out of season, the Hemel-en-Aarde valley behind the town makes the best pinot noir in the country.
De Hoop Nature Reserve
Two hours east on gravel to a coastal reserve of white dunes, a vlei full of birds and eland on the fynbos. It is the best land-based whale watching on the coast and one of the quietest places within reach of Cape Town.
Cape Agulhas and along to Mossel Bay
The actual southern tip of Africa, where the Atlantic and Indian oceans are declared to meet at a plaque on the rocks. Then east onto the Garden Route proper — Mossel Bay is the start of it and is where the road meets the sea for the next 200 kilometres.
Oudtshoorn and the Cango Caves
Inland over the Outeniqua pass into the Little Karoo — ostrich farms, a very different dry landscape, and the Cango Caves, a limestone system with chambers large enough to have hosted concerts. Take the standard tour rather than the adventure one unless you are certain about small spaces.
Knysna and the lagoon
Back over the mountains to the coast. Knysna sits on a lagoon behind two sandstone headlands, and the town was hit hard by the 2017 fires that burned much of the surrounding forest — the regrowth is visible and instructive. Oysters here are the local specialism.
Tsitsikamma
The best section of the Garden Route National Park — the Storms River mouth suspension bridges, the first kilometres of the Otter Trail walkable as a day hike, and old-growth yellowwood forest behind. The bungee at Bloukrans, 216 metres, is on the same road.
Addo Elephant National Park
Two hours east to a park with over 600 elephants and no malaria — which is the reason a great many families come here rather than to Kruger. Self-drive works well; the waterholes at Hapoor and Domkrag are where to sit rather than circulate.
Addo, second day
A full day in the park. Lion, buffalo and black rhino are all present, and Addo is one of the few places with the "Big Seven" claim, adding southern right whale and great white shark in the marine section. The southern Nyathi and Colchester sections are quieter than the main loop.
Port Elizabeth or the Baviaanskloof
Either finish at Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) for the flight, or add the Baviaanskloof — a 200-kilometre 4×4 track through a mega-reserve wilderness area that is the wildest driving in the Eastern Cape and needs a full day and proper clearance.
Depart
Fly out of Gqeberha, usually via Johannesburg or Cape Town. One-way car hire between Cape Town and Gqeberha is standard and the drop fee is modest; confirm it when booking rather than at the desk.
Good to know
This route is malaria-free from end to end, which is why it is the standard first African trip for families. Self-drive is easy: roads are good, signage is in English and the N2 runs the whole length of it. Drive on the left. Do not drive at night outside towns, keep doors locked in city traffic and do not leave anything visible in a parked car — vehicle crime is the realistic risk and it is opportunistic. Load shedding, the scheduled national power cuts, still happens; hotels have generators and the Eskom se Push app tells you the schedule. Book Robben Island, the Table Mountain cable car and Addo accommodation ahead. Whale season on the Cape south coast runs roughly June to November, peaking September and October, which is also when the fynbos flowers — that window is the best time to do this route. December and January are the South African summer holidays and the coast fills.
Shorter or longer?
A flight from Gqeberha to Hoedspruit or Nelspruit puts you at the Kruger gates for a further four or five days and a much bigger park. Kruger is a malaria area, unlike everything on this route, so prophylaxis becomes a decision.
Continuing northeast from Addo into the former Transkei — Coffee Bay, Hole in the Wall and a coastline of green hills and rondavels with almost no development. Roads are poorer and the driving is slower; four days is the minimum.
The hop-on hop-off backpacker bus runs Cape Town to Gqeberha along this exact route and drops at hostel doors. It removes the car and the driving risk and works well for solo travellers; it does not reach De Hoop or Addo's interior.