South Africa · Southern Africa
The Garden Route.
The Garden Route runs roughly from Mossel Bay to Storms River along the southern coast, and is the country's classic self-drive stretch.
It is driven rather than flown, usually over four to seven nights, and it links forest, coastline and lagoon in a way that suits travellers who want to slow down between a city and a safari. Knysna and Plettenberg Bay are the usual bases; Tsitsikamma is the scenic high point.
The Route is often combined with a malaria-free reserve in the Eastern Cape at its far end, which is what makes it work as a family itinerary.
What is here
Journeys through South Africa
Elsewhere in South Africa
- Greater Kruger and the LowveldThe Greater Kruger is South Africa's principal safari region: the national park itself plus a belt of private reserves sharing unfenced boundaries with it.
- Cape Town and the Cape PeninsulaCape Town is the city most itineraries are anchored to, and the Peninsula gives it a coastline, a mountain and a wine region within an hour of the centre.
- The Cape WinelandsStellenbosch, Franschhoek and Paarl form the classic winelands triangle, about an hour inland from Cape Town.
- KwaZulu-Natal and ZululandKwaZulu-Natal combines a warm coastline, the Drakensberg mountains and Big Five reserves that are malaria-free or low-risk.
- The Eastern CapeThe Eastern Cape's private reserves are malaria-free and sit within reach of the Garden Route, which is why they so often close a family itinerary.
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