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Garden Route Road Trip: The Best Stops, Stays & Adventures
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items The Garden Route is South Africa's classic road trip: about 300 km of lagoons, forests, cliffs and beaches between Mossel Bay and the Tsitsikamma, a four- to five-hour drive from Cape Town. Give it at least five days. This list covers the towns worth...
Sections
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Stops Along the Route
Adventures to Book
Where to Stay
Stops Along the Route
The heart of the Garden Route and the best base for a few nights. Drive up to the Knysna Heads viewpoint for the classic shot of the lagoon mouth between two sandstone cliffs, eat fresh oysters at the Waterfront, and explore the indigenous forests wh...
Knysna: Lagoon, Heads & Forests
Plett has the Garden Route's best beaches, calm warm water in summer, and the Robberg Nature Reserve, a rugged peninsula hike with seal colonies and huge ocean views. It's also the best place on the route for marine wildlife, with dolphins year-round...
Plettenberg Bay: Beaches & Robberg
The wild eastern end of the route, where forested gorges meet crashing surf. The walk to the Storms River Mouth suspension bridge is the must-do, and kayaking and lilo trips up the river gorge are unforgettable. The Otter Trail, one of the world's gr...
Tsitsikamma National Park & Storms River Mouth
The quieter, greener alternative to Knysna, with a long wild beach, a chain of lakes and the Touws River winding through forest. Paddle a canoe up the river to the Map of Africa viewpoint, take a tandem paraglide off the dunes over the beach, or watc...
Wilderness: Lakes, Rivers & Paragliding
Worth a day's detour inland over the Outeniqua Pass into the Klein Karoo. The Cango Caves are a spectacular system of limestone chambers filled with stalactites and stalagmites, with a standard tour or a squeeze-through adventure route for the brave....
Cango Caves, Oudtshoorn (Detour via the Karoo)
The traditional first stop coming from Cape Town, and a great place to break the drive. Walk the St Blaize Trail along the cliffs from the lighthouse, visit the Dias Museum with its full-size replica of Bartolomeu Dias's caravel, and try adventure ac...
Mossel Bay: Where the Garden Route Begins
Adventures to Book
The world's highest commercial bridge bungy: a 216-metre leap from the arch of the Bloukrans Bridge between Plett and Tsitsikamma. Even if you don't jump, the skywalk out under the bridge deck is a thrill, and watching from the viewpoint is free. Jum...
Bloukrans Bridge Bungy Jump
The Knysna lagoon is best seen from the water. A relaxed sunset cruise drifts out towards the dramatic Heads, often with oysters and a glass of wine on board, as the sandstone cliffs glow gold. Look out for the endangered Knysna seahorse and plenty o...
Knysna Lagoon Sunset Cruise
Plett's marine tours are some of the best in the country: licensed boats can approach whales more closely than most, and you often see huge pods of dolphins, Cape fur seals at Robberg, and humpback, southern right and Bryde's whales in season. Southe...
Plettenberg Bay Dolphin & Whale Boat Trip
One of the most memorable half-days on the whole route. You cross the suspension bridge, then kayak and float on a lilo (an inflatable mattress) up the narrow Storms River gorge between towering cliffs, where the water is dark and still and the light...
Kayak & Lilo Up the Storms River Gorge
Where to Stay
Right above Wilderness beach, with wall-to-wall windows looking over the Indian Ocean, so you fall asleep to the sound of the waves. It has a spa and a rooftop pool, and it's walking distance to the village restaurants. A romantic, quieter base for t...
Views Boutique Hotel & Spa, Wilderness
A converted wood-fired power station on Thesen Island in the Knysna lagoon, where the old turbines and machinery are part of the industrial-chic decor. It's a fun, design-led base with a pool, spa and lagoon views, and you can walk to Thesen Island's...
The Turbine Boutique Hotel & Spa, Knysna
A classic five-star hotel on a rocky headland above Plettenberg Bay, with two infinity pools and sweeping views of Lookout Beach, the lagoon and the mountains beyond. You can often spot dolphins and, in season, whales from the terrace. It's the splur...
The Plettenberg Hotel
A secluded lodge on the edge of a forested gorge near The Crags, with timber suites on stilts, fireplaces and decks looking over the Tsitsikamma mountains. Dinners are communal and sociable, and it's well placed for the Bloukrans bungy, Nature's Vall...
Hog Hollow Country Lodge, The Crags (near Plett)
A charming, good-value inn in the little village of Storms River, made up of colourful cottages and chalets set around a green village square. It's the most convenient base for the Tsitsikamma: close to the national park, the Storms River Mouth, the ...
Tsitsikamma Village Inn, Storms River