What to do in Garden Route

The real question is, what can’t you do? Beginning just a few hours outside Cape Town, the Garden Route wends its way from one blissful, beachy spot to the next, punctuated by tiny towns frozen in time, enthralling mountains (and vertigo-inducing passes) and pockets of forest with hiking trails galore. This is the highest tier of South African road trips for locals and tourists alike, and offers the chance to see a little bit of everything that makes the country so fantastic. Most likely a self-driving journey, you’ll be able to take in the sights entirely at your own pace too. If it’s rugged shores and adventurous hikes you seek, Tsitsikamma is the answer - the infamous Bloukrans Bridge is one of the highest bungee jumps in the world - while the town of Knysna is all about ocean sails, whale and dolphin watching, and dining on fabulous seafood. Then there’s Wilderness, an untouched paradise that does what it says on the tin, Plettenberg Bay and the best beaches in the country, and dusty Oudtshoorn, an outback of caves, curious shops and epic hiking trails.