In February and March, we spent three weeks in South Africa and drove down the Garden Route from Cape Town. The time was simply unforgettable, we saw beautiful places, beaches and animals and feasted in various cafés and restaurants.
To give you a few tips for planning your trip, we have listed the highlights here.
There are travelers who want to see and experience as much as possible and there are people who prefer to take it a little easier and spend more time in one place.
We definitely belong to the latter category and have usually booked our accommodation for 3-5 days in order to explore the area from there.
We redeemed some of our collected miles and flew with Lufthansa from Frankfurt from Cape Town and drove down the Garden Route by rental car (booked with SIXT shareholder rate).
Of course there are other options, but from our point of view a rental car is highly recommended.
We had around two and a half weeks to get to Addo National Park (east of Port Elizabeth) and then just a few days to get back to Cape Town.
Tips for Cape Town
After landing in Cape Town, we booked the Old Foundry Hotel near the Waterfront for three nights. The location of the hotel was basically good, as you could even walk to the Waterfront and reach many corners of Cape Town quickly.
Old Foundry Hotel in Cape Town
The hotel is located in a co-working space where many locals and digital nomads work on their laptops during the day. There is also a small café, a restaurant and a gym in the building.
There are a few homeless people camping on the opposite side of the street, so if you’re a bit anxious, you might want to book a more central hotel.
The rooms were small but very nicely and stylishly furnished. From the shower you can look into the bedroom through a pane of glass. This is often a matter of taste, which is why I include it.
Beaches near Cape Town
We love beaches and the sea, so we spent a whole day in Camps Bay, which is around 15 minutes away by car. In addition to the large beach, there is a smaller one called Glen Beach.
Like almost everywhere in South Africa, there are no beach bars or sun loungers here, but there is wonderful sand and a great sea. If you like swimming, the sea here is often very cold and you often can’t stay in the water for more than a few minutes.
Food & drink in Cape Town
After a day at the beach, we enjoyed a few drinks and snacks at Tigers Milk in Camps Bay. From the upper terrace you have a great view of the sea and the sunset.
Directly in Cape Town, we can recommend a wonderful café called Our Local in Kloof Street.
It is located in an old barn full of large and small plants, there are old tables and chairs like from a flea market and very tasty brunch.
Hotels & Tips Franschhoek
Our next stop was Franschhoek, in the middle of South Africa’s wine paradise. There are many high-quality wineries to visit in this area.
Most of them also have their own restaurants and of course offer various wine tastings.
Winery Babylon Storen
One of the most beautiful wine estates for us was Babylon Storen, half an hour’s drive from Franschhoek.
The winery is reminiscent of an ultra-modern farm with lots of small, white houses, a fantastic restaurant, luxury hotel, several stores and the highlight: a huge garden with fantastic plants and various greenhouses. Guided tours are even offered for the garden.
Hotel Macaron Guest House Franschhoek
We chose the Macaron Guest House as our accommodation and booked it via VPN at a slightly lower price: a small hotel with eight rooms and a pool in Franschhoek.
The hotel manager and the whole team were very friendly and welcoming, prepared a delicious breakfast every morning and gave lots of tips. Also for the restaurants in the area.
What we didn’t know was that the region has so many good restaurants that tables are often booked out weeks in advance.
We booked a superior room at Macaron Guest House: it had its own front door on the small street and another door to the hotel grounds.
The living room and bedroom were extremely large and lovingly furnished. The shower was so big that a whole family could shower under it at the same time. The furnishings were very comfortable, as good as new and clean.
Restaurants in Franschhoek
In addition to dinner at the Asian restaurant Oku, we also ate at the La Petite Ferme winery on another evening.
We arrived an hour early to see the sunset. From the veranda of the property you have a great view of the valley and the surrounding mountains with vineyards. The subsequent meal on the terrace was really great and delicious.
After a few days in Franschhoek, we continued along the Garden Route. Next destination: Wilderness, around four hours by car to the east.
On the way, we made a short stopover in Mossel Bay and tried the legendary XXL cakes in the Blue Shed Coffee Roastery: An old fisherman’s shed with lots of antiques and delicious coffee.
Beach and sea in Wilderness
We rented an AirBnB for a few days near the small town of Wilderness: A great accommodation right on the dunes, just a few meters from the sea.
The accommodation was newly renovated, four rooms with a small patio and mini pool. The beach in front of our house was almost deserted and endless. There are a few nice little restaurants and stores in Wilderness.
As we don’t surf well – but we like it – we drove to Victoria Bay one afternoon: A small bay that is supposed to have good waves.
We hired a surfboard on site, but the waves were a little too difficult for us as beginners. Afterwards, we had a snack at the local beach restaurant.
Hiking: Half Collared Kingfisher Trail
There are some great hiking routes around Wilderness, both for beginners and advanced hikers. We chose the Half Collared Kingfisher Trail. A shady hiking trail that leads through dense forests to a small waterfall.
The route was specified as two hours for the outward journey and two hours for the return journey. However, it only took us a good hour to cover one route.
The waterfall was beautiful to look at, but not suitable for swimming and also not comparable to the tropical waterfalls in some Asian countries.
Incidentally, the Kingfisher Trail takes its name from a rare bird that can often be seen there. We actually saw it fly past a few times.
The next stop for us was Plettenberg Bay. On the way there, we made a short stop at the Wild Oats Farmers Market.
Here, local farmers sell various delicacies: Small, savory tarts, meat and fresh oysters with a glass of champagne.
Plettenberg Bay: Hotels & Highlights
Plettenberg Bay is a very relaxed surfer town with nice stores and a few restaurants.
The town is 210 km from Port Elizabeth and around 600 km from Cape Town. Plettenberg Bay even has its own airport.
Old Rectory Hotel in Plettenberg Bay
Here we stayed at The Old Rectory Hotel: slightly larger than the previous accommodation with around 20 rooms, but still beautiful with a very friendly team.
The Old Rectory has a lovely pool terrace with a restaurant and even a spa with massages in a separate building. We had a terrace with a small garden in front of the bedroom.
But the highlight was the beautiful shower: you could open a glass door and shower halfway outdoors.
Restaurants in Plettenberg Bay
In addition to dinner at Barringtons restaurant (with its own brewery), we also went to Emily Moon – perhaps the best restaurant of the entire trip.
Just a ten-minute drive from Plettenberg, the restaurant is situated above a river, with many terraces, a pool and huge plants. The elevated location gives you the feeling of being in a huge tree house.
Once again, we arrived a little early to watch the sunset while enjoying a delicious cocktail. The dinner afterwards was fantastic, a perfect evening.
Another restaurant tip: the Italian restaurant Enrico in Kuerboomstrand. Delicious food at large wooden tables. Not a fancy dinner but solid Italian cuisine with delicious wine.
If you get a table on the edge, you have a fantastic view of the beach and the sunset.
If you go to Plettenberg Bay to surf, you could have a lot of fun on the southern section of the beach.
There is also a small surf school here called Learn to Surf that rents out boards. As beginners, we had a lot of fun here.
Hiking in the Tsitsikamma National Park
The Tsitsikamma National Park is famous for its great hiking trails and is correspondingly full in high season. We were lucky and there were only a few other guests in the park.
The special thing about this park is that you walk almost continuously along the coast and always have a great view of the sea.
At the beginning, you even cross a huge suspension bridge. The length of the hike is flexible, as you can turn off at many points and thus extend or shorten the tour.
Beach: Nature Valleys Beach
On the way back from Tsitsikamma, we drove to Nature Valleys Beach for a quick dip in the sea.
As almost everywhere on our route, there were hardly any people on the beach. There were only small waves here and the water was much warmer – perfect for swimming.
Safari Addo National Park
At short notice, we decided to drive the four hours from Plettenberg Bay to Addo National Park. This is the first “real” national park from Cape Town.
There are also a few smaller parks on the Garden Route, but they are really small and more like a larger zoo.
Hotel: Bukela Game Lodge
For our accommodation, we booked a tent at Bukela Game Lodge, which is located in the Amakhala Game Reserve. However, the word “tent” is an understatement: These are huge luxury tents with a large bed, living room, fireplace, bathroom with bathtub and separate shower.
Most accommodation around Addo National Park offers all-inclusive packages with full board and safaris. Of course, you can’t just drive to a restaurant because there isn’t one within a 50-kilometer radius.
You also have to be very careful when moving around the hotel grounds, as they are not fenced in and wild animals can theoretically visit at any time.
On arrival, we were told not to leave the tent alone in the evening but to call a ranger beforehand. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out so well: When we had a huge spider in our tent, nobody answered the phone.
So we set off on foot to find help – but there was no hotel staff to be found anywhere. As we didn’t know whether our new roommate was poisonous, we slept through the night with one eye open.
The next morning a ranger came and told us that it was a Rainspider.
Apart from that, the accommodation was great: there were two nice pools, a tree house to watch the waterhole with the animals and a restaurant for meals.
The food was very average, we would have expected a little more for the high price. However, this was compensated for by the safaris.
Beautiful safaris at Bukela Game Lodge
All safaris were included in the price: If you wanted, you could drive through the park for four hours in the morning and four hours in the evening with a ranger and keep an eye out for animals.
Our ranger was extremely friendly, explained a lot and seemed to really enjoy it. We saw lots of giraffes, lions, buffalos, rhinos, elephants and even a cheetah.
Both in the morning and in the evening, the safaris included a stopover with small snacks and delicious drinks: The ranger got a cool bag out of the car and even conjured up delicious gin and tonics alongside beer and wine.
Return Garden Route
As we only had a few days left on the way back, we chose the slightly faster route through the interior, which was no less beautiful than the outward journey.
You cross the Klein Karoo semi-desert and drive on endlessly long roads through wonderfully barren landscapes, which are bordered by large mountains to the right and left.
At times we were a little worried whether the tank of the rental car would last: no gas station for hours and often no cell phone reception.
Shortly before the village of Willowmore, we were able to experience what a plague of locusts looks like in South Africa: First a dark cloud built up on the horizon, then we drove through millions of locusts for just under an hour.
An exciting experience for us, but a big problem for the locals.
At the end of our long drive, we happened to find a very nice café and restaurant in the village of De Rust: It’s called Café Rust, had just opened and had a very small, lovely terrace on the road that leads through the village.
We only had an espresso there, but the food sounded very good.
Hotel Swartberg Country Manor Matjesrivier
For a short overnight stay on the way back to Cape Town, we booked a hotel in Marjtesrivier, the Swartberg Country Manor. A beautiful farm in the middle of nowhere with a quaint restaurant and a great terrace.
However, the food is not for vegetarians: the only dish was a huge grill plate with various types of meat. We didn’t really like the rooms themselves: The furnishings were getting a bit long in the tooth and it didn’t smell so good.
Somerset West tips
Our last stop before our return flight from Cape Town to Frankfurt was in Somerset West. The town is located on False Bay, around 50 km from Cape Town.
Erinvale Hotel & Spa Somerset West
We stayed at the Hotel & Spa Erinvale Estate: a large complex with lots of thatched-roof cottages and two great restaurants. Unfortunately, we got the last room available – and this room was quite small and dark.
However, most of the other rooms have their own terrace and looked good. There is also a spa which we didn’t try.
We discovered another great café and restaurant in Somerset West: Pajamas & Jam. Similar to “Our Local” in Cape Town, it is located in an old factory building with lots of different colorful tables, great plants and delicious cakes.
Garden Route Map: Our highlights
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More InformationThis article reflects my personal impressions. We booked and paid for the hotels as normal. The hotels did not know that we were writing an article about our stay.
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