The Garden Route is known as one of the prettiest road trip routes in the world and is a UNESCO site. It’s about 200 miles of beaches, lagoons, lakes, rolling hills, mountain ranges and a national park. Since its not too far from Cape Town, I decided to fly from Johannesburg to one end of the route and drive to Cape Town. The points where the route ends and begins are Port Elizabeth and George South Africa. Since I was flying from Johannesburg and driving to Cape Town, I flew into Port Elizabeth to head West to George. If you were coming from Cape Town, George would be the start of the garden route and you would drive east to Port Elizabeth.
Flights from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth are only about $40 one-way and take an hour and a half. I spent about 3-full days exploring the Garden Route, which felt like a good amount of time give or take an extra couple days. You can read about the actual route and things to do on my South Africa Itinerary.
Port Elizabeth
We picked up our rental car at the Port Elizabeth airport and headed on our way. There are a few restaurants that were recommended in Port Elizabeth, but I really wanted to go to Jeffreys Bay and a restaurant called Kitchen Window that was located right on the beach. That was the first time trying the South African calamari, which I ordered after that every time it was on the menu.
Jeffreys Bay
Jeffreys bay provided by first look at the Indian Ocean and the beach culture in South Africa. The water reminds me of the West Coast with its vibrant blue color and rough waves. Surfing is a popular sport along the coast here. There were also hundreds of shells sprinkled all along the shore.
Tsitsikamma National Park
We ended up driving to Tsitsikamma National Park after that to spend that first night at this awesome cabin! There was only one other family staying at the Tsitsikamma Lodge and Spa. The staff opened the restaurant just for us and prepared a special wine and cheese plate. Since it was off-season, most of our time on the Garden Route was mainly just us and not many other tourists. I could have stayed at the cabin for at least one more day.
The next day proved to be an epic one-bungee jumping! Blukran’s Bridge is the highest bungee bridge in the world at about 600 feet. Of course up until that day in South Africa, the weather was perfect, but the day I’m jumping off a bridge its freezing and pouring down rain. I got lucky with my jump reservation in that only one other couple was scheduled at that time. The next group was a bus full of Indian tourists so it probably would have taken forever. So when you check in for your bungee time, they weigh you and write your weight on your hand. Then you go and sit in a café where you have a view of people jumping off the bridge while you wait your turn. You then walk about five minutes to get up on the bridge and then you jump according to weight, smallest to largest. You do have a harness on in addition to having your feet being fastened together so it does feel pretty safe. The staff has loud music playing to pump you up and you can watch on a screen as other people are jumping. When its your turn, you hop to the edge with the help of two staff members on either side who then count off 1-2-3-Bungee and then you fall forward.
So how was it? It was interesting. I didn’t realize how much you spin! I am not a fan of spinning. As you fall, you feel the pressure of the air against your body so it feels like you have weight pressed against you. Eventually you feel like shoes are going to slip off after hanging for a bit. Then they send down a member of staff who you hold onto and they pull you up. It was definitely a cool experience. Skydiving is a lot more fun though because you see more. And, no, I didn’t feel scared at all.
So the next thing everyone should do at Tsitsikamma National Park is to go to Storms River and hike to the Suspension Bridge, but it was still pouring down rain so we had to skip that. Instead, we went to the cutest restaurant where the owner makes everything homemade called Tsitsikamma Gardens. Its very small with a fireplace so you feel like you’re in someone’s dining room. Next, we stopped at “the big tree,” an 800 year old Yellowood tree, 118 feet high.
Plettenberg Bay
Plettenberg Bay is where most people stay when they visit the Garden Route. It has great beaches and various animal reserves (seals, monkeys, birds, other wildlife). We had some issues with our lodge we were staying at, in that they were trying to charge us more than they were supposed to. After a couple hours of dealing with Agoda.com who we booked our reservation through, Agoda ended up paying the difference, which was so nice of them! It was my first time using them so that was a great experience. The Lodge was very cute, right by the water and again we were the only people there! Unfortunately, in this part of South Africa, when places claim to have “heat,” what they mean are these little heaters on the wall that are as big as a hot plate and only generate heat about three inches around the hot plate. Luckily the beds had heated blankets so I didn’t want to get out of bed.
Knysna
On the way from Plettenberg Bay to Knysna, we stopped at the Harkerville Saturday Market. I always love going to local markets to see what the local people make and this was a great market with lots of food, local crafts and art. There was a pretty well-known artist selling his landscape water colors from local places in South Africa. We ended up buying a few paintings since they were pretty cheap compared to the US ($400 for framed paintings, which would probably sell for around $2000 at home).
Knysna is located at the heart of the Garden Route, with a beautiful lagoon surrounded by ancient forests. It used to be the center of the timber industry, supplying wood to the railways. The lagoon with the boats reminded me of the ports in Maine. Ile de Pain on Thessen Island was the most recommended restaurant, but it was closed when I went. Luckily I stumbled upon the Loft Boutique Hotel that offered a 4-course breakfast by the water. There was a bread, yogurt, fruit and egg course, all for $12. All of the food and accommodations on the Garden Route were very inexpensive, meaning less than $100 a night for a really nice hotel.
George
The biggest city on the Garden Route is George and we stayed in the cutest hotel, Oubaai Hotel Golf and Spa. There were a lot of great restaurants and one of the employees drove us in a golf cart to the water. During whale watching season, they have a lot of whale sightings. The hotel in general was really relaxing and it would have been great to spend another day. Unfortunately there was a super loud tour group that came in that evening. This was also the start of hotels asking us to conserve water and not take baths. I wanted to take a power tram up a mountain, but that excursion was closed at the time.
There are lot of other popular things to do along the Garden Route including great white shark diving, whale boat tours, ostrich farms, caves, etc. I have more suggestions on my itinerary and then a recap of Kruger National Park and the Panorama Route in case you missed it. The last two posts about South Africa will be on South African wine country and Cape Town. Then I am off to Banff and Jasper Canada!
