The Garden Route is a 300 kilometre stretch of the south eastern coast, running from Witsand in the Western Cape to the Tsitsikamma and Storms River area on the border with the Eastern Cape. The name comes from what you see out of the window: this is the greenest part of South Africa, with indigenous forest, estuaries, lakes and fynbos, and a warm current offshore that keeps it mild when the rest of the country is either freezing or baking.
It is a route rather than a destination, which is the thing to understand before planning it. The towns along it, Mossel Bay, George, Wilderness, Sedgefield, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay and Nature’s Valley, are all pleasant and none of them is the point on its own. The point is the drive, the walks and the water, and the days you spend not moving.
The drive, and the stops that matter
Most people drive it from Cape Town, which is four to five hours from Mossel Bay on the N2, and the spine of the route is that road. The towns go past in order: Mossel Bay, where Bartolomeu Dias landed in 1488 and where the museum explains it; George, the largest town and the airport; Wilderness and Sedgefield, beside the lakes; Knysna, on its lagoon behind two cliffs called the Heads; Plettenberg Bay, with the Robberg peninsula and the beaches; and then Nature’s Valley and the Tsitsikamma section, where the road runs through forest above the sea.
The scenic alternatives are worth taking if you are not in a hurry. The Seven Passes road between George and Knysna runs inland of the N2 through forest and old bridges; the Outeniqua Pass takes you over the mountains to Oudtshoorn and the Cango Caves; and Route 62 through the Klein Karoo is the way back to Cape Town for anybody who would rather not drive the same road twice.
Walks, water and the things people come for
The Garden Route is a walking destination disguised as a driving one. The Otter Trail is the famous five-day coastal hike between Nature’s Valley and Storms River, with permits that sell out the day they are released, and the Dolphin Trail is the guided version with your luggage carried. For everyone else there are half-day walks: the Robberg peninsula at Plettenberg Bay, which is a three to four hour circuit with seals, dolphins and sometimes whales below you; the Storms River mouth and its suspension bridge; the lakeside trails at Wilderness; and the forest walks around Knysna.
On the water the options are the lagoon at Knysna, boat trips to the Heads and out to sea, kayaking on the lakes, and whale watching in season, from about June to November, when the southern right whales come close inshore to calve. Plettenberg Bay, Mossel Bay and the Wilderness coast all see them, and Hermanus further west is the famous place for it.
Weather, seasons and what to expect
The climate here is maritime, which means mild and changeable in every season rather than hot in one and cold in another. Rain falls at any time of year, the area is genuinely a temperate rainforest in places, and the wind can arrive suddenly. Summer, from December to February, is the busy season and the one to book ahead for. Winter is quieter, greener, cheaper and the better time for whales.
The practical consequences are simple. Take a rain jacket whatever the forecast says. Plan the walk in the morning and the drive in the afternoon, because the weather often improves as the day goes on. And do not judge the day from your breakfast table: fifty kilometres along this coast is a different weather system.
Driving it, and the details that catch people out
Hire a car, either in Cape Town or at George, and drive the route in one direction rather than out and back. Book the accommodation before you book the flights for December and January, and be aware that the N2 is a working road with trucks on it, not a scenic byway.
Then the local rules. Animals, including baboons, cross the road, especially at dawn and dusk, so be off the road before dark. Tolls apply on parts of the N2, fuel stations are frequent but not continuous, and the gravel passes inland are sometimes excluded from hire car agreements, so check before you take one. And if you are flying out of George, that airport is small and easy, which is the reason so many people drive one way and fly back.
The Garden Route works when you give it time to be slow: stop in the small places, walk in the morning, eat fish by the water in the evening, and accept that the drive itself is the attraction. Four days is a taste; a week is a holiday.