Garden Route
Forests, lagoons and the Outeniqua mountains between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth
- Distance
- 512 mi
- 824 km
- Driving
- 10 hr 48 min
- excl. stops
- Suggested
- 6 days
- balanced split
- Stops
- 7
- curated
Distance and driving time are measured along the mapped route through the 7 stops listed below. Officially signed versions of famous routes often quote a longer figure, since they include promoted detours this line doesn't take.
Opens the planner with every stop loaded. Free, no card needed.
Day by day
Distances are measured along the actual road geometry, not straight-line. Drive times exclude stops, traffic and ferry waits.
Before you go
Best time to drive it
April to June, or September to October
Shoulder season. Warm enough to enjoy, and you avoid both the August heat and the worst of the coastal traffic.
Indicative costs
- We haven't compiled cost data for South Africa yet.
Tolls assume ~65% of the distance on tolled road. Fuel prices move constantly: treat these as a range, not a quote.
Driving rules
Emission zones, mandatory equipment and licence requirements change country by country, and in 2026 several of them changed mid-year.
Every stop on the Garden Route
- 1Cape Town
- 2Hermanus
- 3Mossel Bay
- 4Knysna
- 5Plettenberg Bay
- 6Tsitsikamma
- 7Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth)
Worth a detour
Curated places within 25 km of the road.
Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa
museumAfrica's largest contemporary art museum, carved from a historic grain silo on Cape Town's waterfront.
Camps Bay Beach
beachA glamorous Cape Town beach backed by the Twelve Apostles mountain range with palm-lined promenades and Atlantic waves.
Clifton Beach
beachA series of four sheltered, boulder-divided coves in Cape Town renowned for their beauty and calm, clear waters.
Muizenberg Beach
beachA family-friendly Cape Town beach famous for its colourful Victorian bathing boxes and gentle waves perfect for learning to surf.
Chapman's Peak Beach Restaurant
cafeA seaside restaurant at the base of Chapman's Peak Drive near Cape Town, one of the world's most spectacular coastal driving roads carved into cliff faces.
Harbour House Kalk Bay
cafeA celebrated restaurant overlooking the fishing harbour on the Cape Peninsula driving route, where road trippers stop for seafood with crashing wave views.
Chapman's Peak Viewpoint
scenic viewpointA series of pull-offs on one of the world's most scenic coastal drives, hugging the cliffs between Hout Bay and Noordhoek near Cape Town.
Bloukrans Bridge Viewpoint (Garden Route)
scenic viewpointAfrica's highest bridge spanning 216 metres above the Bloukrans River gorge on South Africa's Garden Route, also home to the world's highest bungee jump.
Robben Island
landmarkFormer political prison island off Cape Town where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years, now a UNESCO museum.
N1/N4 Cape Town to Kruger
famous roadSouth Africa's grand traverse from the Cape Winelands across the Karoo to Kruger National Park and its Big Five wildlife.
Chapman's Peak Drive
coastal driveA breathtaking 9-kilometer toll road carved into the near-vertical face of Chapman's Peak between Hout Bay and Noordhoek.
Garden Route
coastal driveA 300-kilometer stretch along South Africa's southeastern coast through forests, lagoons, and charming seaside towns.
Common questions about the Garden Route
How long does the Garden Route take?
The driving itself is about 10 hr 48 min across 512 miles (824 km). Most people spread it over 6 days: the day-by-day breakdown on this page splits it into balanced stretches rather than equal ones, so no single day is all driving.
How many miles is the Garden Route?
512 miles, or 824 km, measured along the actual road rather than straight-line between towns.
When is the best time to drive the Garden Route?
April to June, or September to October. Shoulder season. Warm enough to enjoy, and you avoid both the August heat and the worst of the coastal traffic.
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