6 Day - Garden Route, Safari & Winelands

You leave Cape Town and travel into the Little Karoo via Montagu, a picturesque and historic spa town. On the way you stop in Barrydale to visit a local farm school, where you spend time with the children and teachers in the classroom and learn about the local farming community (subject to the school being open). You continue to Oudtshoorn, the “ostrich feather capital” and centre of the world’s ostrich farming industry, for dinner and an overnight stay.

After breakfast you take a guided tour of the Cango Caves, limestone caverns sculpted by nature over millions of years. You then climb into the Swartberg Mountains on the Swartberg Pass (weather permitting), a gravel mountain road with dramatic views and ancient sandstone formations hundreds of millions of years old. Look out for fynbos, including proteas, cone bushes and pincushions. Back in Oudtshoorn you tour an ostrich farm and enjoy a light lunch. You have dinner and an overnight stay at your hotel.

After breakfast you travel over the scenic Outeniqua Pass to George, the administrative hub of the Garden Route, and on to Knysna, known as the oyster capital of South Africa, set on the banks of a beautiful lagoon. You take a lagoon cruise to Featherbed Nature Reserve, followed by a trailer ride to the top of the Western Head for panoramic views of the town and lagoon, and lunch under the milkwood trees. The afternoon is at leisure to explore this charming lagoon town. You have dinner and an overnight stay at your hotel.

After a leisurely breakfast you drive through the Tsitsikamma forests to Bloukrans Bridge, the highest bridge on the Garden Route and home to one of the world’s highest commercial bungy jumps, at 216 metres (optional, at extra cost). This stretch of the Garden Route is where mountains, indigenous forests, deep gorges and lush vegetation meet a rugged coastline of cliffs and sandy beaches, with ancient yellowwood trees and fynbos along the way. In the afternoon you return to Knysna via Plettenberg Bay, named “Bahia Formosa” (beautiful bay) by early Portuguese explorers. The bay is known for its beaches, sailing, fishing and scuba diving. You have dinner and an overnight stay at your hotel.

You begin the return journey via George and Mossel Bay to Swellendam, a picturesque Cape Dutch town founded in 1745 at the foot of the Langeberg mountains and one of the oldest towns in South Africa, where you have lunch. You continue to Hermanus, the seaside resort known as the heart of the Whale Coast, with some of the best land-based whale watching in the world from about June to November. You have dinner and an overnight stay at your hotel.

After a leisurely breakfast you leave Hermanus and follow Clarence Drive, the scenic coastal road to Gordon’s Bay, with steep cliffs, lovely coves and sweeping views over False Bay. Locals call it the Helderberg area’s own Chapman’s Peak Drive. You continue to Stellenbosch in the Cape Winelands, with its blend of Cape Dutch, Georgian and Victorian architecture, for a wine tasting. You then travel to Cape Town, where the tour ends. You can be dropped at Cape Town International Airport on request.