Garden Route Self-Drive: Western Cape, Whales & Wine

Ten nights along the Garden Route, self-guided and tailor-made, from Cape Town east through the Western Cape.

Hermanus is the opening draw and a genuine one: southern right whales come into the bay between July and November and can be watched from a clifftop path rather than a boat, which makes it among the best land-based whale watching anywhere.

The Whale Route carries the car east from Cape Town, with the Grootbos private reserve nearby, which holds over nine thousand plant species and several thousand found nowhere else, part of the Cape Floral Kingdom. Knysna follows on its estuary, with a Featherbed Nature Reserve cruise through the Heads and the small blue duiker in the forest there. Plettenberg Bay comes next with its beaches, then Tsitsikamma for the coastal forest trails. Oudtshoorn follows inland, with an ostrich farm, the Cango Caves and time with habituated wild meerkats, and the return runs on Route 62 through the mountains, the vineyards and the Karoo, crossing the Outeniqua range by Prince Alfred’s Pass high above the Langkloof.

The rental car and the accommodation throughout are included, with the operator’s recommended properties including Grootbos and Birkenhead House; international flights, fuel and most activities and meals are not. The price shown is per person excluding flights. No wildlife sighting can be promised, whales included, though the season is predictable enough to plan dates around. July to November pairs the whales with comfortable driving weather. Eleven days is enough to run the full route out and back on Route 62 rather than retracing the coast, which is the best argument for a trip of this length here.