jck4

long story, but have postponed trip in Sept for trip in late Oct. We have 15 nights: fly Washington to Jo'burg to Cape Town, 3 nights Hermanus, 3 nights SOMEWHERE (beginning of garden route?anywhere within 4 hours drive of Hermanus worth seeing for 2 whole days?), 2 nights Franschoek (might be pregnant and don't want to do too much winetasting), 4 nights Cape Town, 3 nights Madikwe. thoughts? thanks, Julie

colind

Travel along the Garden Route visit the Tsitsikamma National Park and see the big 5 in the Eastern Cape which is also malaria free and fly back from PE to J’Burg. There are a wide variety of safari lodges from 1000-4000 Rand per night, also visit the Addo National Park with the world’s highest density elephant population.

Selwyn_Davidowitz

jck4

I would suggest that you travel from Hermanus to Knysna during the time that you are querying (4 hour drive). I would suggest that you stay in Knysna for two days using the town as a centre point to explore the Garden Route. In effect you will then be using the town and its surrounds as a hub and spoke type system.

In your two days in Knysna I would drive in an eastern direction on one of the days so as to visit the Tsisikamma area making sure that you travel to the Stormsriver Bridge via the Natures Valley Road and coming back via Bloukrans Bridge and Plettenberg Bay. You could do this day drive quite comfortably in about 5 hours. It all depends on how many times you want to stop and how qualitatively you want to view the surrounding areas.

On the second day I would suggest that you visit the Belvedere Estate, The Heads as well as the town of Knysna in general. This too will be a 4 to 5 hour at most event with very little driving to be done.

While staying in Knysna you will be spoilt for choice in terms of where to stay as well as dine. In terms of dining I would suggest that you dine at La Loerie (Excellent and very dependable cuisine) as well as at my latest find in terms of being a dining out viz. Firefly restaurant. Whacky venue that is so different from anything you wll have ever expereinced . This little gem of a eaterie serves fantastic curry type foods to its at most 24 patrons in a candle lit atmsophere that is very unique. It is run by a mother and duaghetr team. HIGHLY recommended.

After your two days in Knysna you could travel back to Franschhoek on the 4-5 hour journey so as to continue your vacation in this lovely country village.

One point to mention is that Tsitsikamma is about 6 hours away from Hermanus while Addo is about 8 hours away. If you travel as far as PE or Addo from Hermanus in a 4 day period you will be spending more time in a car driving to destinations on a daily basis than you will ever know. Furthermore the drive from Addo back to Franschhoek is a long, hard 8 hour solid drive. Normally it would be a good suggestion to visit these terrains if one had the time and desire to want to drive long distances however it is my opinion that the suggestion made in a previous post in this thread to see these areas is a poor one considering that you want to travel for no more than 4 hours at a time.

Hope this helps you in your planning.

Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa

jck4

thank you both so much!!! Julie

jck4

hi, its me again. I THINK we're leaving this weekend. current plan is 3 nights in Hermanus to unwind (although cage/shark diving is part of the plan - this is unwinding?) then will drive from Hermanus to Plettenberg Bay to the Thala Lodge!! Given that this is a 5 hour drive and I'd like the drive to be relatively direct on this day (since Thala is so cool!), what's the best driving route? Several days later, we're driving west from Thala/Plettenberg to Swellendam, via Oudtshoorn/Rt 62. Any "must see" sights for this day? Does R340 intersect with R62 or is there a better way to get there? Thanks, Julie

jck4

OOps I mean Tsala of course.