oscar123

My husband and I are planning to rent a car and drive the Garden Route next March. This is a trip to celebrate our 45th wedding anniversary and also includes a guided safari tour into Kruger Park. We met a woman today in Canada who takes small tour groups to South Africa. She told us that it is not safe to drive the Garden route on our own. She said that tourist areas are especially dangerous and mentioned numerous incidents of tourists being robbed at gunpoint and even stopped by "fake" police, robbed or even killed. We have travelled in many countries and are aware that there can be dangerous situations everywhere. However we tend to be reasonably cautious and don't drive at night in foreign countries.

Are we taking a risk in driving the Garden Route?

christabir

She’s trying to scare you so you use her services. I’ve driven all over the country and have never experienced anything like that. She’s a scam artist (only worse!). The Garden Route is beautiful and thousands of tourists enjoy it daily. Have fun.

tjhome1

You take a certain level of risk every time you get in a car, wherever it may be. We drove the Garden route last year and no problems whatsoever and when you drive it you will almost certainly not have any problems - I would not let this person put you off.

oscar123

Christabir and tjhome1

Thank you so much for your reassuring advice. I have read many Fodor's forum trip reports on SA and seen no mention of the kind of danger we heard of from the woman today. But thought there might be something we missed. We will continue to plan our driving trip. Thanks again.