In late 2024, Joe was invited to a company meetup in East London, South Africa. Upon learning about it, we decided to turn that work trip into a family vacation. When we checked dates, we saw that the trip was happening a week before the kids’ Carnival Break, so we decided to turn Joe’s long work weekend getaway into a two week family vacation.
Because a lot of my husbands’ coworkers are from South Africa, we had a lot of recommendations for places to visit and things to do. After doing our own research, and giving it a lot of thought, we decided we would drive the Garden Route, but we would make it a bit longer, starting in East London and finishing it in Cape Town, and doing safari along the way.
Getting There
We flew from Lisbon into Johannesburg with a layover in Istanbul with Turkish Airlines. Initially, we considered doing another extended layover in Istanbul like we did last year, but we decided we wanted as many days as possible just in South Africa instead.
We booked our airport transfers from and to Johannesburg airport with Welcome Pickups, and they were excellent.
On the way back home, we flew from Cape Town to Lisbon with a short layover in Istanbul.
When To Go
We visited South Africa during the shoulder season. We were there at end of their summer, in late February/early March. Overall, we got perfect weather as it was comfortable most of the time. We didn’t have extreme heat, which was very nice. We had a few rainy days while we were on safari, but it wasn’t an issue at all because the operators provided us with heavy duty ponchos. In fact, I would take the drizzly days we got over sunny days any day because the drives would’ve been too hot. With cloudy days we also didn’t have to worry too much about sunburning.
Itinerary
Two weeks might sound like a lot of time, but South Africa is such a big country, we only managed to cover a small area of it. We found it easier to focus our energy onto one area, so we chose to drive the Garden Route. Because we were starting in East London, we ended up covering more of the Eastern Cape than we would have if we had started in Port Elizabeth.
Here’s our 2-week itinerary for our South Africa trip:
Johannesburg – 1 night
We spent a night in Johannesburg at the Marriott Hotel at Melrose Arch before catching our next flight to East London. We booked the hotel with points, and it worked super well for our family! Because we were only in Johannesburg for less than 24 hours, the Marriott location was perfect for us. The hotel area is surrounded by restaurants, shopping, and cafes. The area was also great for walking everywhere we needed to get to.
Other than eating at some tasty restaurants, we also spent time at this bookstore browsing their great book selection. Coming from Portugal, we were super excited to spend time in a bookstore catering to English speakers!
Getting Around
After a short flight from Johannesburg, we arrived in East London. We picked up our rental car from Avis at the East London airport. After seeing our rental car, we were super happy we had packed light! Our small Renault Kwid could just fit our 3 small carryon suitcases and a couple of small backpacks. The car took a bit of getting used to, but at the end we were happy with it as it never let us down!
Also, a reminder that driving is on the left side in South Africa so be ready for that.
East London/Wild Coast – 3 nights
From the airport we drove about an hour to Crawford’s Beach Lodge in the Wild Coast. Joe was having his work meetup in a lodge 5 minutes away, and Crawford’s was recommended to us as a good place to stay nearby.
The kids and I really enjoyed this resort. We stayed in the Dolphin Family Suites and loved it! We had originally been put in a different room, but after a little incident with the local wildlife, we were moved to the Dolphin Suites. Our space included 3 rooms with double beds, 2 bathrooms, 3 different sitting areas, and a large deck with chairs and a picnic table overlooking the Indian Ocean.
The resort amenities included a cute kids’ club with kid-sitting at any time. My kids are older so they spent little time at the kids’ club, mostly playing pool and table tennis. They had 2 pools, but one was being maintained while we were there, so we just used the one next to the main lodge, which also happened to have a gorgeous view of the beach and ocean. The resort also had beach access via nice wooden stairs.
We opted for the boarding package so all our meals were included. The food was good, but nothing to write home about. They had kid menus, but my kids were satisfied with the food from the buffet so we stuck to that.
At Crawford’s we spent our time walking on the beach, swimming in the pool, reading, playing cards and just relaxing. It was a really nice and easy start to our vacation!
Kariega Game Reserve – 3 nights
After the Wild Coast, we drove two and a half hours down the coast to Kariega Game Reserve to do safari! This was definitely the highlight of our trip! We had been wanting to take our kids on safari for the longest time, so we knew right away this would be something we’d do on this trip.
Kariega Game Reserve came highly recommended to us, and we are so happy with listened to those recommendations. This place was just perfect! We went on 6 game drives during our stay, and saw 4 out of the Big Five. We even went on a night drive, which was a unique and unforgettable experience!
Read all about our time in Kariega Game Reserve here.
Plettenberg Bay – 2 nights
It took over 4 hours to drive from Kariega Game Reserve to Plettenberg Bay. This was the longest driving day of our trip, which wasn’t too bad considering how big South Africa is!
After driving for a couple of hours, we stopped at Die Walskipper in Jeffrey’s Bay for lunch. This restaurant is right on the water and has beautiful views. A fun part of it was that the ground is just sand, so you get to take off your shoes and be right on the sand! Super fun place with delicious food. In fact, I think I had the best fish and chips of my life there!
From Jeffrey’s Bay we drove straight to Plettenberg Bay. We drove straight through Tsitsikamma National Park, which we were planning on visiting the following day from Plettenberg Bay. We briefly questioned our decision to not stay in the park, but later we were happy to have opted for a 2 night stay in Plett. The drive through the park was beautiful!
Plettenberg Bay was the perfect place to base ourselves off of to explore the nearby area, including Tsitsikamma National Park and hiking in Robberg Nature Preserve. To read about what we did in Plettenberg Bay and the surrounding area, check out this post.
Oudtshoorn – 1 night
We drove to Oudtshoorn from Pletternberg Bay with a quick stop in Knysna to stretch our legs and get some coffee. We walked the waterfront to checked out the souvenir shops, and found one that had really cool handmade handicrafts. On the drive out of town we got a glimpse of the entrance to the Knysna harbor, which is supposed to be one of the hardest harbor entrances in the world.
It was very interesting to see the change in scenery as we drove over the mountain pass and into Oudtshoorn. The scenery started changing from lush to arid, but still very beautiful. We were definitely happy to see a different part of the country and the Garden Route!
We decided to spend a night in Oudtshoorn so that we could see the Cango Caves, and visit an Ostrich Farm. It was a great decision to add this town to our Garden Route itinerary!
To learn more about what we did in Oudtshoorn, and the drive to Mossel Bay, check out this post.
Mossel Bay – 1 night
We arrived in Mossel Bay from Oudtshoorn mid afternoon. We had originally considered hiring a tour to go swim with great white sharks, but after some research we learned that the sharks no longer frequent Mossel Bay so we decided to skip it.
Once in Mossel Bay we drove straight to the Bartolomeu Dias Museum. We wanted to visit this museum because of its connection to Portuguese history, and to mail a letter from the Post Office Tree.
Cape Town – 2 nights and fly back home
Two nights in Cape Town was not nearly enough time to really tackle this city, but it was good for getting a taste of it. We stayed in the De Waterkant area in an Airbnb close to the waterfront, and it worked great! The apartment had a designated parking spot, which was a plus.
There were so many things we wanted to see and do in Cape Town, but we knew we had to narrow it down to just a few activities. At the top of our list was seeing the penguins at Boulder Beach so we prioritized doing that. We talked about hiking Table Mountain, but recent reports of muggings on the trails discouraged us. Joe and I have been mugged while traveling in the past. It was a very unpleasant experience, and we wanted to spare our kids from having to go through that.
On my personal list was visiting the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, so we did that on our way back to Cape Town from Boulder Beach and it worked great! We spent the rest of our time in Cape Town exploring the waterfront, and checking out the Zeitz Mocaa Museum.
To read more about our time in Cape Town, check out this post.
Final Thoughts
Safety
While planning our trip to South Africa, the issue of safety kept coming up. We never felt unsafe during our trip, but we did take some basic precautions as recommended by some people. While driving in slower roads (like driving out of East London or in highway traffic) we kept our phones and valuables out of sight. We also never left anything visible inside our car when it was parked in public lots (this is something we honestly do anywhere we go). I never travel with jewelry, but if I did I would’ve left it home for this trip.
It was recommended by several people that we stick to the main roads when driving between places. An example was the drive into Cape Town (by the airport). Sometimes, during rush hour, Google Maps might redirect you to side roads to avoid traffic on the N2. This detours can lead you to drive through townships where tourists have been known to be mugged, or even have their cars stolen. We usually checked the route for our day’s drive, and made sure we’d be driving on big roads. This was something we kept more in mind while driving in and around Cape Town, and not so much in the Garden Route.
Packing Recommendations
Even if the weather forecast is for sunny skies, it is wise to pack a rain jacket for a trip to South Africa’s Eastern Cape. We had rain roll in totally unexpectedly, and were happy we were prepared. We also packed a thermal layer that was perfect for cold safari mornings.
It might be wise to pack some travelers’ diarrhea medication for your trip. One of us had an upset stomach for most of the trip, and we wish we’d packed some pills. Of course you can get them at pharmacies in the main towns and cities, but it’s best to be prepared.
Educate Yourself
South Africa is a beautiful country with a history marked by colonial oppression and imperialism. Apartheid didn’t end until 1994, and the racial disparities are still very evident. If you didn’t know, Aparheid was the racial segregation that dictated that non-white South Africans (a majority of the population) were required to live in separate areas from whites and use separate public facilities, etc. It was the law between 1948 and 1994. This law was created by the all-white government of South Africa, which had achieved power through colonial imperialism and violent oppresion.
While visiting places like Jeffrey’s Bay or Plettenberg Bay, it was almost impossible to ignore the fact that the best plots of land are owned by white people, while Black South Africans are still the ones living in townships with not even the bare minimum basic needs in some cases. I can only speak for what I saw in the areas we visited, but the racial divide was something that really made an impression on me.
Before traveling to South Africa, Joe read Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom. He shared what he read with me, and we both felt like it was a good book to read before a trip to South Africa. While Nelson Mandela was pivotal in ending Apartheid, no reparations took place, so those who took land from others got to keep it, and those who lost their land never got it back. I think this is just something to keep in mind and be aware of when visiting.
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