It’s been about a week since we got back now, I’ve had time to decompress, wash all my clothes, get back into my normal routine - and my belly has finally started to be less bloated now I’ve stopped eating steak and drinking wine every day. 😉

Thought I’d wrap up with some final thoughts in case it helps anyone planning something similar.

What we ended up doing

Rough outline of the itinerary:

• Cape Town (2N)
  
• Franschhoek (1N)
  
• Hermanus (1N)
  
• Garden Route Game Lodge (1N)
  
• Wilderness (1N)
  
• Plettenberg Bay (2N)
  
• Storms River (1N)
  
• Swellendam (1N)
  
• Stellenbosch (1N)
  
• Cape Town (1N)
  

So quite a lot of one-nighters, which I’ll come back to.

What I loved about South Africa

The obvious one is the scenery - it really is spectacular almost everywhere you go. Mountains, coastline, vineyards, big beaches, little towns… it’s all very “wow” without having to try very hard.

Driving is super simple. The roads on this route were excellent: smooth, wide, well-signposted and generally very little traffic. For a first-time self-drive in South Africa it felt very manageable.

Food was consistently a high standard, even in fairly casual or mid-range places. Steak is obviously excellent and the wine is really good. I’m not a big wine buff but even I could tell how good a lot of it was. We ended up bringing nine bottles home.

One random tip on that: at CPT check-in we were told you can only check in six bottles of wine per person. We had to split the bottles across two suitcases and assign them to each of us separately to keep them happy. So if you get carried away buying wine (very easy to do), bear that in mind.

Prices were pretty reasonable while we were there. As a guide:

• The car hire (VW Polo Vivo, manual) was extremely good value: about £120 for 10 days with Europcar via Booking, picked up in central Cape Town and dropped at the airport.
  
• We did pick up a speeding fine somewhere along the way - haven’t seen the damage yet, so that’s a future-me problem…
  
• General food prices felt around 30-40% of UK prices. Two people could eat very well with wine for about £30–40.
  

Accommodation was mostly guesthouses plus a couple of apartments. The apartments were generally great. Guesthouses were a bit more mixed - some lovely, some in need of a bit of updating - but nothing disastrous, and given we rarely stayed more than one night it was all perfectly fine.

What I’d do differently next time

The main thing I’d change for a future trip of this type would be to spend longer in fewer places. This is something we already knew from previous trips (Japan in particular), but we got a bit excited because we had the car and ended up booking quite a few one-night stops to “complete” the Garden Route.

It looks good on paper, and in reality it was OK, but it is a bit tiring hauling suitcases in every evening and back out again the next morning. You end up only really being in the room for a few hours and it’s not the most relaxing way to travel.

On the flip side, we did get to see a lot in a relatively short time, so it depends what you value.

Highlights

Off the top of my head, the stand-outs were:

• Franschhoek & the wine tram – Really fun day. Hopping between wine farms on the tram, tasting as you go, with scenery that looks like a postcard. Just a very enjoyable way to spend a day.
  
• Cape Town – Cool city, good vibe, nice mix of things to do. Three nights felt about right for us as first-timers.
  
• Garden Route Game Lodge – I really enjoyed seeing the animals. However, the whole thing did feel a bit “on rails”, almost zoo-like at times, even though it’s an open game reserve. For example, we did two drives and the elephants were pretty much in the same place on both days. No idea if that’s normal or not, but that was the impression. I’d recommend it for one night and two drives, which felt plenty. Maybe one day we’ll do a “proper” safari in Kruger or elsewhere in Africa.
  
• Wilderness – Loved this. Huge wild beach, waves pounding, and sleeping next to the sea with the sound of the ocean is hard to beat. Very atmospheric place.
  
• Stellenbosch – I thought this might not be my thing as it can look a bit touristy, but actually I really liked it. Good restaurants, nice vibe, and plenty of little bits to potter around and see. We could easily have done another night there.
  

We also did quite a bit of hiking and walking along the way, which was a big plus for me – Robberg, Storms River, etc. Loads of variety and some proper leg-stretching if you want it.

Steak, wine and the state of my stomach

As mentioned at the top: steak and wine are very tempting because they’re so good and so cheap. I don’t regret any of it, but by the end my stomach definitely did. I started to feel fairly bloated and not at my best.

If I went again, I’d try to eat a bit more “normal” and varied food rather than just defaulting to steak every other meal. Easier said than done when the menu is shouting fillet / ribeye at you for £10-15…

BA experience

BA were solid throughout, both ways. Being able to use the Amex 2-for-1 and Avios to sit in Club Suites made the whole thing feel like very good value. Ground experience at CPT in particular exceeded my expectations – great staff and very drinkable wine in the lounge, which feels appropriate for South Africa.

Safety

This comes up a lot, so worth a comment. For years I’ve heard “South Africa is really dangerous, you have to watch yourself constantly, don’t drive at night, keep the car locked, etc.”

We obviously took sensible precautions - doors locked, didn’t flash valuables around, didn’t go looking for trouble - and we stuck to fairly touristy parts of the Western Cape. But at no point did we feel threatened or unsafe.

If you’ve lived in a big city like London or travelled in other less developed places, the “situational awareness” you use there carries over quite naturally. Use common sense, keep an eye on what’s going on around you, and you’ll almost certainly be fine. We had zero issues across the whole trip.

I completely accept we were in a bit of a bubble geographically, and other parts of the country are different, but for anyone reading this who’s nervous about doing a similar trip: our reality was that it felt absolutely fine.

Weather & sun

Weather was pretty much perfect for us. Worth flagging that the sun is ferocious. The UV is no joke – you really do need sunblock on all the time, plus a hat and ideally some light covering. I saw a lot of very burnt people. I was fairly religious with the sunscreen and still felt it some days.

Overall

Overall, we had a great time. Beautiful country, easy driving, good food and wine, loads of variety, and a nice mix of city, coast, wine and wildlife.

I’d definitely go back to South Africa at some point – although I’m not in “must go back immediately” mode, as there are lots of other places on the list as well. But I’m very glad we finally went, and I’d happily recommend a similar Western Cape self-drive to anyone considering it, with the small tweak of maybe doing fewer bases for longer stays.

Thanks for reading!