3-Week South Africa Road Trip

Are you currently planning your personalized South Africa round trip and have about 3 weeks for your road trip? Then you're in the right place, as I have been to the southernmost country in Africa eight times - and I love it! We will show you an itinerary for your first South Africa round trip (3 weeks) and provide tips for alternative routes. We ourselves spent 21 days on our first South Africa road trip exploring the key highlights of the country.

As a freelancer, I extended my stay for a week in West Coast National Park and Cape Town.

Here you will find our useful South Africa tips and our trip costs. Everything you need to know about the best travel time in South Africa, safari in Kruger National Park, and the best excursions around Cape Town.

To inspire you in your route planning, here is a list of all the places I visited and the highlights I saw during my South Africa road trip.

Tip: Is South Africa expensive? Am I finding the right way if I hardly speak English? We will clear up your concerns here. Read everything about -> my South Africa tips & round trip experiences. I've already been to this beautiful country eight times!

South Africa promotes itself with the slogan "The World in One Country" - and rightly so. Whether it's stunning beaches, desert-like dune landscapes, steep cliffs, gigantic trees, or perfect conditions for a safari in Kruger National Park or private game resorts like Sabi Sabi, Klaserie or Timbavati, there's truly something for everyone.

There are also major cities like Cape Town and Johannesburg (including Soweto) that are definitely worth a visit.

Overall, we traveled for 27 days by rental car through South Africa (with a side trip to Eswatini). For that, I have summarized tips for driving in South Africa.

We only discarded our travel plan at the end along the Garden Route. We had to reserve accommodations in the national parks well in advance.

I receive many messages asking whether it's easy and safe to drive in South Africa with a rental car.

My answer: I found the roads to be very empty (except, of course, in Cape Town and Johannesburg), I quickly got used to driving on the left side, though sometimes another car would attempt to overtake while I was already in the process - I still couldn't adjust to that even after four weeks. This is Africa.

Here you'll find very detailed tips for driving in South Africa from me.

Johannesburg - Soweto - Panorama Route - Kruger National Park - Johannesburg (you can also include Pretoria)

Cape Town and Cape Peninsula via Winelands through the Garden Route. Either round trip along the coast returning via the Karoo or flying back from Port Elizabeth via Cape Town or Johannesburg.

Here you'll find inspiration for 17 activities and excursions for Cape Town, Cape Peninsula, and the Garden Route.

Cape Town and Cape Region - Karoo (Observatory) - Kagga Kamma - Namaqualand - Augrabies NP - Kgalagadi-Transfrontier National Park - Upington - Return flight via Cape Town or Johannesburg.

View the travel report for this route here: Northern Cape South Africa from Cape Town

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Here you will find all the itineraries from my trips to South Africa. These are continually updated as I travel to South Africa almost every year to explore new regions.

A detailed list of my South Africa round trip can be found here in a free PDF download, with all distances, driving times, accommodations, and activities undertaken:

Overview of my first South Africa trip as a PDF download

It's not easy to decide which places to see on a rental car round trip through South Africa. The country is huge, and the variety of places and activities was overwhelming for me as I began to learn more about it. But I had to make a choice. One single trip to South Africa is not enough to visit all the highlights and "wish places" (I've been here eight times now).

Here are the highlights and places I visited on my first South Africa round trip:

Cape Town - the place to be in South Africa and the city with so many highlights: Table Mountain, Waterfront, Robben Island (report on the visit), local markets, township tours, and Design Capital 2014. Here, it's guaranteed no one will be bored.

I've been to Cape Town eight times now and keep discovering new places and favorite spots. Therefore, I have written several detailed reports about Cape Town.

The West Coast of South Africa is a little hidden gem. Too many tourists overlook it when they're in Cape Town. However, there are incredible sand dunes in West Coast National Park. Or at night, observing the stars with the San - the indigenous people - visiting a San village in !Kawa ttu and trying out their click language. Another highlight is the lagoon at Langebaan and Kraalbai.

We had an appointment with a real lighthouse keeper (with a visit up high) in Paternoster, the cozy small fishing village.

I've been to the Winelands three times: twice as part of round trips and once more when I got to visit the film locations for the Matthias Schweighöfer and Florian David Fitz movie "The Greatest Day". Besides Stellenbosch, I also visited Boschendal and Franschhoek.

On my first visit, I thought: This is what it must look like in southern England. I felt like I was in a Jane Austen scene. Beautiful (though too many golf courses and snobs for my taste).

One vineyard after another we passed. There are great and very stylish accommodations available for every budget. Whether Stellenbosch or Franschhoek, the Winelands are definitely worth a visit and should not be missed on a route through South Africa.

-> Here you'll find an article with highlights in the Winelands around Stellenbosch

Johannesburg is often avoided by many tourists. Why? They're scared. When I first visited, I didn't explore downtown Johannesburg either, only the township Soweto. Not out of disinterest but simply due to time constraints. However, I've been back three more times since then.

The employee at the rental car company was wide-eyed when we mentioned our destination "Soweto" out loud but remained quite indifferent.

We stayed overnight in Soweto (South Western Township), the largest township in South Africa. While one part of Soweto is becoming more touristy, don't be fooled: there is indeed a high crime rate on many corners here. It's just as high (or higher) as in the favelas of Brazil. You shouldn't wander around alone here. We didn't either; we spent a night at Soweto Backpackers and truly enjoyed the hospitality of the residents.

We did a bike tour in a scorching 36° Celsius to get to know the different neighborhoods of Soweto. We were surprised by the varying conditions in which people live here. From pretty little row houses to corrugated iron shacks without their own water supply and electricity. Definitely experience and visit!

By now, I have been to Johannesburg and Soweto three times. I've seen more highlights and documented all my tips and recommendations here:

-> See attractions in Johannesburg

The Kruger National Park and the adjacent Private Game Reserves are the highlight of my first trip to southern Africa. If you want to see wild animals in their natural habitat, this is the place to be (I recommend avoiding the "zoos" around Cape Town. These game reserves aren't as authentic).

Lions, leopards, cheetahs, elephants, giraffes, and everything else you could hope to see of wildlife can be found in the Kruger National Park.

All tips for the Kruger National Park:

On our first road trip, we left the safari world of Kruger National Park for a night to explore the Panorama Route starting from Graskop. On my second visit, I stayed for two nights here.

Highlights include the beautiful stops along the road, which are easily accessible by car. Bourne's Luck Potholes, Blyde River Canyon, and the towns of Graskop or Hazyview.

For nature lovers, this route is incredibly beautiful.

You'll find all tips, highlights, and information about the Panorama Route with Blyde River Canyon here.

After a detour along the Panorama Route, we head into Kruger National Park with Rhino Walking Tours. An overnight stay in luxurious tents - referred to as "glamping" and another night in a very basic tent with a sleeping bag in a treehouse amidst the bush savanna.

The highlights are, of course, the walking safaris and the sleepout in the treehouse. Barbecuing under the African starry sky and listening to the sounds of the roaming and hunting animals at night. Unlike at Sabi Sabi, where the focus is on cats, here we encountered large herds of elephants and buffaloes (on foot!!!), many zebras, and monkeys.

I didn't always have full confidence in our ranger here, especially during the walking safaris. He led us to within just 15 meters of a large herd of buffalo (sure there were 150 buffaloes). As we know, buffalo can be quite dangerous. A rhino also came suspiciously close to us.

Pure nature - at night the sounds of the animals and a thunderstorm also trickled into the tent. Amazing!

Everything you need to know about the Kruger National Park

Unlike most tourists who quickly pass through Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), we stayed at Mkhaya Game Reserve. In open huts, we spent a night and experienced more game drives and animal sightings right in front and above our open hut. Everything here is more primitive and simply a wonderful place.

Read a detailed report for the Mkhaya Game Reserve in Eswatini here.

Besides many drunken South Africans, here at night (or even during the day), you might encounter hippos roaming in search of water, drinking from swimming pools, no joke.

We thankfully only spotted them on the hippo and crocodile tour through the St Lucia Estuary.

We encountered an endangered species during the night turtle tour: The Leatherback Turtle. It was incredible to observe this over 600 kg turtle laying eggs on the beach in the national park. Only when daylight arrived around 5 a.m. did this tour conclude - it was worth staying up all night.

The Hluhluwe National Park (which is pronounced: Schluschluwie) proudly claims to have increased the rhino population in South Africa. Rightly so. Nowhere else have we encountered so many rhinos (especially on our walking tour on foot).

The hut in Hilltop Camp was simple but very cozy. We prepared our own barbecue and fortunately had bought most items in advance at the supermarket. The supermarket in the park offers hardly any fresh food, no vegetables, and mostly more atypical 'canned goods' like spaghetti Napoli.

That's why we ate at the restaurant on the second evening (be sure to reserve in advance; we certainly didn't, which led us to dine alone in a side room).

Durban was my personal low-light. In South Africa's "hottest place to be," it was gloomy and it rained repeatedly. No trace of sunshine or heat. I am sure I would have discovered beautiful spots in Durban with better weather and more time.

From Durban, we flew to Port Elizabeth and then directly to the Tsitsikamma National Park. From here, we drove along the Garden Route back to Cape Town.

I have written an extensive report for this route, including all the highlights of the Garden Route.

So you don't forget anything, I've created a checklist for a road trip.

My further tip: Keep a travel diary during your trip!

The memories contained in it are the best souvenirs from your journey! That's why I've designed and printed my own travel diaries.

In these notebooks, you can record costs, weather, impressions, highlights, and travel experiences. There's also space for pasting photos. Ideal as travel memories.

View travel diaries here

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