13 Day Best of Garden Route & Winelands Luxury Trip

Well-known for its sandy beaches, mountains, rivers, lakes, forests and quaint towns, South Africa's Garden Route on the southern Cape coastline and the beautiful Cape Winelands are perfect road trip destinations. Our 13 Day Best of Garden Route & Winelands Luxury Trip takes in some of the Garden Route and Cape Winelands' popular highlights with handpicked luxury boutique hotels and guesthouses as your overnight bases. The rates below are based on a self-drive trip. A fully guided trip is also possible but will cost more.

Itinerary

Day 1 to Day 3

Cape Town

On arrival at Cape Town International Airport, collect your rental car and drive about half an hour to The PortsWood Hotel at the famous V&A Waterfront. The Portswood will be your accommodation for the next three nights. Part of Cape Town's unique colonial heritage, PortsWood's lobby and restaurant are built over the original well and cells used to hold prisoners before being sent to Robben Island 300 years ago.

Set against the backdrop of iconic Table Mountain, the lively city of Cape Town is famous for its beaches, scenery, mountain trails, heritage buildings, rich culture and world-class shops, restaurants and entertainment. For the next three days, you will explore Cape Town and the surrounding area at your leisure. Highlights include:

• the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront,
• the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art,
• the Table Mountain Cableway,
• the penguin colony on Boulders Beach,
• the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens,
• Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years,

• the colourful Cape Malay heritage suburb of Bo-Kaap,
• the scenic Cape Peninsula and so much more.

Day 4 to Day 5

Hermanus

After breakfast on the morning of Day 4, you will make your way to the seaside town of Hermanus about 140 kilometres from Cape Town. Hermanus offers some of the best whale-watching in the world, both from the shore and from boat trips. The coastline around Hermanus is famous for the ten thousand-strong population of South Right Whales that return every year between July and November to give birth to the next generation of whales.

Your accommodation in Hermanus, The Marine, is perched on the town's cliff path overlooking Walker Bay and offers fantastic land-based whale-watching opportunities from June to November each year.

The grande dame of Hermanus, The Marine, offers gracious accommodation, excellent dining and fantastic service a stone's throw away from the Old Harbour in the heart of the shopping and restaurant hub. Guests can relax in a private, wind-protected courtyard with a heated pool or book a treatment in the beauty spa. A dip in the public tidal pool at the base of the cliff path is highly recommended.

First established as a farming community, the sunny coastal town of Hermanus, which stretches along an unspoilt shoreline framed by towering mountains, has many outdoor and nature activities such as:

• whale-watching tours,
• a guided sea kayaking tour of Walker Bay,
• picnicking on the lawns surrounding Voelklip Beach,
• fatbiking on Walker Bay Beach,
• walking the ocean-hugging 12-kilometre Cliff Path from the New Harbour to Grotto Beach,

• hiking across some of the wine estates in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley with wine-tasting and dining stops included,
• exploring the town on foot and discovering the innovative and authentic restaurants, bistros, coffee shops, pubs and bars that have put Hermanus on the map as Africa's first UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy,
• exploring the Overberg mountain passes, vineyards and orchards on horseback and more.

Day 6 to Day 8

Plettenberg Bay

After breakfast on Day 6, you will leave for Plettenberg Bay. You'll pass Swellendam at the foot of the Langeberg Mountains, Mossel Bay with its Portuguese flair, and Knysna with its tranquil lagoons and indigenous forests. These are just three of a number of quaint villages and towns you can stop and explore at your own pace. Your accommodation in Plettenberg Bay, The Plettenberg Hotel, is a five-star luxury hotel with breathtaking views of the Indian ocean, mountains and golden beaches.

Plettenberg Bay, a charming seaside town with endless untouched beaches, lagoons, rivers, natural forests, and a rugged peninsula, is the perfect location from which to explore the countless attractions of South Africa's Garden Route. Some of those attractions include:

• whale watching and dolphin encounters with Ocean Blue Adventures,
• swimming or snorkelling with seals,
• scenic hike nd seal watching on the Robberg peninsula
• the Bloukrans Bridge bungy jump,
• a Tsitsikamma canopy tour over indigenous rainforests,
• a visit to Monkeyland Primate Sanctuary, Birds of Eden or Radical Raptors

• eating and shopping locally-made items at Market on Main in Plettenberg Bay,
• a round of golf at any number of top-class golf courses in Mossel Bay, George, Knysna or Plettenberg Bay,
• browse sculptures at Bronze Fields Foundry and more.

Day 9 to Day 10

Oudtshoorn

Day 9 sees a change of scenery as you ascend into the towering Outeniqua Mountains that separate the lakes, forests and sandy shores of the coastline from the semi-arid Klein Karoo which has a charm all of its own. You will spend two nights at the elegant De Denne Country Guesthouse on a working ostrich farm. All spacious en-suite rooms enjoy beautiful views of the rolling lawns, mountain-framed farmlands and spectacular sunsets.

Activities in the area include sunrise meerkat safaris, Cango Caves tours, "High 5" stargazing, birdwatching, scenic walks and ostrich farm tours.

Day 11 to Day 13

Franschhoek and the Cape Winelands

The next leg of your 13 Day Best of Garden Route & Winelands Luxury Trip begins after breakfast on the morning of Day 11 when you will travel along one of the longest wine routes in the world. Cape Route 62 meanders through spectacular scenery, breathtaking mountain passes, historic attractions, picturesque farming towns, colourful and quirky villages and fruit and wine farms. Your journey's end is the heritage town of Franschhoek, one of the most well-known food and wine destinations in the world.

Surrounded by mountains and bordered by vineyards, the elegant and luxurious Le Franschhoek Hotel and Spa will be your base for the next two nights from which to explore Franschhoek and the Cape Winelands.

There is plenty to see and do in Franschhoek with its sprawling wine estates, five-star restaurants, fertile valley scenery, literary festivals, charming museums, quaint boutiques and hiking and cycling trails through rolling vineyards and along rugged mountain trails.

Activities include:

• a hop-on hop-off trip on the Franschhoek Wine Tram into the heart of the Franschhoek Valley,
• a Boschendal Rhone Rose Garden picnic,
• a half-day culinary walking tour of Stellenbosch,