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Summary


We spent a little over two weeks driving from Johannesburg to Cape Town, including Kruger National Park and the coastal Garden Route, before staying in the Cape Peninsula and Stellenbosch. We stayed primarily in chalets within national park rest camps and prioritized animals, hikes, and good seafood on the road, but provide some recommendations for other activities and points of interest based on our research 👋

This is not a definitive guide, but we hope it helps with planning your own trip!

Panorama-Kruger Route (31 hours, 2,394km / 1,487mi )

Panorama-Kruger Route (31 hours, 2,394km / 1,487mi )

Garden Route & Cape Town (15 hours, 1,182km / 734mi)

Garden Route & Cape Town (15 hours, 1,182km / 734mi)

<aside> 💡 Planning Resources

These are some of the documents we used for planning our overall route and individual stops day-to-day.

<aside> 💁‍♂️ General Notes

<aside> 👜 Packing Notes

If you’re going to Kruger, I highly recommend packing a nice pair of binoculars and a camera with a zoom lens. You can always order and then return after vacation 😇

We bought the Nikon PROSTAFF P3 8x42 binocs and I grabbed a 55-210mm zoom lens for my camera.

Kruger NP is a malarial zone. Make sure you get a travel recommendation from your doctor / health insurance and receive anti-malarial pills. In my case, One Medical provides a travel questionnaire that you can fill out on the desktop site — I was able to get a prescription filled at my local Walgreens on the same day, no cost except for the pills ($15-30) compared to a more costly in-person travel appointment.

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<aside> 🍽️ Food Checklist!

Here are a few local things you’ll probably eat or want to try:

Table of Contents


<aside> 🚢 🦁 🐒 🦌 🐆 🐘

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Johannesburg


We flew into Joburg and stayed in Rosebank. We did not have a packed itinerary in Joburg, but enjoyed the usual city conveniences (i.e nice coffee and cafes) along with a spa massage before we left on the road.

For fine dining, we went to Marble and enjoyed the local wagyu steak. A lot of the other places we considered were closed on Mondays.

The Panorama Route


The Panorama Route is a popular route on the way from Johannesburg and Kruger National Park and is a beautiful stretch in Mpumalanga that houses the Blyde River Canyon. Despite being smaller than some famous canyons like the Grand Canyon, I loved this one muuuch more (personally!) since it’s a “green canyon” packed with subtropical vegetation and accessible hiking trails.