Garden Route drive, the six-night shape.

Day by day.

The distance is about 800 kilometres end to end, but the week is built so that no single driving day runs much past four hours except the first. Two nights in Knysna does the work: it breaks the long middle of the coast and it gives you a full day off the road.

1. Day 1

   Cape Town out along Clarence Drive, and the whales at Hermanus.

   Collect the car early and take the coastal road rather than the highway. The R44 past Gordon's Bay and Betty's Bay is the scenic run, and it costs you very little time. Stop at the Stony Point Nature Reserve in Betty's Bay for the penguin colony. It is a boardwalk, it takes an hour, and it is quiet in a way Boulders Beach is not.

   Hermanus is about two hours from Cape Town on this route. From June to November the southern right whales come close in to the cliff path, and the town has a full-time whale crier whose job is to say where they are. The walk from the old harbour to the New Harbour is free, and you can do it with a coffee in your hand.

2. Day 2

   Hermanus to Knysna, the longest driving day.

   Four and a half to five hours on the N2, with the option to break it at Swellendam for lunch. Swellendam is one of the oldest towns in the country and it sits right on the road, so it costs you nothing but the stop itself. Mossel Bay is the other sensible break, and from there you are on the coast for good.

   Into Knysna by late afternoon. The town wraps around a lagoon that opens to the sea through two sandstone cliffs called the Knysna Heads. If you only do one thing on the evening you arrive, walk the eastern Head viewpoint and watch the water come through the gap.

3. Day 3

   A full day in Knysna, no driving.

   This is the day the shape earns its keep. Take the ferry across to the Featherbed Nature Reserve for the morning, which is a guided walk on the western Head with lunch at the end of it. Or drive out to Brenton-on-Sea for the long beach and the walk up to the viewpoint.

   The other option is to leave the coast for the day and drive north over the Outeniqua Pass to Oudtshoorn. That is the ostrich country and the Cango Caves, which are real caves with a guided route through them. It is about an hour each way, and it suits a family better than a second beach day.

4. Day 4

   Knysna to the Tsitsikamma coast.

   An hour and a bit east, and the landscape changes. The Tsitsikamma National Park is the stretch of forest and cliff between the sea and the mountains, and the Storms River Mouth section is the one to stop at. There is a suspension bridge over the river mouth that anyone can walk, and a set of wooden steps down the gorge if you want more than that.

   Between Knysna and there, the Bloukrans Bridge carries the highest commercial bungee jump in the world. You can watch it from the viewing deck without jumping, which is the recommendation here. Overnight at Storms River or carry on twenty minutes to Plettenberg Bay.

5. Day 5

   Plettenberg Bay, then east towards Addo.

   The Robberg Peninsula walk at Plettenberg Bay is the best half day on this coast. It is a nature reserve, there are seals and dolphins off the point, and the full circuit takes about two hours at a steady pace. If you would rather not walk it, the beach side of the peninsula is flat and easy.

   Then the N2 east again, past Nature's Valley and through the Langkloof if you take the inland road. If you have a day in hand, stop at Cape St Francis or Jeffreys Bay on the way through. Overnight near Addo or in Gqeberha.

6. Day 6

   Addo, then the road home.

   Addo Elephant National Park is under an hour from Gqeberha and it is the third largest national park in the country. You drive it yourself in your own car, which is a different feeling to a guided safari and a much cheaper one. The elephants are the reason to go, and there are plenty of them.

   Fly out of Gqeberha in the afternoon, or drive back to Cape Town if you want the loop closed. The drive back is nine hours, so most people fly. The car is dropped at the airport either way.

7. The add-on

   Two extra nights on the coast, or the wine lands at the front.

   The obvious extension is more time at the start. Two nights in Stellenbosch or Franschhoek before you leave Cape Town turns this into an eight-night trip comfortably, and it is the version most people choose. The second option is two extra nights at Plettenberg Bay, which slows the second half of the drive down to a proper holiday pace.

   The whales run from June to November and that is the single best reason to be on this coast. Outside that window the route is quieter and cheaper, and the weather from October to March is the more reliable of the two.

Indicative planning bands.

Includes the car or the driver-guide for the six days, the six nights with breakfast, and the Addo park entry. Excludes flights, travel insurance, the car hire excess waiver unless you take it, meals other than breakfast, the whale boat trips in Hermanus, and gratuities. The add-on nights at the front or the back are quoted separately. School holidays, December in particular, run well above these bands, and Lizanne flags the difference in the indicative options before you choose anything.

Plan this trip.

One tap opens WhatsApp with the destination, the nights and the pace already on the message line. Add your dates and your name, send it, and Lizanne picks it up the same working day.

Plan the Garden Route on WhatsApp