Three Week Itinerary, Garden Route, South Africa, 2004

2004 – Digital map of a three week itinerary along the Garden Route in South Africa. © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com

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The story behind the image

It’s time for a bonus post for you – a digital map I created showing the itinerary of our trip along the Garden Route in South Africa in March 2004.

Africa! The name alone promises adventure and beautiful nature. As this was our first trip to sub-Sahara Africa, we wanted to start the experience slowly. The area between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha) in South Africa looked like (and turned out to be) the right choice.

So we flew into Cape Town and had a look around this wonderful city and the Cape Peninsula with the Cape of Good Hope. Then we drove east, at first through the wineyards of Stellenbosch and Franschhoek, then through The Karoo towards the Addo Elephant National Park (which is significantly larger today than in 2004.) Then we turned around and drove slowly along the south coast back to Cape Town.

We had booked just the flights, the first three nights in Cape Town, and the rental car. The rest was up to us, and we had a great time! We saw Elephants, Lions, Zebras, Ostriches, Dolphins, and many more exciting animals. We admired the clear skies in the evening, giving us a feeling of being united with the nature. We enjoyed the fantastic food. We met a lot of friendly people.

And we shot photos. Many photos. I came home with about 1,000 slides – a large amount back then. As of May 2025, I published 80 images from this trip here.

For your convenience, this is our exact itinerary. The ‘days’ refer to the place where we spent the night(s).

Days 1 – 3	Cape Town
Day 4	Stellenbosch
Day 5	Franschhoek
Day 6	Robertson
Day 7	Oudtshorn
Day 8	Willowmore
Day 9	Addo
Day 10	Summerstrand
Days 11 and 12	Tsitsikamma National Park
Day 13	Plettenberg
Day 14	Knysna
Day 15	Wilderness
Day 16	Mossel Bay
Day 17	Struisbaai
Day 18	Hermanus
Days 19 and 20	Cape Town

In total, we drove 3,214 kilometers (1,997 miles) during this trip to South Africa.

I hope this helps with your trip planning.