Where to go
Cape Town
Table Mountain, the Cape peninsula to the Cape of Good Hope, Boulders Beach and its penguins, and Robben Island — which should be visited with the same seriousness as the District Six Museum and the apartheid history it documents. Wine country at Stellenbosch and Franschhoek is forty minutes away. Five days.
The Garden Route
From Cape Town east along the coast: Hermanus for whales between June and November, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay and Tsitsikamma. An easy self-drive with good infrastructure. A week including Cape Town.
Kruger National Park
One of the great game reserves and unusually accessible: you can self-drive, stay in rest camps and see the big five without a guided package. The private reserves alongside offer guided viewing at a much higher price. Four days minimum; May to September.
The Drakensberg
Mountain walking, San rock art — some of the oldest and finest in the world, a World Heritage site — and amphitheatres of basalt. Cooler, greener and far less visited than Kruger. Three to four days.
Johannesburg and Soweto
The Apartheid Museum is among the best history museums anywhere, and Soweto with a local guide is essential rather than optional. The Cradle of Humankind, a World Heritage site of hominid fossils, is an hour away. Two to three days.
The Wild Coast and KwaZulu-Natal
Durban, the Zulu heartland, iSimangaliso wetland park and a coastline that is barely developed. The culturally richest region and the least visited by foreigners.
Building the itinerary
- Three stops a week, no more. Every move costs half a day at minimum, often a whole one, and you see nothing of a place where you sleep one night.
- Alternate the pace. A dense city, then two quiet days: that is what makes travelling as a couple sustainable, especially if one of you lives there and works.
- Keep a buffer day before the flight home, in the departure city. Domestic transport delays are the leading cause of missed flights.
- Ask the person who lives there what they want to show you. Guidebook itineraries and the places that matter to them rarely overlap — and the second list is the better one.
Two reflexes that change a trip
Distances deceive. On a map two points look close; on the ground, road conditions, checkpoints and terrain double or triple the time. Plan fewer stops and more time at each.
Ask before photographing anyone, and never insist. Official buildings, soldiers, airports and bridges are best avoided almost everywhere — the most banal and most avoidable source of trouble.