In 2026, we rented a car and spent three months road-tripping across South Africa. While Cape Town and Kruger are naturally where most visitors focus their energy, this barely scratches the surface of what this country has to offer. Below are some of our favorite destinations in South Africa.
Highlights: Cape Town, the Kalahari and the Northern Cape, the Garden Route, the Drakensberg Mountains, Kruger National Park, and several spectacularnational parks often missed by international tourists.
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Cape Town is the perfect place to start your South African adventure. This beautiful city warrants at least a few days, and more if you can spare the time. Ride the cable car up Table Mountain for sweeping views of the city and ocean, then take the dramatic coastal drive to the Cape of Good Hope.
In summer, spend an afternoon soaking up the sun on the white sands of Camps Bay. If you’re a wildlife lover, the close encounters with African penguins at Boulders Beach might just be the highlight.
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Less than an hour outside of Cape Town is the Cape Winelands, centered around the picturesque towns of Stellenbosch and Franschhoek. The rolling vineyards, stunning mountain backdrop, and whitewashed historic Cape Dutch estates make the scenery reason enough to visit. If you are a wine lover, you will definitely want to set aside time to sample some of Africa's finest wines.
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For wildlife viewing and luxury safaris, Kruger National Park is the place to go in South Africa. Home to the Big Five (elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion, and leopard) and countless other species, this is the country's largest and most famous park. Bordering Kruger are several renowned game reserves where many of South Africa's best safari lodges can be found. This is the perfect place to plan a bucket-list, five-star luxury safari.
If you are up for a little adventure, you can do your own safari. Kruger is designed to allow visitors to see the park on their own, with rest camps spread across the park, offering self-catering accommodation or campsites, and restaurants for when you don't feel like cooking.
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The Garden Route is a scenic coastal route just a few hours east of Cape Town. Small towns and beaches offer opportunities for scenic drives, hiking, and water-based activities.
Walk across the Storms River Suspension Bridge or kayak up to the gorge in Tsitsikamma. Explore the towns of Mossel Bay, Wilderness, Knysna, and Plettenberg Bay, or take a drive inland over a mountain pass to see the dramatic transition from lush coast to the arid Little Karoo.
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For wildlife adventures in the south, Addo Elephant National Park and Mountain Zebra National Park are fantastic options. These parks are not in malaria zones, and small enough that you can visit each of them in a day.
Addo Elephant National Park
Addo Elephant National Park (photos above), near Gqeberha is an enchanting little park and a truly special place for elephant lovers. You can drive yourself through Addo in a 2WD sedan or take a guided safari to see the Big Five and more.
Mountain Zebra National Park
Another small gem just a few hours from Addo, Mountain Zebra (photos below) showcases the stunning scenery of the Karoo (especially beautiful in summer) and a wealth of wildlife. The park protects the gorgeous Cape Mountain Zebras but also hosts lions, leopards, rhino, Cape buffalo, and vast herds of springbok and various other antelope. It does not have elephants.
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Set in the Kalahari Desert, and spanning both South Africa and Botswana, this is one of South Africa's most awesome parks. It is not home to the Big Five but it is known for big cats: lions, leopards, and cheetahs. Bird lovers will also be in their element!
This is not the place for luxury safaris. Most visitors stay in park run lodging at rest camps, or at a private lodge just outside the park. Almost everyone here is on a self-driving experience, although a park-operated guided safari option does exist from the main gate.
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Augrabies Falls is a nice addition to a trip to the Northern Cape and Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. It is especially convenient if you decide to make the long drive from Cape Town to Kgalagadi. This small park is noteworthy for the falls but it does have some animals and drives that take you through interesting desert landscape.
Due to scheduling problems, we spent five nights here and really enjoyed our stay. It was our first introduction to wildlife parks. Some of the charm lies in the lack of visitors and the smaller wildlife that you might normally overlook in a large park with the Big Five. Rock hyrax (also known as dassies) are rabbit sized animals that lounge around the rocks. Colorful Broadley's flat lizards are another local resident, as are vervet monkeys.
A quaint high-end lodge near the entrance to the park offers a great place to relax and enjoy fine dining.
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The rolling green mountains of the Drakensberg is a fantastic landscape for hiking and scenic drives. Royal Natal National Park and Golden Gate Highlands National Park, near Clarens are some of the highlights.