This 2 weeks in South Africa itinerary will help you plan your precious holiday time. With a history spanning 100,000 years, and beautiful scenery taking up 120,000 square miles, South Africa is a whole lot of country to squeeze into just 2 weeks. But it is possible to see the highlights. Just be prepared to want to go back to experience even more…
Below, I’ve outlined the itinerary I followed for two weeks in South Africa, so you can do it too.
Day 1 – Fly into Johannesburg
Try to get a flight that arrives in Johannesburg in the morning. That way, you can try to sleep off your jet lag or head out on a tour of Johannesburg for the afternoon.
Stay: Safari Club, Johannesburg for a cosy garden room with super friendly staff and free 15 minute airport transfer.
Day 2 – Safari in a private nature reserve
A safari is a must in South Africa, so head to a private lodge or camp in Greater Kruger to spot incredible wildlife for a few days. The transfer can take up to 7 hours by road, so pack entertainment and snacks to keep you going. The scenery is pretty spectacular so don’t waste too much time sleeping!
When you arrive at your lodge, head out on your first game drive in the afternoon and keep your eyes peeled for the Big 5. You’ll have time for a sundowner before you drive back to the lodge on the lookout for nocturnal animals with the help of your guide’s spotlight.
Have dinner in the main camp with the other guests and enjoy drinks around the campfire before bed.
Transfer: Ashtons for a professional shared minibus service to a number of stops in Kruger National Park. Make sure you allow enough time, though. Our first driver managed to add two hours to our journey as he kept taking wrong turnings and ignoring his sat nav!
Stay: Africa on Foot for the most incredible guides, beautiful accommodation and access to a private nature reserve. I have genuinely never recommended anything more. I fell in love with the lodge as soon as I stepped foot in it, and never wanted to leave.
>> If you’re heading out on safari but have no idea what to pack, check out Our Sweet Adventures’ post on How to Pack for a Safari in Africa!
Days 3-4 – Two full days of safari
Spend two full days at your safari lodge, waking up early for a morning bush walk as the sun rises, and taking afternoon game drives as the sun goes down. When not out on safari, your lodge is the perfect place to relax and look out for wildlife that could stroll through the camp at any moment. After a cosy night sleep in your camp, you’ll be ready to do it all again the next day!
Stay: Another two nights at Africa on Foot for delicious food and evening drinks around the campfire.
Day 5 – Transfer back to Johannesburg
You won’t want to leave your safari lodge, I can almost guarantee that. But, sadly, it’ll be time to go after your final game drive in the morning. Say goodbye to your guides and the wildlife as you see what else this beautiful country has got to offer.
The Ashtons transfer back to Johannesburg should take 5-6 hours so I recommend another night in the city before flying south to the coast. Upon arrival into Johannesburg, check into your hotel and relax…
Stay: Safari Club, Johannesburg for one more night.
Day 6 – Fly to Port Elizabeth
The flight from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth takes just over an hour, but it’s chockablock with spectacular scenery and one of my favourite approaches ever. Coming into land at PE, you fly out over the sea and then gently descend over the lovely little town. If the flight is empty, you may even be offered a jammy upgrade like we were for just £25!
If you arrive before 2pm, you could transfer to Addo Elephant National Park with enough time for an afternoon game drive. The park is home to hundreds of elephants, a pride of lions and the world’s last remaining flightless dung beetle. You could drive yourself around, or book one of the shared jeeps driven by an experienced tracker and guide.
Stay: Gorah Elephant Camp for a luxury tent in the heart of Addo Elephant Park.
Day 7 – Start the Garden Route
After a final game drive in the morning, it’s time to make your way to the Garden Route. The Garden Route is a beautiful stretch of countryside, lush forests and rocky coastline in the south of the country. It runs for 300km so you’ll want to spend a few days on it. The journeys always take longer than you think. Every two minutes you’ll want to stop to take photos of the scenery.
The Garden Route officially starts at Tsitsikamma National Park, so that’s where you’ll head first. It is THE place to be for adventurers and thrill-seekers. Along the trail to the park, you can leap off the highest bridge bungee in the world, but it was too windy for us to jump. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!
So, instead we stopped off to visit a 2,000 year old tree. Much safer!
Stay: Tsitsikamma Village Inn in the heart of nearby Storms Village. The hotel rooms are set in original cottages and buildings, laid out around a central courtyard and garden.
Restaurant recommendation: Tsitrus Cafe in Storms Village for a cosy meal of homemade pizzas, local beer and cider.
Day 8 – Explore Tsitsikamma National Park
Head to the National Park for the day to take your pick of wonderful activities. You could take a walk along the beach, hike up a mountain, go snorkelling, kayak, or head to the open fronted restaurant overlooking the sea and spot dolphins while devouring seafood. Guess which one we did…?
Back in Storm Village, you’ll be equally spoilt for choice for the afternoon. Go for walks in the woods, zip line through the forest, taste beer at the microbrewery, eat ice cream sundaes in the village diner and make friends with the local cats. Whatever takes your fancy.
Stay: One more night at Tsitsikamma Village Inn to sleep off your adventures.
Restaurant recommendation: Rafters in Storms Village for a romantic meal on the patio.
Day 9 – Oudtshoorn
Today, continue along the Garden Route to Oudtshoorn, the ostrich capital of the world. You could stop off at a farm for a tour to learn more about the animals and visit incubation sites. However, if you pull over next to an ostrich field, you’ll get hundreds of the things wandering over to say hello! Save those pennies!
In the afternoon, visit Cango Caves: a cavernous complex of tunnels and chambers filled with stalagmites, stalagtites and questionable formations. You can only go in with a guide to find out about the history and discovery of the caves. Apparently a farmer noticed his cattle were disappearing, and he tracked them down a massive drop into the caves! It was a pretty awesome moment when the lights went out to show how dark it would have been when he first arrived. You couldn’t see a thing!
After your tour, head back to Oudtshoorn to relax and wander around the sleepy town before dinner.
Stay: Turnberry Boutique Hotel for large, comfortable rooms and a good, central location.
Restaurant recommendation: The Black Swan in Oudtshoorn for tasty wine, delicious food and a wonderfully classy atmosphere.
Day 10 – Stellenbosch & the wine region
Get a good breakfast this morning – you’ll need it. There’s lots of wine coming your way today!
It’s quite a long drive from Oudtshoorn to the main wine estates, so sit back and enjoy the spectacular scenery. You could stop off at Ronnie’s Sex Shop – a little building in the middle of nowhere. The story goes that Ronnie sold jams and marmalades before his friends vandalised the sign. It’s now world famous but still has nothing to do with sex!
Have lunch at Rooiberg Wine Cellars where you can enjoy a glass of wine with your meal for absolute pennies. And it’s good stuff too! I could have stayed here all day, looking around the cellar shop and admiring the view from our al fresco lunch spot. Yet our day of wine had only just begun!
Next, head to Simonsig – one of the more traditional wine estates in the Stellenbosch region – for a wine tasting. To celebrate my birthday, we were treated to a premium tasting of seven delicious wines. This included a sparkling wine that Tim opened by sword! The whole tasting was pretty special and something I would urge any visitor to South Africa to try!
When you’re satisfyingly sozzled, it’s time to head to Cape Town to round off your amazing two weeks in South Africa. You should arrive in time for dinner, and there’s an incredible amount of choice in the city. Find out where to eat in a Cape Town in my blog post, coming soon!
Stay: Townhouse Hotel in Cape Town for a little bit of luxury in the centre of the city.
Restaurant recommendation: Kloof Street House for a pretty spectacular meal in a beautifully romantic setting. Booking is highly recommended as we had to sit in the lounge for our meal, rather than the restaurant itself!
Days 11-13 – Cape Town
Spend another 3 nights in the Mother City checking out all it has to offer. Hint: it’s a lot!
You could take the cable car up to Table Mountain, catch a ferry over to Robben Island for a guided tour, explore the colourful neighbourhood of Bo Kaap, drive to the most South-westerly point of Africa at Cape Point and while away the hours souvenir shopping, wine drinking and seafood eating at the V&A waterfront.
My complete guide to Cape Town is coming soon, so keep checking back!
Day 14 – Fly home ?
Sorry guys, but your trip has to end eventually! Today, take a transfer to Cape Town airport ready for your flight back home.
What an incredible trip! It was through doing this two week itinerary that I completely fell in love with South Africa. I found two weeks was the perfect amount of time to start exploring, but I’ve only scratched the surface. Now I have a much better idea of what South Africa has got to offer, I’ll certainly be going back!
Have you been to South Africa? Where would you suggest I go on my next visit? I’d love for you to tell me in the comments below!
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I live in South Africa and think you’ve checked most of the big boxes for a first timer here. It’s a really busy schedule, given the enormous distances to be covered across the country, but well worth waiting till you get home to relax!
That’s really good to hear from a local! I totally agree – I wish I had the luxury of a more relaxing holiday in South Africa, but I’m the kind of traveller that much prefers to be busy than bored! Not that you can get bored in South Africa of course ?
You discovered a nice part of South Africa in the 2 weeks you were there. And now you should come back to discover the rest of the country 🙂 And you also saw some great wildlife. South Africa has so much to offer and is such a pretty country. I arrived 9 years ago, and still here. I can’t get enough of it.
Thanks so much for your comment, Sabine! I’m already desperate to come back to South Africa – still so much to see ?
Loving your post. it takes me right back to when we visited South Africa.
We did jump from the bridge.
I am kind of scared to heights and this was a BIG step for me to do!
But it was so much fun.
Wow!!! Well done for jumping! You’re much braver than I am ?
Wow your pictures are Amazing!! I have been to South Africa twice and visited Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. I love it there! Your post has added quite a few places to my list!
Thank you so much! It’s hard to take a bad photo in South Africa – everything is so photogenic. I’d love to see Johannesburg properly, and Durban, so I’ll come to you for tips!
Wonderful pictures. I love the lion picture in which the lion seems to be walking towards the camera. It looks like it’s playing football with the elephant poopoo (I guess that’s what it is?). Great shot
Haha thank you, Ellis! Yes it was elephant poo ? It was so lovely to watch her so active!
I’d love to go back to South Africa! I spent the same amount of time there as you but I was volunteering so didn’t get to see a lot of the country. Your wildlife photos are stunning.
Wow it definitely sounds like you have more of the country to see! It must have been incredible to volunteer though – I’ll look out for your blog posts on it!
Fabulous Post. your photos are stunning – such clarity and colours. Beautiful.
Thank you so much for your comment! I really enjoyed taking the photos – it’s just a wonderful country!
Amazing Itinerary and beautiful images….Would love to explore South Africa 🙂
Thank you so much! I hope South Africa is on your bucket list – it’s a fantastic country and well worth visiting!
Your photos are absolutely incredible. I will always always want to visit South Africa but like you I’m not a full time traveller so have to be very strategic about my holidays. Now that I know you can see and experience so much in a South Africa in such a short space of time I’m really keen to get something planned. It would be incredible to have such a jampacked experience next summer!
My boyfriend has already been a couple of times but I know for a fact he’d go again. You could’ve just inspired some big travel plans for 2018!
That’s great news, Bryony! You would have the most amazing time in South Africa, I’m sure of it! Despite being a me to see so much in two weeks, you really will want to keep going back.
Beautiful trip and amazing photos! I have never set foot in South Africa, and it seems so exotic for me coming from the Northern Europe. Great tips, will keep them for the future.
Thanks Ana! It’s a fantastic country so I really recommend visiting one day!
Going on an African Safari is a dream of mine!! Haven’t been able to cough up the costs yet but it will happen eventually. Your itinerary sounds amazing, I will definitely refer to this when I start planning! Thanks for sharing!
That’s great to hear Janie! We found that things were quite reasonably priced once you’re there, but it’s a pretty expensive flight! I hope you’ll get to go soon ?
Essentially my dream trip in a post! The silhouettes in your cover shot is outstanding but all of your wildlife shots are stunning. Great post!
Great itinerary, and thanks for speaking up on behalf of us travellers with day jobs! It frustrates me to have so little time in locations, but I’ve got to earn a living! Would love to head to South Africa one day, and this is great inspiration.
I have lived in South Africa for 1 1/2 years and I loved it. It´s such an amazing country. The next time you should definitely check out Joburg. It´s an amazing city as well and has to offer a lot.
This is our dream trip and we haven’t been yet because we can’t always get that many days off work! How long would you suggest then?
Great tips and love your photos! A safari is high on our bucket lists!
this is a super helpful guide! I am planning our November road trip right now so this is a big help 🙂 !