Myself, my wife and our 16-year-old daughter. Three travelling Canadians

by Glen Burrell
(Mississauga, Ontario, Canada)

My wife is in Cape Town for business during the last two weeks of August and my daughter and I are tagging along. While my wife is at the conference, my daughter and I will be exploring Cape Town and the surrounding area for seven days.

Once my wife's conference is over, our plan is to travel by train (Premier Classe) from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth, leaving the morning of Aug 27, arriving around 4 pm on 28 Aug in Port Elizabeth.

We hope to stay for three nights (arriving 28 Aug, departing 31 Aug) at the Iwala Lodge. We've asked the lodge about arranging transfers from the train station in Port Elizabeth to the Lodge, as well as from the lodge to the PE airport. Our thought was to return to Cape Town by plane on August 31.

Our flight back to Canada leaves the afternoon of Sept 2nd.

In general, we are wondering if you think this plan is doable?

How reliable is the Premier Classe train service?

Do you have any other suggestions for travelling to and from Port Elizabeth?
At one point we were considering renting a car one-way, but we aren't sure if it would be worth the extra time?

If we arrive back in Cape Town on August 31st and our return flight to Canada doesn't leave until 6 pm on September 2, what do you suggest we do with this extra time, given that we will already have spent a week in Cape Town?

Any guidance you can provide would be much apprciated. Thank you!

Alison's reply

Hi Glen,

What an opportunity for the 3 of you! I hope it will be fantastic.


I would NOT take the train to Port Elizabeth. The railway line goes behind the mountains rather than through the scenic Garden Route and although it is fascinating scenery, as first-time visitors to the area you will certainly be missing out if you do it this way.

I would thoroughly recommend you rent a car and drive yourselves up the R62 and then join the N2 at George and continue along the Garden Route. That would also use up the 'surplus' time you have at the end of your trip.

Day 1 - Drive Cape Town to Oudtshoorn (via R62 through Robertson, Montagu, Barrydale). About 5 hours easy driving, great road.

Day 2 - possibly visit the Cango Caves before driving on to Plett, Nature's Valley or Storms River?
You won't drive more than 3 hours to reach any of those.
How to choose? I would stop for lunch in Knysna, then drive on.
Plett is a town with lots of accommodation, Nature's Valley a charming backwater in coastal forest - fewer accommodation options but quality available.
At Stormsriver the best accommodation is a National Parks chalet. Not luxury but very comfy.

Day 3 - drive on to Idwala, about 3-4 hours.

We love and recommend Europcar but if you want to compare prices, there is a search engine here.

Where to stay in Oudtshoorn? I had rave reviews from a past site visitor about Chandelier Lodge, he said it was his favourite place in SA.

Then our favourite, tried-and-true Garden Route places are on this page.