My first thought when we got to Stellenbosch was, “Why am I living in Johannesburg when places like Stellenbosch exist?” My second thought was, “If I lived in Stellenbosch instead of Jo’burg, I would have run out of money ages ago.” And so it goes. Stellenbosch is a city that manages to feel like a town – great restaurants, cafes, bars and shops placed leisurely along cozy streets. It has the oldest remaining store in South Africa, called Oom Samie Se Winkel, which is the absolute best place for souvenirs like loose leaf tea, rooibos soap and spices (all of which are difficult to find in South Africa; most souvenir stores and marketplaces tend to carry mass-produced wooden carvings and batiks). Stellenbosch also has a fantastic tourist office, which dispenses knowledgeable advice on all matters of things, from restaurants to adrenaline-inducing activities to wine tours.

Stellenbosch is South Africa’s wine country. My friends and I had originally planned to rent bikes and cycle our way through winding roads and green vineyards, but a consultation with the tourist office showed that all bike-able roads were either clogged with traffic or in places where locals wouldn’t go. So, we paid a little more money (about $30 per person) and took the Easy Rider Wine Tour that departed from the Stumble Inn hostel. The full-day tour included four vineyards, a cheese tasting and a generous lunch. We liked wine tasting so much that we stayed another day in Stellenbosch and tried out the Vine Hopper tour, which was a hop on/hop off shuttle with a predetermined route. Since we didn’t see any other customers, we essentially had a private shuttle for the day that took us to four different vineyards for about $20 each.

After visiting Stellenbosch, we made our way to Cape Town. In the interest of full disclosure, let me say: I am probably the only person in the world who is not enamored with Cape Town. It’s a beautiful city with all the beaches you could want, stretches of trendy shops and bars and an overall feeling of perpetual summer and tourism. But that’s not what I was looking for. That being said, I had a great time wandering around the city and exploring shopping areas like the Pan African Market (three floors of craft stalls inside), Greenmarket Square (rows upon rows of craft stalls outside) and the Grand Parade (rows of more disheveled stalls selling FIFA 2010 gear at suspiciously low prices). I also managed to visit several museums, most of which are free on Saturdays. My favorite was the South African National Gallery, which, as someone who doesn’t know much about art, I found quite accessible and interesting (and, in some cases, totally baffling).

Last but not least, my friends and I hiked Table Mountain (so called because it is flat on top, like a table). There are essentially three options for getting to the top of Table Mountain: you can hike up the “front” and use the built-in stairs, hike up the “back” and use trails that involve some rock scrambling and ladders, or take the cable car up; you can come back down any way you choose, but keep in mind that if you go up one side and come down another, you will have to get back to your car or bus stop. My friends and I hiked up the back of Table Mountain; the trails started in the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens (which are a UNESCO World Heritage site), and we chose to continue up the ominous-sounding Skeleton Gorge. And in the interest of totally, completely, absolutely full disclosure, I have to say: whatever my feelings about Cape Town, hiking Table Mountain was the best way possible to end both the Garden Route as well as my own time in South Africa.

The sixth day of our trip was a driving day. From Knysna, we drove six hours to Hermanus (pronounced hair-mahn-us), stopping along the way at Mossel Bay, Swellendam and Cape Agulhas. I found Mossel Bay to be industrial and unremarkable, though guidebooks claim that there are beautiful beaches nearby. After breakfast there, we drove two hours to Swellendam. The town was beautiful and picturesque, tucked into a fold in the mountains and dotted with white houses and flowering purple jacaranda trees. Aside from a quaint museum and a variety of lunch restaurants, however, there was not much reason to stop in Swellendam. Cape Agulhas, however, was a different story.

Far off the main road that connects the Garden Route, and probably difficult to access by public transportation, Cape Agulhas is the southernmost tip of Africa. (Many people believe that Cape Point is the southernmost tip, but they are mistaken.) Cape Agulhas is simultaneously thrilling and disappointing. On the one hand, you are standing at the southernmost tip of the continent, at the very point where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet. It is hard not to be at least a little impressed. On the other hand, you are standing on a bunch of rocks that look exactly like the bunch of rocks two yards away, and you are looking out at water that looks exactly like all the other water in the ocean. It’s hard not to be at least a little disappointed. As a rest stop, however, it is fantastic. You get to stretch your legs, add something to your list of awesome places you’ve been (we all have these lists and we all use them to impress other people, even if we don’t admit it) and feel like you accomplished something amazing in only half an hour.

From Cape Agulhas, we drove two hours to Hermanus, which was our final stop for the day. Hermanus is known as the whale-watching capital of South Africa, and the next morning we set out to look for whales. We had booked a whale watching tour the night before, grudgingly agreeing to pay about $40 per person. In the morning, however, other guests at our hostel told us that you could see whales jumping and flipping and cavorting from the cliff walk that lines most of the town. So, we canceled our reservation and set off for the cliff. And we saw nothing. Absolutely nothing, except for a white cap or two that we decided were whales, just to make ourselves feel better. Hermanus was about to become the most disappointing part of our trip, but we took a detour to the beach on the way out of town and, as luck would have it, stumbled upon two whales prancing about in the water only a few hundred yards from shore. Half an hour later, we were fully satisfied with our whale watching experience and marched onward to wine country.

South Africans like to nickname their cities, and Plettenberg Bay is no exception. Known to locals as Plett, the city is about an hour and a half from J-Bay by car. It is also home to Robberg Peninsula, one of the most spectacular features of the Garden Route. In the summer (November – January), the peninsula juts out into sparkling, seal-dotted water; in the winter (June – August), whales can be seen off the coast.

Plant lovers will be delighted to know that the peninsula is covered in fynbos, a collection of plants that make up 80% of the Cape Floral Kingdom. Plant lover or not, the circular, sometimes rocky hike around the edge of Robberg Peninsula is not to be missed. Guidebooks don’t seem to agree on the length of the path; it is cited as both 5.6 miles and 6.8 miles. For three healthy twenty-somethings, the hike took about four hours (including time for appropriate amounts of oohing, aahing and reapplying sunscreen).

Most people visit South Africa with a safari on their itinerary. One of the best game-viewing trips I took was in Plett, at the Plettenberg Bay Game Reserve. What made this experience distinctive was that it was on horseback. This meant that while we didn’t get to see any lions, we were able to get incredibly close to white rhinos, giraffes, wildebeest, zebras, hippos and impala. Compare this to self-driving safaris, where you have to stay inside the car at all times, or riding in a safari vehicle, where you’re either kicking yourself for sitting on the left when all the game is on the right, or else you’re wanting to kick other people because their heads keep getting in your photos. (Of course, the downside of a horseback safari is that it’s ridiculously difficult to take pictures.)

While my friends and I drove to Robberg Peninsula and the Plettenberg Game Reserve, it’s important to note that most hostels will offer some sort of (paid) transport to local sights. As for getting between cities themselves, buses like Greyhound, Intercape and Translux are a good option. The Baz Bus is a fantastic alternative for travelers who want to hit a lot of places but don’t want to rent a car. It has a route all along the coast of South Africa, with loops that venture into the interior and hit places like Johannesburg, Lesotho, Swaziland and the Drakensberg mountains. The Baz Bus has a variety of hop on/hop off options, stops at local hostels and offers discounts on local activities (from paragliding to visiting an ostrich farm). For those who value comfort, keep in mind that the “bus” is actually a minibus – which means that longer trips might be more comfortable on one of the bigger bus lines.

If you’re traveling alone or with one other person, then buses are certainly a cheaper option than a car rental. For comparison’s sake, a seven-day hop on/hop off Baz Bus ticket is about $170, and a Greyhound ticket direct from J-Bay to Cape Town is about $35. (Recall that a ten-day car rental came out to $500, split by three people). A car does have its advantages, though. For example, the next town on our list was Knysna (pronounced n-eyes-na, and without any discernable nickname), which a Baz Bus-using friend assured us was the most boring place on the Garden Route. Instead of exploring the town itself, however, my friends and I jumped in the car and drove to a little town called Brenton-on-Sea, about 20 minutes away from Knysna, and spent the day walking along the beach to the next town over, Buffalo Bay. Needless to say, it was amazing and not at all boring.

Rio Holaday, Contributing Writer

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This past November, two friends and I decided to drive the Garden Route, which is considered one of the most beautiful stretches of coast in South Africa. Most people travel from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth, which serve as bookends to the Garden Route, but we were feeling contrary and decided to do it in reverse. Two of us were living in Johannesburg at the time, so we flew from Jo’burg to Port Elizabeth on South African Airways. Though South Africa boasts a range of budget airlines, including a rather shadily-named “1time” airline, our $170 round-trip flights were quite comparable. (The other budget airlines in South Africa are Mango, Kulula and Interlink.)

Once we arrived in Port Elizabeth, we jumped in our rental car and drove forty minutes to Jeffrey’s Bay (we’d been advised that there was nothing worth staying the night for in P.E.). A note on rental cars in South Africa: automatics are few and far between, and more expensive to rent. Ours came out to about $500 total, which included taxes, “super” insurance, unlimited mileage and other fees. Additionally, we rented the car in Port Elizabeth and returned it in Cape Town, without extra charge. Considering that there were three of us and we had the car for ten days, the daily breakdown was about $16 per day per person. Companies like Hertz, Budget and Europcar operate and are easily accessible in South Africa; we booked our rental through the Expedia website.

When we got to Jeffrey’s Bay, or J-Bay as it is affectionately known, it was raining. While this might be a disappointment in other parts of the world, it was devastating in J-Bay. You see, Jeffrey’s Bay is a beach town and, even more devastatingly, it was the only beach town on our itinerary. It is considered one of the top three surfing spots in the world, has waves called “Super Tubes” and hosts the Billabong Pro championship every July – which probably explains the Billabong discounts that we received upon checking into our hostel, as well as the fact that all the other tourists in town seemed to be decked out in brand new Billabong apparel.

I had booked all of our hostels through hostel.com. Non-members have to pay a booking fee of $2 or so, but it’s free to become a member. You put down a 10% deposit on a credit card (speaking of credit cards, Visa is most widely accepted in southern Africa) and pay the remainder when you arrive. If you decide to change plans midway through your trip – as we did when we got to Cape Town – then you forfeit the deposit (which was less than $1 each in our case). Though one hostel owner told us that it’s cheaper to book directly through the hostel, I had compared prices on hostel.com and prices that the hostels themselves advertised and hadn’t seen any difference.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Back in rainy J-Bay, my friends and I treated ourselves to Mexican food (a scarce commodity in South Africa) and were in bed by 9:00pm. The next day, we drove to Plettenberg Bay.

Rio Holaday, Contributing Writer

The editors of So Elsewhere would like to welcome Rio Holaday, our newest contributing writer.

Rio currently lives in South Africa and is planning a two-week road trip from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town. This coastal stretch covers the Garden Route (one of the top destinations in South Africa for its natural beauty), wine country and Cape Town itself.

Fitting with our mission to assist twenty-something frugal travelers, Rio is sticking to a strict budget of $500 for two weeks (including air fare from Johannesburg, car rental, accommodation and food) and has kindly offered to share her adventures with us.

Her voyage begins November 18th so stay posted…

Also follow Rio on her blog, Her Name Is Rio at www.rioholaday.wordpress.com

Morgane Veronique Richardson, Writer/Editor