Seven stops on the Garden Route worth slowing down for

The Garden Route rewards the unhurried. Most people drive it in two days; the ones who enjoy it take five. What follows is a route built around places to stop rather than distances to cover, with somewhere to sleep at the end of each leg.

Mossel Bay to Wilderness

Start slow. The road out of Mossel Bay opens onto a coastline that does not really let up for the next three hundred kilometres. Wilderness is the first place worth unpacking properly - a lagoon, a long beach and a handful of guest houses close enough to walk between.

Knysna and the Heads

Knysna earns its reputation at the water's edge. Take the ferry across the lagoon, walk the eastern head at low tide, and stay somewhere with a jetty if you can. Cabins on the water book out early over school holidays, so plan ahead.

Plettenberg Bay

Plett is the busiest stop on the route and still worth it. Robberg Nature Reserve is a two-hour circuit with sea on three sides; go early, take water, and give the seals a wide berth on the rocks below.

Storms River

The last stretch runs into the Tsitsikamma forest, where the road narrows and the light goes green. The suspension bridge is the photograph everyone takes, but the Otter Trail's first kilometre is the better walk.

Book a night at each stop rather than a base at one end. The driving between them is short, the scenery is the point, and you will not want to do the whole thing twice in a day.