South Africa

South Africa has two climates running in opposition. The interior and the lowveld, Kruger, the Waterberg and the Drakensberg, have summer rainfall and dry winters. The Western Cape has the reverse. So the best month for Kruger is one of the worst months for Cape Town, and the other way round.

For game viewing, come in the dry winter from May to September. The bush thins, the grass dies back and sightlines open. Surface water disappears, so animals come to the rivers and remaining waterholes at predictable times. Mosquito numbers fall, which drops the already low malaria risk in Kruger close to negligible. Mornings are cold and clear, which is excellent for photography and unpleasant on an open vehicle before sunrise.

For the Cape, come in the dry summer from November to March: long evenings, swimmable water on the False Bay side, the wine estates at their best and Table Mountain clear more often than not. The catch is the south-easter, which in December and January can blow hard enough to close the cable car for days. Cape Town in June and July is wet and cold, and the beaches, hikes and coastal drives are the reason to be there.

The shoulder months are the compromise, and a good one: April, May, September and October give decent game viewing and decent Cape weather at the same time. If a trip has to happen in December or January, we would build it around the Eastern Cape reserves rather than Kruger, because they work year round.

Some things have their own calendar. Southern right whales come into the bays along the Cape south coast from roughly July to November, peaking in September, and at Hermanus and De Hoop you watch them from the cliffs without a boat. The Namaqualand and West Coast wildflower bloom is an August-to-September event and depends entirely on winter rainfall. Impala lambing in Kruger runs November to December and brings predators with it.

South African tar is as good as anything in southern Europe. The N1 north from Cape Town, the N2 along the coast and the N4 east towards Kruger are all dual carriageway or good single lane, well signposted, with frequent service stations. Fuel is attended rather than self-service and a small tip is customary; cards work almost universally.

You do not need a 4x4 for a standard itinerary, and people routinely over-specify. Kruger's main roads are tar and its loop roads are well-graded gravel, so a normal sedan handles the whole park, and the Garden Route, the Winelands, the Panorama Route and the Drakensberg foothills are all tar.

The places that genuinely need four-wheel drive are specific. Kgalagadi's dune roads between Nossob, Mata-Mata and Twee Rivieren want high clearance and 4x4, and the Mabuasehube side on the Botswana border is 4x4 only and fully self-sufficient. Sani Pass, the gravel switchback climb into Lesotho, is 4x4 only. The Baviaanskloof is a proper 4x4 route. Swartberg Pass out of Prince Albert is gravel a normal car can manage carefully in dry weather and should not attempt in wet. And most private reserves in the Sabi Sand and Timbavati do not permit self-drive at all; you travel in the lodge's vehicle with its ranger and tracker.

Kruger's internal rules are strict and enforced: 50 km/h on tar, 40 km/h on gravel, and no leaving your vehicle except at designated sites. Camp gates open between roughly 05:30 and 06:00 depending on the month and close between 17:30 and 18:30, with a fine for a late return; the times are posted at every camp and move through the year. The park is 350 kilometres long, so at those speeds distances between camps take much longer than the map suggests.

Two things to plan for. Load-shedding still occurs, so carry a power bank and a head torch and download your navigation offline. And South Africa's road fatality rate is concentrated at night on rural roads, where livestock, pedestrians and unlit vehicles are the hazards, so we ask guests not to drive between towns after dark.

Distances are large but the driving is easy, so you can cover more here than anywhere else on our list. The common mistake is still three regions in ten nights. Two regions done properly in fourteen nights is a better trip.

• 4–5 nightsKruger National Park

  Four nights minimum, and split your camps so you are not driving the same loops twice. Our standard shape: two nights in the south around Lower Sabie or Skukuza for the highest game density and best leopard chances, then two or three further north at Satara for lion on the S100, or Olifants for the view. If the budget allows one splurge, add two nights in a private Sabi Sand or Timbavati concession, where off-road driving and night drives are permitted.

• 4 nightsCape Town & the Peninsula

  Let the weather set the schedule: if Table Mountain is clear when you wake up, go up it that morning and rearrange everything else. Then the Cape Point drive via Chapman's Peak, Boulders Beach penguins, Kirstenbosch, the Bo-Kaap and District Six, and a day in the Stellenbosch or Franschhoek winelands.

• 4 nightsThe Garden Route

  Around 750 kilometres of coast from Mossel Bay to Storms River, and the pleasure is in stopping: Wilderness lagoons, the Knysna heads, Tsitsikamma's suspension bridge and forest trails, De Hoop for land-based whale watching between July and November. Consider returning inland on Route 62 through the Karoo rather than driving the same coast back.

• 3–4 nightsEastern Cape & Addo

  Malaria-free Big Five, in a region that works in December and January when Kruger is thick and humid. Addo Elephant National Park is self-drive and excellent, and the private reserves around it, Shamwari, Kwandwe and Amakhala, offer guided drives. It slots straight onto the end of the Garden Route.

• 4 nightsKgalagadi Transfrontier Park

  The one place in South Africa that feels like Botswana, because half of it is: red dunes, camelthorn-lined dry riverbeds, black-maned lion, cheetah on the calcrete ridges and raptors in numbers. Four nights minimum, since the drive up from Upington is substantial. Best March to May and September to October.

• 3 nightsDrakensberg

  Consistently underbooked by international visitors. The Amphitheatre in the northern Berg, the hike towards Tugela Falls, San rock art in the Kamberg and Giant's Castle shelters, and snow on the peaks in winter. Add a Sani Pass 4x4 day trip into Lesotho if the switchbacks appeal.

• 2 nightsPanorama Route & Blyde River Canyon

  The natural approach to Kruger from Johannesburg, and better as two nights than a rushed transit day. Blyde River Canyon, Bourke's Luck Potholes, God's Window and the waterfalls around Graskop. Mist is common, so go early.

South Africa asks less of you than anywhere else we work, which is why it is the country we recommend for a first African self-drive. No convoy, no jerry cans, no satellite communicator, no recovery gear, and no 4x4 for most routes. Fill up when you pass a station, use offline maps, and drive on the left.

The rest is judgement rather than equipment. Do not drive between towns at night. Keep valuables out of sight and use secure parking. Take the malaria question seriously if you are going to Kruger in summer with young children, and note that the Eastern Cape and Cape reserves remove it entirely. And book South African National Parks accommodation and the popular Garden Route towns well ahead if your dates fall in South African school holidays, because domestic demand is what fills this country.

The one thing we push back on is trying to do everything. Because the driving is easy, itineraries that look reasonable on paper turn into three thousand kilometres in twelve days. Pick two regions, give each four or five nights, and fly the long leg between them: Johannesburg to Cape Town is two hours in the air and eighteen on the road.