There was a time when a South African holiday didn’t start with a boarding pass, it began with a packed boot, a map unfolded across the dashboard, and a promise of padkos at the halfway mark.
Long before cheap flights and GPS, families charted their holidays along winding national roads that connected small towns, farm stalls, and the open country. These old holiday routes, rich with nostalgia and dotted with relics of another travel era, still offer some of the most scenic journeys in the country.
Here’s how to rediscover them — slowly, meaningfully, and with your windows rolled down.
The N1: The great trek North
The N1, South Africa’s longest national road, has always been more than a highway. It’s the artery connecting the Cape to the heart of the country, carrying families from Cape Town to Johannesburg, Bloemfontein, and beyond. Generations remember the excitement of hitting the open road, the Karoo stretching endlessly on either side.
Start your journey in Cape Town, rolling past the vineyards of Paarl and Worcester before the mountains open up into the semi-desert vastness. Stop in Matjiesfontein, the Victorian railway village where time seems to have stopped in 1890. From there, the drive to Beaufort West captures the essence of the Karoo — big skies, windmills, and mirages that make the road shimmer.
This route is about rhythm: long stretches of quiet, punctuated by old-school roadside cafés serving toasted sandwiches and sweet tea. Stop often, linger longer, and you’ll find that the N1’s magic lies not in the destination, but in the way it holds South Africa’s story in its dust.
The N2: The coastal classic
If the N1 was the inland artery, the N2 was the ribbon that tied together South Africa’s coastal dreams. Running from Cape Town to Durban, this route is steeped in holiday memories, car games between siblings, seashell collections, and the promise of the ocean just around the next bend.
Leaving Cape Town, the N2 hugs the dramatic coastline of the Overberg, leading to Hermanus, Arniston, and the farm stalls near Swellendam. Then comes the Garden Route, arguably South Africa’s most iconic stretch of road. From Mossel Bay to Plettenberg Bay, every curve offers a new postcard: lagoons, forests, and cliffs tumbling into turquoise sea.
Beyond the glamour of Knysna and Wilderness lies Storms River, a gateway to the Tsitsikamma forests and the start of wilder Eastern Cape landscapes. Past Port Alfred and East London, the N2 becomes quieter, a route for the curious. Stop in small towns like Butterworth or Kokstad, where time slows down and hospitality is sincere. By the time you reach Durban, you’ll have crossed ecosystems, climates, and cultures, all on one ribbon of tar.
The R62: The slow road through the Klein Karoo
For those who prefer backroads to highways, the R62 offers South Africa’s most charming detour. Running parallel to the N2 between Cape Town and Gqeberha, it’s often dubbed the “longest wine route in the world.”
The R62 winds through the Klein Karoo, where ostrich farms, old churches, and art deco petrol stations tell the story of South Africa’s mid-century holiday boom. Start in Montagu, famous for its hot springs, before winding through Barrydale, where Diesel & Crème serves milkshakes worth the drive. In Ladismith, look for the Towerkop peak, split in half by legend, and then continue to Calitzdorp and Oudtshoorn, where you’ll find port wine cellars and cango caves instead of traffic jams.
It’s a route that rewards curiosity so slow down, stop in local craft shops, and chat to the locals. The R62 is not about getting somewhere fast; it’s about remembering what travel used to feel like.
Why these roads matter
In an age of convenience, these old holiday routes remind us that travel was once about the journey itself, about the faded picnic tables, the small-town bakeries, the heat radiating off the tar. They are living archives of memory and motion, tracing the routes our parents and grandparents once took toward the sea, the farm, or the family reunion.
To drive them now is to time-travel, not into the past exactly, but into a slower rhythm of being. These roads ask you to look again at the landscape, to feel the shift from city to country, and to let nostalgia guide your route.
Because sometimes, the best holidays don’t start at the airport, they start when you follow an old road.
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