Many say the long dash of protected reserve that is the Tsitsikamma National Park adds up to the very pinnacle of the Garden Route drive. Covering wave-bashed stretches of rugged coast and wild Fynbos hills, craggy summits and blustery inlets, there's plenty for the budding adventurer to get through here.

The Otter Trail remains the piece de resistance for hikers. Tsitsikamma National Park tour guides can take you along its whole 42-kilometer length, from the dramatic merger of ocean and the Storms River to the biodiverse reaches of Nature's Valley, where you can spot rare geese, spurfowls, and egrets to name just a few. As you walk, be sure to keep the binoculars handy for glimpses of passing whale pods and dolphins, too.

Deeper inland and the topography creeps up to the mountaintops. That's where you'll encounter the famous heaths of the Fynbos – a uniquely South African habitat. It's also where you can scramble up mesas in the shadow of Formosa Peak, a spiked summit of 1,675 meters that casts its gaze over the border between the Western and Eastern capes.