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Unlike many other countries in Africa, South Africa has an excellent road system and driving and transportation work like a charm. Maps are easy to read and the internet is generally fast enough on a smartphone to run Google Maps or GPS if needed. Uber is readily available, although still new in the Cape Town area. Lots of people run, bike, or walk the roads within and outside of Cape Town, and there is plenty of public transportation.

Cape Town

There are many forms of public transportation in Cape Town itself (buses, small vans or matatus, trains, taxis). We opted to either walk if it was daytime, or take an Uber depending on the time and distance. Uber worked really well and we were usually picked up within 5 minutes and had great drivers each time.

Cape Town sunset

Stellenbosch

It is entirely possible to stay in Cape Town and take an Uber to Stellenbosch and the surrounding areas to visit the vineyards. There are a lot of vineyard tours that will also provide transport for you if you buy a package. We wanted to have the freedom to enjoy our time while wine tasting and opted for the freedom of Uber.

We did underestimate driving distances once, but Uber was exactly on time with their prediction of when a driver would be able to get to us, which was generally 15 minutes at the longest. Most of the drivers are based in Stellenbosch and so would need some time to get to you if you are out in a vineyard.

Please do not rent a car if you are planning on wine tasting and not sure about Uber out in Stellenbosch. Safety first! Uber really does work quite well for those who want to be more flexible with their schedules and who want to be able to enjoy their wine!

Road trip around the Cape

Renting a car and driving around

Make sure you plan ahead when renting a car! We rented a car for our road trip around the Cape of Good Hope point and booked it a few weeks in advance. The car rental agency was fully booked for the entire weekend and we were very lucky to have gotten a car!

South Africans drive on the left side of the road, so if you come from a right-side driving country, be extra careful with this. Roundabouts can be a bit trickier! Luckily, Andreas and I have both lived in countries where people drive on the left side of the road so we were fine.

Cars are also mostly manual. There are options for automatics* but it’s safer to know how to drive a manual. The start of our road trip was in some pretty awful traffic on a long hill in Cape Town which would not be for the faint of heart who have just learned how to drive manual or are maybe a bit rusty! Once you are out of the city driving is much easier and there is not as much traffic, although you may encounter it in some of the larger town areas on your route.

*Note that automatics are available, but they are more expensive and not as easy to find. Learning how to drive manual is a good skill to have if you want to rent cars anywhere in the world outside of the USA.

Bikers at the Twelve Apostles

Many people were taking advantage of the great weather by walking, running, or biking literally everywhere. It made us consider a possible big bike trip in South Africa in the future!

Overall, South Africa exceeded my expectations with our driving and transportation experience. It was easy to rent a car, take an Uber, walk around the city, bike, find your way with Google Maps or just an old-fashioned paper map. To top it off, the roads were excellent.

Have you been anywhere where renting a car or taking a road trip was not what you expected? Was it a good or a bad experience? Tell me about it in the comments below!