Updated Date:
Author: BazBus Editorial Team
Quick Summary: BazBus sells two different kinds of ticket, and choosing the wrong kind is the most common booking mistake we see. The unlimited travel passes — 8, 14 and 21 days — let you move back and forth along the route as often as you like within a fixed window. The one-way hop-on hop-off pass moves you in a single direction with twelve whole months to complete it. This guide sets out which one suits which trip, with worked itineraries for each.
Before you compare days, answer this: do you want to travel in one direction, or in both?
If you are travelling Cape Town to Port Elizabeth once and flying out from the far end, the one-way pass is almost always the right ticket and the cheapest one. If you plan to return to your starting city, or you suspect you will want to double back, the unlimited pass is the one to look at.
| Pass | Price | Validity | Direction | Typical trip it suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8-Day Travel Pass | $139, reduced from $219 | 8 days | Unlimited, both directions | A fast Garden Route run with three or four stops, or a return trip to a couple of favourites |
| 14-Day Travel Pass | $169, reduced from $259 | 14 days | Unlimited, both directions | The standard South Africa trip: five or six stops with two nights in most |
| 21-Day Travel Pass | $199, reduced from $299 | 21 days | Unlimited, both directions | Slow travel, surf or hiking-led trips, and anyone combining the route with a safari |
| One-way hop-on hop-off | From $119 | 12 months to complete | One direction | Point A to Point Z travelers with an onward flight from the far end |
Every version starts in either Cape Town or Port Elizabeth — the 8-day, 14-day and 21-day passes all have an eastern-start twin — so your international flights, not the ticket, should decide your direction.
The contents are identical whichever length you choose:
What is not included: accommodation, meals, activities, and the private shuttles from George Mall to Oudtshoorn and the Cango Caves.
Eight days is enough to do the corridor properly if you accept that you are choosing three or four stops rather than all fourteen. A realistic 8-day plan starting in Cape Town:
Be honest with yourself about the arithmetic: on an 8-day pass, a travel day is a travel day. The westbound run from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth departs at 7:00am and arrives at 9:20pm if you ride it end to end, so plan two nights somewhere rather than one night everywhere.
Fourteen days is the length most travelers should book, and it is our most popular pass by a clear margin. It gives you five or six stops with two nights in most of them, room for one big activity without rearranging everything, and enough slack that a weather day does not wreck the plan.
A typical 14-day shape: Cape Town, Stellenbosch or Hermanus, Mossel Bay or Wilderness, Knysna for three nights, Plettenberg Bay, Storms River, Port Elizabeth. The unlimited element earns its keep here — travelers who fall for Wilderness or Sedgefield routinely double back for an extra night before carrying on.
“We are in our 30s and wanted some chill out time after a big family wedding, try some wines, see the sights, meet people, and not worry about who would drive and where each day!!! I looked at every option for months…after checking Bazbus reviews we eventually were convinced to book the 14 day travel pass..and we added a Kruger Park safari package too.” — Lisa-Jane, Canada.
Three weeks changes the character of the trip rather than just extending it. At 21 days you can surf for a week in Jeffreys Bay, hike properly in Tsitsikamma and Marloth Nature Reserve, spend three nights in a town you had never heard of, and still get back to Cape Town for a final few days. It is also the right pass if you are pairing the Garden Route with Kruger Park safari packages, because the safari days come out of your window and a 14-day pass gets tight fast.
Per day, it is also the best value: $199 across 21 days works out at roughly $9.50 a day, against about $17 a day on the 8-day pass.
The March to September schedule is the thing that catches people out. Between October and February buses depart every single day in both directions. Between March and September, westbound departures from Cape Town run Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and eastbound departures from Port Elizabeth run Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
On an 8-day pass in July, those non-operating days matter. Two of them falling awkwardly turns an eight-day window into six usable travel days. In that situation, either buy the 14-day pass for the extra breathing room or take the one-way hop-on hop-off pass, which has twelve months to complete and therefore cannot expire underneath you. Buses also do not operate between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth on 24, 25 and 31 December or 1 January, and the eastbound service pauses on 25 and 26 December and 1 and 2 January.
| Option | Cost for the corridor | Stops served | Door-to-door | Flexibility once booked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BazBus one-way or unlimited pass | From $119 one-way; $139–$199 unlimited | All 14 stops | Yes, at every stop | Change dates and pickups yourself, from your phone |
| Intercape or Greyhound coach | Roughly R400–R980 one-way | None between the two cities | No — terminal to terminal | Fixed to the ticket you bought |
| Self-drive rental | Vehicle from about R201/day, plus fuel at R26.05 a litre for coastal 95, excess cover, and a one-way drop-off fee of R1 500–R3 500 | Anywhere you can find | Yes, if you drive | Total, but you are responsible for everything |
| Guided tour | The most expensive option | Fixed itinerary | Yes | None — that is the trade |
Coach travel is genuinely the cheaper choice if your only goal is arriving: an Intercape journey between the two cities takes 12 to 13.5 hours, partly because the operator holds its coaches to a self-imposed 95km/h limit on national roads for safety reasons. It also stops at neither Wilderness, nor Sedgefield, nor Storms River, nor any of the other places people actually come to the Garden Route for.
Is there a 7-day pass?
No. The unlimited travel passes come in 8, 14 and 21-day versions, and the 8-day is the shortest of them. If you have exactly a week, the 8-day pass gives you a day of margin, which is worth having. If you have less than a week and only want to travel in one direction, the one-way hop-on hop-off pass is usually the better buy, because it costs less and its twelve-month validity means an unexpected extra night somewhere does not cost you anything. Shorter fixed-itinerary options also exist, including the 3-Day Explorer and the 4-Day Garden Route Adventure, which are structured tours rather than hop-on hop-off passes.
Can I upgrade from an 8-day to a 14-day pass after I have started?
Pass length is set when you book, and changes after travel has begun are handled case by case by our customer service team rather than through an automatic upgrade path in your login. If you think there is a realistic chance you will want longer, book the longer pass up front — the price difference between 8 and 14 days is $30, which is less than one night’s accommodation in most Garden Route towns and considerably less than the hassle of rearranging mid-trip.
Does the pass include accommodation?
No, and that is deliberate. Bundling accommodation would mean choosing your hostels for you, which is the opposite of how a hop-on hop-off trip should work. What the pass does include is exclusive discounted rates at partner accommodation at each stop, so you book the place you want at a better price than the public rate. Our drivers also help passengers book accommodation and tours on board, which is how a surprising number of travelers end up staying somewhere they had never heard of that morning.
Which direction should I travel?
Let your flights decide. Both directions cover the same 14 stops at the same price, and passes exist for both starting points. The practical arguments are narrow: starting in Cape Town means easing into the trip from the city most travelers land in, while starting in Port Elizabeth means doing Addo Elephant National Park early while you are fresh and finishing in Cape Town, which is a good place to spend a final few days.
What if I want to stay somewhere longer than planned?
That is the entire point of the product. Buses run every day between October and February, so the next bus through any stop is 24 hours away, and you change your own travel dates and pickup point through your login code without contacting us. On an unlimited pass the only constraint is your validity window; on a one-way pass you have twelve months, so staying an extra three nights in Wilderness costs you nothing but the accommodation.
Prices quoted are the promotional rates published at the time of writing and are subject to change; confirm the current price at the point of booking. Sample itineraries assume typical travel times and normal operating schedules, and will need adjusting around the March–September departure days and the festive-season non-operating dates. Comparative costs for coach travel and self-drive rental are mid-2026 market estimates rather than quotes, and rental pricing in particular swings substantially between December peak and mid-winter — get a live quote for your dates before relying on the comparison. Customer quotes are reproduced verbatim from our own published reviews and do not carry review dates in our current records; dates should be added before publication.
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