Updated Date:
Author: BazBus Editorial Team
Quick Summary: If you are stopping at three or more places between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, a hop-on hop-off pass almost always works out cheaper and considerably less stressful than buying individual tickets. If you genuinely only want to get from one city to another with no stops, a point-to-point intercity coach ticket is the cheaper option and we will say so. The decision turns on how many stops you plan to make and how much your own time and hassle are worth.
Most of the confusion around this question comes from lumping three quite different products together. They solve different problems.
A hop-on hop-off route pass covers the whole corridor in one direction for a single price, with no time limit. You choose which of the stops to get off at and how long to stay.
An unlimited travel pass covers a fixed number of days — 8, 14 or 21 — during which you can travel in any direction, as often as you like.
A point-to-point ticket is a single journey from A to B, bought per leg, usually terminal to terminal on an intercity coach.
They are not competing versions of the same thing. Working out which one you want starts with being honest about the trip you are actually going to take, not the trip you imagine at the booking stage.
This is the classic BazBus product and the one most backpackers end up on.
The Cape Town to Port Elizabeth pass covers 14 stops in one direction, starts from $119 at the time of writing, and carries no time limit — you have 12 months to complete the route. The Port Elizabeth to Cape Town pass does the same thing in reverse. Return passes are available, completing A to Z to A within 12 months.
What is actually included matters as much as the price:
The key structural feature is the absence of a clock. If you get to Knysna and decide to stay nine days instead of two, that costs you nothing in ticket terms. This is the version for travellers who do not yet know their itinerary and do not want to commit to one.
The 8-day, 14-day and 21-day travel passes work differently. Rather than one direction with no deadline, you get unlimited travel in any direction for a fixed window. At the time of writing these run from $139, $169 and $199 respectively, and equivalents exist starting from Port Elizabeth: 8-day, 14-day and 21-day.
As the pass pages put it, the only real restriction is that you must complete your travel within the number of days allowed. You can finish anywhere, and you can go back and forth.
That last point is the whole argument for this pass. Going backwards is free. If you get to Storms River, hear about something in Knysna and want to double back, a one-direction route pass will not let you do that without buying more travel. An unlimited pass will.
Who it suits: travellers on a defined trip length who want to move around rather than progress linearly, and anyone who wants to end up back where they started without buying a return.
Who it does not suit: travellers with open-ended plans, because the clock is running from the moment you start.
The alternative is to buy each leg individually. In South Africa that usually means an intercity coach operator such as Intercape or Greyhound, both of which run terminal-to-terminal services on the Cape Town to Port Elizabeth corridor. Greyhound’s South African operation ceased trading in February 2021 and later relaunched under new ownership, and both operators sell tickets online per journey.
We will be straightforward about where this wins. If you want to travel directly from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth with no stops, a point-to-point coach ticket is cheaper than any hop-on hop-off pass, and there is no sensible argument otherwise. Intercity coaches are designed for exactly that job and they do it at a low price.
The problems start when you want to stop.
This is where the comparison stops being a simple price-per-leg calculation, and it is worth going through properly rather than asserting it.
Terminal transfers at both ends of every leg. An intercity coach drops you at a terminal, not at your hostel. On a route with six stops, that is twelve separate taxi or e-hailing journeys you have to arrange, pay for and navigate — and several of them will be at awkward hours. The Garden Route makes this worse, because e-hailing coverage in towns like Wilderness, Sedgefield and Storms River is thin to non-existent.
Coverage gaps. Intercity coaches serve major towns, not the whole corridor. Several of the stops that make the Garden Route worth doing — Garden Route Game Lodge, Wilderness, Sedgefield, Storms River, The Crags — are not on a standard intercity coach network in any convenient form. Getting to them means additional shuttles, which cost money and time.
Timing risk. Each booked leg is a fixed commitment. Miss one because a hike ran long or a boat trip was cancelled for weather, and you have lost the fare and have to buy again. Six separate bookings mean six separate chances for this to happen.
Booking overhead. Every leg is a research task, a booking, a confirmation and a schedule to keep track of, usually across more than one operator. That is a real cost even if it does not show up on a receipt.
Terminal safety and comfort. South African intercity bus terminals require you to look after yourself and your bags, particularly with late-night arrivals. Our own Cape Town travel guide notes that arriving at a main bus station adds an extra risk when you are then trying to reach your accommodation with your belongings.
None of these are dramatic on a single journey. They compound sharply across a multi-stop trip, which is precisely the trip most people come to South Africa to do.
| Hop-on hop-off route pass | Unlimited travel pass | Point-to-point tickets | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price at time of writing | From $119 one direction | From $139 (8 days) to $199 (21 days) | Per leg; cheapest for a single direct journey |
| Time limit | None; 12 months to complete | 8, 14 or 21 days | Per booking |
| Direction | One way, or return within 12 months | Any direction, unlimited | Whatever you book |
| Stops available | 14 | 14, repeatable | Major towns only |
| Pickup point | Your accommodation | Your accommodation | Bus terminal |
| Transfers you arrange | None | None | Two per leg |
| Changing plans | Free, via your login code | Free, via your login code | Rebook and usually repay |
| Onboard local guide | Yes | Yes | No |
| Best for | Open-ended one-direction trips | Fixed-length trips with backtracking | Direct A-to-B with no stops |
The honest arithmetic, without pretending it always favours us.
One stop, or none. If you are going Cape Town to Port Elizabeth directly, or with a single overnight, point-to-point ticketing is cheaper. Buy the coach ticket.
Two stops. Genuinely close. The pass starts to compete once you add up the individual legs plus four terminal transfers, but reasonable people land on either side depending on how they value their time.
Three or more stops. The pass wins on cost for most travellers, and wins decisively once transfers are included. It also wins on everything that is not cost — flexibility, safety, not having to arrange anything.
Five or more stops, or an undecided itinerary. Not really a contest. The per-leg approach becomes both more expensive and a part-time administrative job.
Most people who come to South Africa for the Garden Route end up making four to eight stops, which is why the pass is the default recommendation rather than a universal one.
There is one benefit that does not show up in any price table: the ability to change your mind without paying for it.
Every BazBus pass comes with a login code that lets you change your own travel dates, times and pickup locations from your phone, without contacting anyone. Buses run daily on the main corridor during the October to February high season, so if you decide at breakfast to stay another two days, you simply move your booking.
That is a structurally different relationship with your itinerary than holding six non-refundable coach tickets.
“Baz bus made my South Africa experience as easy as possible. My plans changed a lot and it was easy to just adjust my itinerary online on the fly. It takes away the hassle of getting to and from bus stations and the chaos of transportation as a whole. Definitely worth the premium.” — Josh M., Chicago.
That last phrase is worth taking at face value rather than editing out. There is a premium over the cheapest possible fare on some itineraries, and passengers who value terminal-free travel and free itinerary changes generally conclude it is worth paying. Passengers who only want the lowest possible price for a single direct journey reasonably conclude otherwise.
Is a BazBus pass cheaper than taking Intercape or Greyhound?
For a single direct journey between two cities, no — intercity coaches are cheaper, and we would not claim otherwise. For a multi-stop Garden Route trip, the pass usually costs less once you count every leg plus the taxi or e-hailing journeys to and from each terminal, and the gap widens with every additional stop. The crossover point is around two to three stops for most travellers. The other factor is what the intercity network does not reach: several of the best Garden Route stops are not served conveniently by terminal-to-terminal coaches at all, so the comparison is often not like for like.
Does a hop-on hop-off pass expire?
The one-direction route passes have no time limit in the usual sense — you have 12 months to complete the route, and return passes allow you to complete the full A to Z to A journey within that same 12-month window. The unlimited travel passes are different: they run for 8, 14 or 21 days from when you start, and the only real restriction is finishing within that window. If you are unsure how long your trip will take, the no-time-limit route pass is the safer purchase.
Can I change direction or go backwards on a route pass?
Not on a one-direction route pass, which travels a single way along the corridor. If you want to double back — return to Knysna after reaching Storms River, or finish where you started — you need either an unlimited travel pass, which allows unlimited travel in any direction within its day window, or a return pass. This is the single most common mismatch between what people buy and what they end up wanting, so it is worth thinking honestly at the booking stage about whether your trip is linear.
How many stops do I need to make for a pass to be worth it?
Three is the practical threshold on cost, and two if you also value not arranging your own transfers. Below that, point-to-point ticketing is cheaper. Above four or five stops, the pass is both cheaper and substantially less work, because each additional leg on the point-to-point approach adds a booking, a fare and two terminal transfers. Most Garden Route travellers make between four and eight stops, which is why the pass is the usual recommendation rather than a universal one.
What happens if I miss my bus?
With a pass, you use your login code to move your booking to a later date or a different bus, and buses run on the corridor daily in high season, so the practical cost is a delay rather than a loss. With point-to-point tickets, a missed departure usually means forfeiting the fare and buying a new ticket, and you may also have knock-on problems with accommodation booked at the other end. This asymmetry is one of the less obvious reasons the pass suits travellers whose plans are still forming.
Prices quoted here are the promotional figures published at the time of writing and change with season, exchange rate and availability, so treat them as an order-of-magnitude comparison rather than a quote — check the current pass pages before budgeting, and bear in mind that intercity coach fares fluctuate with demand in the same way. The break-even analysis also assumes typical Garden Route transfer costs and a standard multi-stop itinerary, so if your trip is unusual in shape, price your own specific legs including transfers rather than relying on the thresholds above.
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