Updated Date:
Author: BazBus Editorial Team
Quick Summary: Flying is the right call for the long, empty stretches of South Africa — Cape Town to Johannesburg, or the hop across to the Kruger Lowveld. It is the wrong call for the Garden Route, where the towns worth seeing sit between the airports, not at them. This guide sets out the real trade-offs in time, money and experience, using our own 30 years of route data and current 2026 airline and park pricing, and explains the itinerary most travellers actually end up building: fly the long legs, ride the coast.
We get asked this question in our Cape Town office almost every day, usually by someone holding a printout of a R900 flight and wondering whether the coast is worth eight hours on a bus. It is a fair question, and it deserves a fair answer rather than a sales pitch.
BazBus has been running the Cape Town–Port Elizabeth backpacker corridor since 1995. In that time we have watched South Africa’s domestic aviation market boom, collapse, and rebuild itself around low-cost carriers. We have also watched thousands of passengers book a flight to “save time” and then spend three days of their trip in Cape Town wondering what the Garden Route was actually like. Both outcomes are avoidable if you understand what each mode is genuinely built for.
The short version: aircraft are extraordinary at covering distance between two cities. They are useless at covering the 200 kilometres of coastline between Mossel Bay and Storms River, because nothing there has a runway. That single fact drives almost every recommendation below.
South Africa’s domestic network is a hub-and-spoke system. The hubs are OR Tambo and Lanseria in Johannesburg, Cape Town International, and King Shaka in Durban. The spokes reach a handful of secondary airports — George, Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), East London, Kimberley, Hoedspruit and Kruger Mpumalanga International.
Look at that list against the Garden Route and the gap is obvious. Stellenbosch, Hermanus, Swellendam, Mossel Bay, Wilderness, Sedgefield, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay, The Crags, Storms River and Jeffreys Bay have no scheduled commercial air service at all. George Airport is the only airport on the corridor itself, and from George you still need ground transport in both directions to reach anywhere interesting.
That is the structural reason our own how it works page lists planes first among the ways to travel South Africa and immediately flags the trade-off: you will miss a lot of stops not served by airports, including effectively all of the Garden Route ones.
We would rather you fly than force a bad overland leg. These are the cases where we say so out loud.
A useful data point on the cost side: Lonely Planet puts a one-way Johannesburg–Cape Town flight at around R1,200 (about US$67), against roughly R650 (US$36) for a one-way long-distance bus ticket on the same corridor. On a route that long, the flight premium buys you an entire day back. That is a genuinely good trade.
Domestic fares in South Africa move sharply with demand and with how far ahead you book. A BusinessTech comparison of last-minute domestic round trips found the cheapest carrier varied by route rather than being consistent across the network — one airline undercut the field on Johannesburg–Durban while another was cheapest on Johannesburg–Cape Town. There is no single “cheap airline” in South Africa; there is only a cheap fare on a specific route on a specific day.
Practical consequence for backpackers: flying rewards planning and punishes flexibility. If your itinerary is likely to change — and on a long trip it always does — every change to a domestic ticket has a cost. That is the opposite of how a travel pass behaves.
Here is the scenario we see most often, and the one worth thinking hardest about.
A traveller books Cape Town to Gqeberha, sees a two-hour flight time, and assumes they have saved a day over the coastal route. What they have actually done is delete eleven towns from their itinerary. The Garden Route is not a transit corridor with scenery attached; the corridor is the destination. Bloukrans Bridge, the Knysna Heads, the Tsitsikamma forest, the Wild Oats farmers’ market in Sedgefield, the whale-watching season in Hermanus — none of it is reachable from an airport without hiring a car or booking a separate tour, at which point the flight’s cost advantage has evaporated.
The second hidden cost is door-to-door time. A “two-hour flight” is rarely two hours. Add transfer time to Cape Town International, bag drop and security, boarding, the flight, baggage reclaim at the far end, and ground transport into the city, and a short domestic hop reliably consumes five to six hours of your day. Meanwhile our buses run hostel door to hostel door — as our 8 Day Travel Pass sets out, pickup and drop-off happen at your accommodation at every stop, which removes both taxi legs and any need to navigate a terminal with luggage.
Thirty years of running this route has taught us something that sounds soft but shows up constantly in our reviews: people meet each other on our buses and do not meet each other on aircraft. Sixteen seats, a driver who talks, and six to twelve hours of shared road create conversations that a 90-minute flight in assigned rows simply does not.
“The whole trip was smooth since day 1. The bus was spotless and on time. It was very convenient, safe and comfortable and so EASY to meet people on the bus. Ended up continuing my travel with 3 other girls who I met on the bus.” — Emily, United States, March 2025.
| Factor | BazBus hop-on hop-off | Domestic flight |
|---|---|---|
| Best distance | 60–900 km along the coastal corridor | 800 km and up |
| Garden Route town access | 14+ stops between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth | George only |
| Door-to-door time, Cape Town–Gqeberha | Full day, with stops you choose | Roughly 5–6 hours realistic |
| Pickup point | Your hostel or hotel door | Airport terminal |
| Itinerary changes | Change dates and buses yourself via your login code | Fare difference plus change fee |
| Baggage | Stowed on board | Weight limits, fees on low-cost carriers |
| Local knowledge en route | South African driver-guide commentary | None |
| Meeting other travellers | Structural to the product | Minimal |
| Typical published fare | From $139 for an 8-day unlimited pass | From roughly R1,200 one-way on trunk routes |
Our current published pass pricing, for reference, runs from $139 for the 8-day unlimited travel pass, $169 for the 14-day pass and $199 for the 21-day pass. Those are unlimited-travel products: a single purchase covers every bus journey on the corridor for the life of the pass, in both directions.
After three decades we can tell you what the well-designed South Africa trip looks like, and it is not a choice between flying and riding. It is both, used for what each is good at.
That structure flies exactly the legs that deserve to be flown and rides exactly the legs that deserve to be ridden. It is also, not coincidentally, how most of our long-stay passengers end up travelling.
Connectivity between the coast and the safari regions has improved slightly this year. CemAir launched a direct George–Hoedspruit service from 17 May 2026, operating Tuesdays, Thursdays and a limited Sunday schedule, with fares starting from R4,800. It is a genuinely useful link between the Garden Route and the Lowveld for travellers with the budget — though at that price point, for most backpackers routing via Johannesburg remains substantially cheaper.
There is one category of value that has no airborne equivalent, and it is the reason our drivers appear by name in so many of our reviews. A South African driver-guide who has worked this corridor for years knows which Knysna viewpoint is worth the detour in fog, which Plettenberg Bay hostel actually has a working kitchen, and what the town you are passing through looked like thirty years ago. That commentary is not an add-on to the journey. On the Garden Route it is a meaningful part of what you came for.
“I travelled with bazbus for 3 months. Absolutely loved it! Great way to see the country, get from a to b, and meet other travellers. Busses are comfortable, drivers are safe and very nice, online-service is great and all the stops are worth it!” — Pascale B, United States, November 2024.
Is it cheaper to fly or take BazBus between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth?
On a single point-to-point journey, a well-timed advance-purchase flight can come in below the cost of a multi-day travel pass, so if your only goal is to be in Gqeberha tomorrow, flying may win on pure fare. The comparison changes completely once you count what you would otherwise spend getting between Garden Route towns. A pass covers every journey on the corridor for its full validity period, so travellers who stop three or more times almost always find the overland option cheaper overall, before even counting airport transfers and baggage fees at both ends.
Can I combine a flight with a BazBus pass?
Yes, and this is the most common pattern among our longer-stay passengers. Many fly into Cape Town, travel the coast overland, and then fly onward from Gqeberha to Johannesburg or Nelspruit for a safari. Passes are sold as directional products starting in either Cape Town or Port Elizabeth, so you can align your pass start point with whichever end of the corridor your flight delivers you to. Let our office know your flight details in advance so pickups can be scheduled around your arrival.
Does flying to George work as a Garden Route shortcut?
It can, but with caveats. George Airport is the Garden Route’s only commercial airport and has decent Johannesburg connectivity, which makes it a reasonable entry point if you are short on time and coming from Gauteng. The catch is that George itself is a service town rather than a destination, and every coastal town you actually want to see is between 25 and 200 kilometres away. You will still need ground transport, so the flight solves your long-haul problem without solving your Garden Route problem.
What about baggage if I am travelling with a big backpack and adventure gear?
Low-cost domestic carriers in South Africa charge separately for checked bags, and surfboards, dive gear and oversized packs attract additional fees that can add meaningfully to a headline fare. Our buses carry your luggage as part of the fare with no per-item charge, which is one of the quieter cost differences between the two modes and one that matters more to backpackers than to most other travellers.
Is flying safer than travelling overland in South Africa?
Commercial aviation has an excellent safety record globally, and we would never argue otherwise. The relevant safety comparison for most backpackers is not bus versus plane but supervised door-to-door transport versus unsupervised ground travel at either end of a flight. Our vehicles carry GPS monitoring, we pick up and drop off at accommodation rather than at terminals, and we achieve a 98.5% on-time arrival rate across the route, which removes the late-night arrival and onward-taxi problem that generates most traveller safety incidents.
Airline fares, schedules and route availability in South Africa change frequently, and the figures cited here reflect published rates at the time of writing rather than what you will be quoted on any given day; check current fares directly with carriers and treat the cost comparisons above as directional. Our own pass pricing is quoted in US dollars and shown at promotional rates that are subject to change, so confirm current pricing at the point of booking. Rand and dollar figures assume an exchange rate of roughly R16.3 to US$1 as of September 2026 and should be refreshed before relying on them for budgeting.
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