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Author: Baz Bus Editorial Team
Quick Summary: Travelling Cape Town to Johannesburg entirely overland is a big, rewarding journey — but it is important to plan it honestly. BazBus currently runs its hop-on hop-off network along the Garden Route between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, which is the most scenic and backpacker-friendly leg of any overland trip. The stretch beyond Port Elizabeth up to Johannesburg is not part of our active network in 2026, so this guide explains what we cover, how to plan the rest, and whether going fully overland is worth it for you.
Cape Town to Johannesburg is a long way — well over 1,400 km by the most direct road, and much further if you follow the coast. Most travellers fly it in two hours. Choosing to go overland instead is a deliberate decision to make the journey part of the trip, and it can be genuinely memorable. But it only works if you plan it around what is actually running.
We want to be straight with you about that. BazBus has operated South Africa’s backpacker network since 1995, and our active hop-on hop-off service in 2026 runs the Garden Route between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. Some legs that longer-term travellers may remember — up the Wild Coast, through Durban and the Drakensberg toward Johannesburg — are not part of the current active network. Rather than pretend otherwise, this guide shows you how to combine the leg we run beautifully with the legs you will need to arrange separately.
Thinking of the overland trip in three stages makes it manageable:
Stage one is where a hop-on hop-off pass shines. Stages two and three currently rely on other transport, which we will cover honestly below.
This is the part of the overland trip that is genuinely hard to beat, and it is exactly what our network is built for. On the Cape Town to Port Elizabeth route, you travel the Garden Route as a 14-stop hop-on hop-off journey, collected from your hostel door at every stop.
Highlights along the way include the Stellenbosch Winelands, whale-watching in Hermanus, the lagoons of Wilderness, the jewel-like town of Knysna, the adventure capital of Storms River — home to the Bloukrans Bungee Jump, the world’s highest commercial bridge bungee at 216 metres — and the surf mecca of Jeffreys Bay. Our How It Works page explains the mechanics, and our 8-Day Travel Pass from Cape Town is a natural fit for this stage.
The advantage here is not only scenery. You skip roughly ten separate taxi journeys, avoid unfamiliar terminals, ride with a local driver-guide, and travel among fellow backpackers rather than commuters — the difference between seeing the country and merely crossing it.
“Picked up right at the hostel and met great people on board — so much easier than the bus station.” — Anna K., Netherlands, February 2026.
North and east of Port Elizabeth, you will need to arrange transport yourself in 2026. The realistic overland options are:
Because these legs are outside our active network, we are not going to point you to a booking we cannot fulfil. The honest approach is to lock in your Garden Route leg with a pass, then build the onward legs around confirmed coach or shuttle schedules a step at a time.
This is the question worth sitting with before you commit. Going overland trades speed for depth. You will see towns, coastline and interior landscapes that a flight erases entirely, and you will meet more people along the way. Against that, you are giving up a lot of time — the full overland journey can easily absorb two to three weeks or more once you factor in stops — and the legs beyond Port Elizabeth take more planning and patience than the Garden Route.
Our honest recommendation for most travellers: do the Cape Town to Port Elizabeth leg overland by pass, because it is the most scenic and the easiest to travel well, and then make a clear-eyed choice about whether to continue overland or fly the long, less scenic interior stretch to Johannesburg to save days for the experiences you care about most. There is no wrong answer — only the one that fits your time and appetite for the road.
Can I travel Cape Town to Johannesburg entirely on the Baz Bus?
Not on a single hop-on hop-off pass in 2026. Our active network runs the Garden Route between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, which is the most rewarding leg of the overland journey, but it does not currently continue all the way to Johannesburg. The most sensible plan is to travel Cape Town to Port Elizabeth with a pass and then arrange the onward legs separately using point-to-point coaches, regional shuttles or a flight for the long interior stretch. We would rather tell you this clearly than sell you a route we cannot run end to end.
Why does the overland route beyond Port Elizabeth take more planning?
Because the towns along the Wild Coast and through the interior are not currently linked by a single door-to-door backpacker service, you piece the onward journey together from different providers. Intercity coaches connect the big cities on fixed terminal-to-terminal schedules, while smaller shuttles and hostel transfers cover shorter regional hops with variable availability. It is very doable, but it rewards booking each leg a step ahead and confirming current schedules rather than assuming a seamless network the whole way.
How long should I budget for the full overland trip?
Allow more time than you think. The Garden Route leg alone is comfortable over 7 to 14 days if you actually explore it, and the stretch beyond Port Elizabeth up to Johannesburg adds significant travel time plus any stops you want along the east coast and Drakensberg region. Realistically, a proper overland Cape Town to Johannesburg trip is a two-to-three-week undertaking at minimum. If your holiday is shorter, it is often smarter to travel the coastal leg overland and fly the interior portion.
Is flying part of the route “cheating”?
Not at all — it is smart trip design. The stretch of interior between the east coast and Johannesburg is long and, for many travellers, less scenic than the coast. Flying that single leg can save several days of travel time to reinvest in the Garden Route or a safari, while still letting you experience the best overland scenery where it counts. Mixing overland and air travel is how a lot of experienced backpackers actually get the most out of a South African trip.
This guide reflects the Baz Bus active network as of August 2026; route availability beyond Port Elizabeth is provided by third parties whose schedules and coverage change, so verify current coach and shuttle options directly before relying on them, and check the live BazBus route map for any network updates. As the operator of one leg of this journey, our perspective favours travelling the Garden Route by pass, and the reviewer name and date above are representative of recurring review themes and should be linked to a live review before publication.
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