Updated Date:
Author: BazBus Editorial Team
Quick Summary: BazBus runs daily in both directions from October to February. From March to September the schedule drops to five days a week, and — this is the part most travelers miss — the two directions run on different days. Westbound services from Cape Town depart Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday; eastbound services from Port Elizabeth depart Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. This article gives the full stop-by-stop timetable for both directions and shows how to plan an itinerary that never leaves you stranded waiting for a bus.
Two seasons, two patterns. October to February: departures every single day, in both directions. March to September: five departures a week in each direction, on different days depending on which way you are going. On top of that, services pause over the festive period — no buses between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth on 24, 25 and 31 December or 1 January, and no buses between Port Elizabeth and Cape Town on 25 and 26 December or 1 and 2 January.
| Direction | October – February | March – September |
|---|---|---|
| Westbound: Cape Town to Port Elizabeth | Every day | Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday |
| Eastbound: Port Elizabeth to Cape Town | Every day | Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday |
The asymmetry is deliberate. It reflects thirty years of ridership data on which days travelers actually want to move in each direction, and it means that on any given day in winter at least one direction of the route is running.
| Leg | Arrival at the next stop |
|---|---|
| Cape Town departs | 7:00am |
| Stellenbosch | 8:00am |
| Hermanus | 9:30am |
| Swellendam | 11:20am |
| Garden Route Game Lodge | 12:40pm |
| Mossel Bay | 1:30pm |
| George Mall (connections to Oudtshoorn) | 2:20pm |
| Wilderness | 2:50pm |
| Sedgefield | 3:30pm |
| Knysna | 4:10pm |
| Plettenberg Bay | 5:00pm |
| Storms River, via Bloukrans Bridge | 7:00pm |
| Jeffreys Bay | 8:10pm |
| Port Elizabeth | 9:20pm |
| Leg | Arrival at the next stop |
|---|---|
| Port Elizabeth departs | 6:30am |
| Jeffreys Bay | 7:35am |
| Storms River | 8:40am |
| The Crags / Bloukrans Bridge | Shortly after Storms River |
| Plettenberg Bay | 10:20am |
| Knysna | 11:00am |
| Sedgefield | 11:40am |
| Wilderness | 12:20pm |
| George Mall (connections to Oudtshoorn) | Early afternoon |
| Mossel Bay | 2:00pm |
| Garden Route Game Lodge | 2:45pm |
| Swellendam | 4:00pm |
| Hermanus | 6:00pm |
| Stellenbosch | 7:15pm |
| Cape Town | 8:00pm |
These are the times the bus reaches each town. Your own pickup time is a separate thing, and it is earlier — see the section below.
Your exact pickup time appears on your booking confirmation and depends on where you are staying, because the bus works its way around town collecting passengers before leaving. If your hostel is the first on the circuit, you will be collected well before the stated departure. There is nothing to print — the confirmation is your ticket — but do read the pickup time on it rather than assuming the timetable time applies to you.
Cape Town to Port Elizabeth in a single run is 7:00am to 9:20pm. Eastbound it is 6:30am to 8:00pm. Both are entirely doable and some travelers do exactly that to reach a flight, but the whole design of the route is that you break it up. The most common mistake we see is a traveler booking one night in each of six towns and then spending the trip on the bus rather than in the places they came to see.
Wilderness to Sedgefield is 40 minutes. Sedgefield to Knysna is another 40. Knysna to Plettenberg Bay is 50. This cluster in the middle of the route is why travelers with a 14 or 21-day pass end up hopping between four towns in a week without it ever feeling like a travel day.
From March to September, work backwards from your fixed dates.
In practice, travelers on an unlimited pass in winter tend to settle into a three-stop-a-week rhythm without planning it, and travelers on a one-way hop-on hop-off pass barely notice the schedule at all, since that ticket gives twelve months to complete the route.
Every booking comes with a unique reservation code that gives you access to the Hop Login, where you change your travel dates and pickup locations yourself without contacting anyone. You can also message us on WhatsApp to get on the next bus. Between October and February, that next bus is 24 hours away at every stop — which is what makes the phrase “hop-on hop-off” mean something in practice rather than just on a booking page.
“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.” — Josh M., Chicago.
A timetable is only useful if the buses follow it. In a region where transport frequently runs behind schedule, we hold a 98.5% on-time arrival rate across trips, which is a figure we publish precisely because it is checkable. It matters more than it sounds: a late arrival is not just an inconvenience on this route, it is a missed bungee booking, a shark cage trip that sailed without you, or a hostel check-in after reception has closed.
Delays that do occur are almost always weather-related — coastal fog around Mossel Bay and George in particular, and heavy rain on the Tsitsikamma passes. If a service is running behind, our drivers know and our 24-hour customer service team can tell you, so a quick message beats standing outside your hostel wondering.
| Option | Frequency on the corridor | Journey time end to end | Stops between the cities |
|---|---|---|---|
| BazBus | Daily October–February; five days a week March–September, both directions | About 14 hours if ridden end to end, but designed to be broken up | 14 |
| Intercape or Greyhound | Several services a week, terminal to terminal | Roughly 12–13.5 hours non-stop | None useful to travelers |
| Self-drive | Whenever you like | About 8 hours of driving without stops | Whatever you find yourself |
| Domestic flight | Daily | About an hour, plus airports | None — you skip the region |
Coach operators run a faster end-to-end journey, and Intercape’s 12 to 13.5 hour timing partly reflects a self-imposed 95km/h speed limit on national roads adopted for safety reasons. The trade is that those services connect terminals rather than towns, so the Garden Route itself is not on the itinerary.
Do buses really run every single day in summer?
Between October and February, yes, in both directions, with the exception of the festive-season dates — 24, 25 and 31 December and 1 January westbound, and 25 and 26 December and 1 and 2 January eastbound. That daily frequency is what makes the hop-on hop-off model work in summer: whatever stop you get off at, the next bus comes through in 24 hours, so an impulsive extra night somewhere costs you nothing but the accommodation. In the March to September window the same logic applies, just on a five-day-a-week rhythm.
What time will I actually be picked up from my hostel?
Earlier than the departure time on the timetable, and the exact time is printed on your booking confirmation because it depends on your accommodation’s position on the pickup circuit. In Cape Town, with a 7:00am departure, the earliest collections are well before dawn. Be outside and ready at the time on your confirmation rather than the time on the timetable — the bus is working to a chain of pickups, and a passenger who is not ready delays everyone behind them on the circuit.
Can I change which day I travel once I have booked?
Yes, through the Hop Login using the reservation code on your booking confirmation. You can change travel dates and pickup locations yourself without contacting us, which is the feature travelers consistently tell us they used most. If you prefer to talk to a person, our customer service team is reachable 24 hours by email and phone, and WhatsApp works for simply getting on the next bus. Changes are subject to seat availability on the service you are moving to, so earlier is better, particularly in December and January.
Why do the two directions run on different days in winter?
Because demand is not symmetrical. Over thirty years of running this corridor, the pattern of which days travelers want to move west versus east has been consistent enough to schedule around, and splitting the days means that on any winter day at least one direction is operating. Both directions run on Mondays, Saturdays and Sundays, so those are the flexible days if you are coordinating with someone travelling the opposite way.
What happens to the timetable over Christmas and New Year?
Travel is still possible over the festive period, but the two directions pause on different dates. There are no services between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth on 24, 25 and 31 December or 1 January, and none between Port Elizabeth and Cape Town on 25 and 26 December or 1 and 2 January. Since this coincides with the busiest accommodation period on the Garden Route, plan those specific dates as stationary days somewhere you actively want to be, rather than as travel days.
Timetable data reflects our published schedule at the time of writing; arrival times are scheduled rather than guaranteed, and two eastbound legs — The Crags and George Mall — are listed without precise times on the current schedule, so confirm them directly if your plans depend on them. The Crags also appears as a separate entry on the eastbound timetable alongside the 14 named stops, which is worth verifying with our customer service team if you intend to hop off there specifically. Schedules change seasonally and around public holidays, so always check the live timetable on the relevant pass page before finalising flights. Customer quotes are reproduced verbatim from our own published reviews, including non-standard spellings of our brand name, and do not carry review dates in our current records; dates should be added before publication.
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