Road Tripping South Africa - An adventure map book [Book Review]

This month MapStudio has released The Road Tripping South Africa map book that is not only a guide but your road trip companion and friend. If you purchase this book in hope of embarking on at least one of the listed road trips, you might see yourself adding all the trips onto your bucket list. That is what Road Tripping South Africa will make you do, it’ll tickle your sense of adventure and your sense of wonder.

Road Tripping South Africa map book

As travellers are looking for unique and authentic experiences, some of our favourite road trippers got together to document the 1st edition of Road Tripping South Africa map book (2014).
There are 20 iconic road trips and hundreds of mini routes all of which are perfectly manageable in a normal sedan. These road trips include the:

• Not the N1- Johannesburg to Cape Town
• Land of Legend- Circular route around Makhado via Elim and Thohoyandou
• The Great Trek Road Trip- Graaf-Reinet to Dundee and/ or Makhado
• Frontier Country- Port Elizabeth & East London
• Ultimate Safari- St Lucia through Swaziland to Kruger National Park
• Surfing Road Trip- Cape Town to Mdubi via Lambert’s Bay
• Route 62, The Passes & Beyond- Cape Town to Oudsthoorn
• West Coast- Fossils & Fisherfolk – Riebeek-Kasteel to Lamberts’s Bay
• Wild Coast- East London to Port Edward
• Tumbling Waters- Long Tom Pass to Sabie, Pilgrim’s Rest, Motlatse River Canyon & Grass Kop
• The Dry North- Johannesburg to Cape Town
• Golf Road Trip- Ballito to KwaZulu-Natal/ Wild Coast border
• Cederberg- Round trip to Ceres via central Cederberg, Clanwilliam & Wuppertal
• Winelands- Cape Town to Somerset West
• Overberg- Somerset West to Riversdale
• Meandering the Midlands- Hilton to Karkloof
• Maluti Drakensberg Route- Ficksburg to Drakensburg Gardens
• In Deep Water- Cape Town to Maputaland
• Anglo-Zulu war battlefield route- Dundee to Durban

DSA Office Pick: The Dry North road trip from Jhb to CTN

These road trips will take you on quiet, scenic back roads to places that you probably didn’t know existed. Also included are the driving conditions for each area and trip, pet-friendly ratings, child-friendly ratings, low-slung vehicle friendly ratings, what not to miss in each area you pass and/ or visit, emergency numbers, recommended best times to visit these areas, top tips and padkos options, as well as day-by-day descriptions and route maps.

At Drive South Africa, our office favourite is The Dry North road trip from Johannesburg to Cape Town. This trip comes in 5 sections, passes through Reimfasmaak Hot Springs and includes making a pass at the Augrabies Falls National Park.

This map book is testimony that experiential tourism is taking hold of travellers keen to get the local perspective of the destinations they visit rather that artificial and overly-frequented experiences that some may have settled for in the past. Road Tripping South Africa will inspire you to look for new experiences to create memories in ways you never have before as you travel through the country.

Route 62 Roadtrip: Welcome to our country pumpkin

When it comes to the logistics and toll roads, all of these are listed for each region including the closest airports, major cities and possible links into other featured routes. So, next time you want to escape the crowds & take the road less travelled, get yourself a copy of Road Tripping South Africa, hop into your car and discover the back roads that you have never journeyed before.