The Garden Route Without a Car: Every Way to Get Around

Yes, you can do the Garden Route without a car. Our scheduled shuttle runs the N2 coastal route on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, intercity coaches and the Baz Bus use the same road, and Uber and Bolt operate in George, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay and Mossel Bay. Private transfers and day tours cover the rest.

We are a family-run tour and shuttle operator in Plett, so we run some of these options ourselves and point guests to the others when they fit a trip better. Self-drive suits plenty of travellers; this guide is for everyone else.

Getting around the Garden Route: the options at a glance

Ask a travel forum about getting around the Garden Route and you will get a dozen answers, each about a single service. None of them covers every leg, so the approach that works for the Garden Route without a car is to match each leg to the option built for it.

Read it as a menu rather than a ranking: most car-free trips combine two or three.

Scheduled shuttles

Picture a morning in Plett: bags packed, coffee finished, and Cape Town waiting at the far end of the day. That long stretch between towns is what a scheduled shuttle does best. You book a seat and someone else watches the road.

The Gecko shuttle: days, stops and pickup points

At the time of writing, the timetable on our Garden Route shuttle service page shows the N2 coastal route running on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, and the N1 inland route on Thursday.

Each route has its own page, such as the Plettenberg Bay to Cape Town shuttle and the George to Plettenberg Bay shuttle, and our shuttle stops and pickup times page lists every stop. Check the timetable, stops and pickup points for your exact leg before you plan around it, and ask when you book if anything is unclear.

Garden Route public transport: intercity coaches

According to Greyhound, its Cape Town to East London route was relaunched on 28 March 2025, with stops at George, Knysna and Plett.

Intercity coaches are the backbone of Garden Route public transport. They run the N2 on longer routes, so the towns are stops along the way rather than the destination.

Garden Route bus services along the N2

The two intercity names you are likely to see are Intercape and Greyhound. A Garden Route bus fits better than our shuttle in two cases: a Tuesday or Saturday, when our shuttle does not run, and carrying on east beyond Plett on the Greyhound route to East London. Check each operator’s timetable for its stops, as you may still need a short ride to your accommodation.

Hop-on hop-off backpacker buses

Stay an extra night in a town you love and a fixed timetable starts to pinch.

According to bazbus.com, the Baz Bus runs a hop-on hop-off service between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, so you can get off in one town and rejoin on a later day. It runs every day between October and February, and on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the rest of the year. It is the option we suggest to backpackers who want to hostel-hop along the coast without fixing every date in advance. Its route stays near the coast, so inland trips such as Oudtshoorn and the Cango Caves still need a separate plan.

E-hailing in George, Knysna and Plettenberg Bay

Plenty of visitors assume ride apps stop at the city limits. They don’t here. Uber and Bolt both operate in George, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay and Mossel Bay, and both serve George Airport. So yes, there is Uber in George, and in Plett too.

E-hailing earns its place on short hops: a restaurant in Knysna, a beach in Plett, the airport at the end of your stay. The catch is supply. Fewer drivers work in the smaller towns, especially early in the morning or late at night.

Private transfers for airports and trailheads

Your flight does not check our timetable before it lands. Neither does a hike that finishes when your legs say so. Private transfers are for the journeys that refuse to fit a schedule.

A transfer gives you your own vehicle and driver for one journey, at the time that suits you. It is arranged by enquiry rather than booked online, because each one is planned around your flight and group. Our private airport transfers include George Airport to Plettenberg Bay and George Airport to Knysna, as well as Port Elizabeth Airport transfers.

For hikers, our Otter Trail transfers link Storms River and Nature’s Valley, the two ends of the trail. Check the trail’s current status when you book.

Private tours without a car

Skip the guided days and a car-free trip shrinks to the towns along the N2. The places most visitors come for sit off the main road: Storms River Mouth in Tsitsikamma, Oudtshoorn and the Cango Caves in the Klein Karoo, Knysna’s lagoon and the Heads.

Private tours without a car solve that in one move. Our private Garden Route day tours start with hotel pickup, and from there it is your guide and your pace, with just your group in the vehicle. The Tsitsikamma tour, Oudtshoorn tour and Knysna tour each give one of those areas a full day.

Travellers have rated us Excellent on TripAdvisor, and their reviews are the best place to see what past guests made of a day out with us.

Building a car-free week

Say you land at George Airport on a Monday with a week in Plett ahead. Here is one way the shuttle, a transfer and two day tours can share the work. It is a sample plan, not a fixed package, and tour days depend on availability, so ask when you enquire.

• Monday: a private transfer collects you at George Airport and takes you to Plett.
• Tuesday: no shuttle runs, so spend it on a Tsitsikamma day tour with hotel pickup.
• Wednesday to Friday: slow days in Plett, with Uber or Bolt for short hops.
• Saturday: another no-shuttle day, ideal for a Knysna day tour around the lagoon and the Heads.
• Sunday: an N2 coastal shuttle day for your onward leg; check the timetable for direction and pickup point.

Things that catch car-free travellers out

The big pieces of a car-free trip are rarely the problem. The small print is.

• Tuesday and Saturday: no Gecko shuttle runs, so plan a coach or private transfer for an onward journey on those days.
• George Airport is drop-off only: our scheduled shuttle drops passengers at the airport on the way to Cape Town but does not collect arriving passengers there.
• Late nights in small towns: when you dine out of town, agree how you are getting back before you go, not after dessert.

Frequently asked questions

Your car-free Garden Route, sorted

Shuttles and coaches for the long legs, Uber and Bolt for the short ones, a private transfer for the airport or trailhead, and a guide for everything off the N2. Start with the shuttle days, because they set the rhythm of the week.

When your dates are clear, book a shuttle seat and add a day tour or two for the sights in between, or send an enquiry for a transfer. That is the whole of the Garden Route without a car, at your pace.