{"id":858259,"date":"2026-05-23T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=858259"},"modified":"2026-05-22T16:01:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T14:01:38","slug":"road-trip-in-south-africa-named-the-best-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/858259\/road-trip-in-south-africa-named-the-best-in-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Road trip in South Africa named the best in the world"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Garden Route in South Africa took top place in a global study of the best international road trips in the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

UK-based Autotrader, which is not related to the South African online marketplace, decided to compare international road trips based on a major factor that influences driving, the weather. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Every driver has experienced it: windows down, the road ahead stretching out under a brilliant sky, conditions so good you could stay behind the wheel all day,” said the UK-based company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company sought to determine the most iconic roads that reliably deliver the best driving weather, and which kind of weather is best. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The marketplace provider then partnered with Jim R N Dale, Senior Meteorologist and founder of\u00a0British Weather Services, to define the weather conditions that make driving at its easiest and safest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visibility was the most important factor, with Autotrader using Dale’s expertise to create a Perfect Driving Weather Score. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The score factors in the number of clear days, visibility quality and wind speed. The criteria were then applied to the world’s most celebrated driving routes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using historical weather data, Autotrader identified the ideal climate conditions, both here and abroad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Garden Route, which stretches from Mossel Bay to the Storm’s River Mouth, topped the international rankings, with a score of 90.6 out of 100. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 300km stretch of road consistently ranked highly, with clear skies most of the year, giving motorists a chance to look out at the Indian Ocean Coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The route also benefits from gentle winds and comfortable temperatures. The Garden Route also benefits from its diverse locations, ranging from forests to mountains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The route includes several popular towns, including George, Plettenberg Bay, Knysna, Stillbaai, Wilderness, Sedgefield and more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SANParks welcomed the ranking and noted that the Garden Route National Park remains a key part of this route, offering diverse landscapes where forests, rivers, mountains, and coastline meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The route beats the famous Route 66 and the Pacific Coast Highway in the USA, which trail in second and third place, respectively. Italy’s Amalfi Coast finished fourth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also beat well-known routes in Italy, Spain, Australia, Canada, France and Norway. The top 10 can be found below: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rank<\/strong><\/td>Road Name<\/strong><\/td>Country<\/strong><\/td>Perfect Driving Weather Score (\/100)<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead>
#1<\/strong><\/td>Garden Route<\/td>South Africa<\/td>90.6<\/td><\/tr>
#2<\/strong><\/td>Route 66<\/td>USA<\/td>87.3<\/td><\/tr>
#3<\/strong><\/td>Pacific Coast Highway<\/td>USA<\/td>86.1<\/td><\/tr>
#4<\/strong><\/td>Amalfi Coast Road<\/td>Italy<\/td>81<\/td><\/tr>
#5<\/strong><\/td>Costa Brava Coastal Roads<\/td>Spain<\/td>76.3<\/td><\/tr>
#6<\/strong><\/td>Great Ocean Road<\/td>Australia<\/td>71.4<\/td><\/tr>
#7<\/strong><\/td>Icefields Parkway<\/td>Canada<\/td>69.5<\/td><\/tr>
#8<\/strong><\/td>Loire Valley Drives<\/td>France<\/td>67.3<\/td><\/tr>
#9<\/strong><\/td>Kahekili Highway<\/td>USA<\/td>57.2<\/td><\/tr>
#10<\/strong><\/td>Norwegian Atlantic Road<\/td>Norway<\/td>39.1<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div>
Source: Autotrader<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Images of the Garden Route<\/h2>\n\n\n
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\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Garden Route from Mossel Bay to the Storm’s River Mouth has taken top place in a study of the best road-trips in the world from UK-based Autotrader. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":858265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11119],"tags":[7176,12164],"class_list":["post-858259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-autotrader","tag-sanparks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":858276,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858259\/revisions\/858276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}