The Addo tours at a glance
| |
5-Day Best of Garden Route & Addo |
6-Day Garden Route & Addo |
5-Day Garden Route & Addo Tour |
5-Day Garden Route & Addo (one-way) |
| Operator |
Hotspots2c Tours |
Earthstompers Adventures |
Bokbus |
Earthstompers Adventures |
| Start and end |
Round trip from Cape Town |
Round trip from Cape Town, back via Mossel Bay |
Round trip from Cape Town |
Cape Town to Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) |
| In Addo |
Game drive of about 2 hours in the tour vehicle |
Game viewing included; a drive in an open vehicle is an optional extra |
Addo is on the route; details on the product page |
Addo is on the route before the drop-off; details on the product page |
| Addo entrance fee |
Included (Tsitsikamma too) |
Check the product page |
Not included |
Check the product page |
| Other game viewing |
4x4 drive in a private reserve |
— |
Night at the Garden Route Game Lodge |
— |
| Where you sleep |
4 nights, class of your choice |
5 nights, backpacker lodges or guest houses |
4 nights, one of them at the game lodge |
4 nights |
| Meals we could verify |
4 breakfasts |
4 dinners, 4 breakfasts; lunches not included |
Check the product page |
Check the product page |
| Free cancellation |
Up to 2 days before |
Up to 24 hours before |
Up to 24 hours before |
Up to 24 hours before |
Taken from each tour’s product page, checked on 29 September 2026. Where a cell says “check the product page”, our check could not confirm the detail.
How much Addo is in a Garden Route and Addo tour?
Less than the name suggests. Of five or six days, the Addo part is one stretch of one day. The Hotspots2c five-day tour spells it out: a game drive of about two hours, in the tour vehicle rather than an open safari vehicle. The other tours describe Addo as a stop on the route; the Earthstompers six-day tour offers a drive in an open vehicle as an optional extra.
That is fine if the Garden Route is the main event and Addo the finale. If the elephants are the reason for your trip, a full day in the park works better: the Addo day safaris from Gqeberha run 7 to 9 hours, some of them in open vehicles, most with the park fee included. Our sister site compares them — Addo day safaris from Port Elizabeth. Combined with the one-way tour, that can mean ending in Gqeberha and adding a day in the park.
One more point for the southern summer: Hotspots2c notes that on its five-day tour in peak season (mid-December to early January) you may stay two nights in Jeffreys Bay instead of Addo.
Park entrance: included or on top?
The Hotspots2c tour lists the Addo and Tsitsikamma entrance fees as included. The Bokbus five-day tour lists the Addo entrance fee as not included — you pay the SANParks conservation fee on top. The current fee for international adults, with the date it is valid until, is in the Addo section of our overview page; SANParks revises its fees every 1 November. For the Earthstompers tours, check the inclusions on the product page before you book.
Round trip or one-way?
Addo is close to Gqeberha, and a long way from Cape Town. The round trips therefore spend a good part of the last day or two driving back west. The one-way Earthstompers tour (currently R 14,700 per person) drops you in Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) on day 5 instead — the better fit if you fly on from there or continue along the coast. Plan your onward travel before you book.
Style of travel
The tours are built differently. Hotspots2c lets you choose the accommodation class when you book and lists the tour as unsuitable for children under 8 and for people with back problems. Earthstompers stays in backpacker lodges or guest houses on its six-day tour, describes it as active and accepts guests up to 65 if they are fit and healthy. Bokbus includes a night at the Garden Route Game Lodge on the way back — a second round of game viewing after Addo.
Common to all of them is the driving: the operators give 4 to 6 hours a day on the Hotspots2c tours, and the critical reviews of the five- and six-day tours are mostly about time in the vehicle. For the Bokbus five-day tour and the one-way Earthstompers tour we found no critical reviews with text; one reviewer of the Bokbus tour mentions a lot of driving and raises a point about the dinners listed in the tour description — check the meals on the product page.
★
In short
Want park entrance included and a clear Addo game drive? The Hotspots2c five-day tour — with a 2-day cancellation deadline. Prefer a sociable, active group and a sixth day? Earthstompers. Game lodge night on top of Addo? Bokbus, with the Addo fee paid separately. Flying on from the Eastern Cape? The one-way tour ends in Gqeberha. Mainly after elephants? A day safari from Gqeberha gives you more time in the park.
