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Welcome to Rock the Route!
We believe that to truly experience any country, you need to get off the beaten track and get to know the locals. Immerse yourself in the local cultures, old and new. Listen to LIVE local music. Be adventurous. And that is exactly what we do!
Rock the Route was founded in 2014 with the goal of breaking away from the old, boring “touristy” style of travel and introducing freedom and adventure into South African tours. Our focus is on authenticity, quality, and personal experiences. Saving the planet while having fun is important to us too - our tours are eco-friendly!
We started out with owner-run tours between Cape Town and the Garden Route - now, after merging with Pangea Trails in 2018, we offer something for every kind of adventure traveller, all over Southern Africa. Our Rock the Route tours are shorter road trips and day trips in the Western Cape, and our Pangea Trails overland tours run throughout the rest of SA and neighbouring countries.
Leave the guide book in your backpack, join us on a road trip and let's talk to local people. Follow us on a hike to that hidden-spot, jump in the bus and go to that secret beach for a breathtaking sunset and listen to stories of what South Africa is really all about… From the perspective of people who LOVE where they live!
#FeelOurFreedom
Personal Service
We are a small, dedicated team who are passionate about what we do! Join one of our set departure times or let us custom design a tour for your specific needs!
Unique
We hand-pick all of the best places and activities for our trips. We offer a unique, authentic travel experience that you won’t find with anyone else!
Professional
We do what we love, and we're good at it! Our guides are fully qualified and well trained, we belong to SATSA and SAYTC and we follow a strict code of ethics.
Green
We care about our country and the planet. We plant one indigenous tree for every multi-day ticket sold, to offset the carbon emissions of the tour.
Flexible
Our itineraries are flexible and we accommodate many "bucket list" extra activities all along the route. We stop to admire sunsets and we don't rush!
Affordable
Our prices are competitive and we include meals, accommodation and activities. Anyone can sell a tour... We sell an authentic experience!
Tour Ops
Five hour sunsets and finger foods, fizzy drinks and fresh moods. Rolling mountains and lazy beaches, these are a few of our favourite features.
Having grown up in the backpacker industry, heinie grew to love the freedom of backpacking. Having travelled locally and abroad himself, he realised the beauty of the road trip and started facilitating youth travel with spontaneous itineraries in South Africa when he founded rock the route.
In his free time he drinks rum with local otters, contemplates the beauty of mortality and is frantically addicted to sunsets.
Sales & Marketing
They call him the Germafrican. What started with a backpacking trip in 2003 turned into 10 year study residence in Cape Town.
Over time Alex developed from an international youth traveler into a youth travel provider in Southern Africa. Inspired by the abundant nature, culture and people of South Africa, he’s proud to call South Africa his second home.
Being the founder of Pangea Trails, Alex teamed up with RTR on many memorable tours. He joined the RTR family as the third partner in 2018.
Les, aka Sidekick, has an infectious laugh, does not care what people think of her and lives in calm Sedgefield. She loves wine and some herb and is our operations powerhouse! She makes spreadsheets act like AI, often tells Heinie to breath ("Chill out my China!") and spends her Saturdays at the Wild Oats Farmers market buying her favourite 'samoosas'. She's one of the most open and honest people we know and Love her for that!
Lesley comes from a corporate background and after saying bye to Joburg life, settled in the Garden Route. She is an angel and helped the fire survivors get back on their feet after the 2017 fires by starting and running Rebuild Eden NPO.
Precious tree project
Precious Tree Project, a registered not-for profit business, is a local tree-planting initiative focused on the regeneration of indigenous and endemic forest trees along the Garden Route. For every seat we sell on a multi-day tour, we plant one tree to offset the carbon emissions of the trip
