Transport to the Plett for the Cross Cape

[Dom N]

Hi All,

 

Myself and 3 friends are looking at bikepacking the Cross Cape Cycle route this year, starting in Plett. 

Has anyone got any suggestions on the best way to get 4 people and 4 bikes from Cape Town? Has anyone used a service they can recommend? 

Cheers! 

 

[milky4130]

9 hours ago, Dom N said:

Hi All,

 

Myself and 3 friends are looking at bikepacking the Cross Cape Cycle route this year, starting in Plett. 

Has anyone got any suggestions on the best way to get 4 people and 4 bikes from Cape Town? Has anyone used a service they can recommend? 

Cheers! 

 

Fly to George, rental vehicle to Plett if you can drop it off there or just join the Cross Cape route from George.

[eddy]

Intercape bus.

Check if you can take a bike, if you can it is an easy option.

A mate used it in December and it was fine. 

[Spafsack]

18 hours ago, Dom N said:

Hi All,

 

Myself and 3 friends are looking at bikepacking the Cross Cape Cycle route this year, starting in Plett. 

Has anyone got any suggestions on the best way to get 4 people and 4 bikes from Cape Town? Has anyone used a service they can recommend? 

Cheers! 

 

What is the cross cape route for interest sake, cost, accomodation etc..?

[Ncayi]

31 minutes ago, eddy said:

Intercape bus.

Check if you can take a bike, if you can it is an easy option.

A mate used it in December and it was fine. 

You can travel with a bike on Intercape as long as its packaged properly. I paid just north of R600 from JHB to Cape Town when I last used it.

[Dom N]

12 hours ago, milky4130 said:

Fly to George, rental vehicle to Plett if you can drop it off there or just join the Cross Cape route from George.

This is a bit of a last resort. Flights with bikes and a car big enough for all of us runs up quite a tab! Thanks for the response though 

[Shebeen]

22 hours ago, Dom N said:

Hi All,

 

Myself and 3 friends are looking at bikepacking the Cross Cape Cycle route this year, starting in Plett. 

Has anyone got any suggestions on the best way to get 4 people and 4 bikes from Cape Town? Has anyone used a service they can recommend? 

Cheers! 

 

This is a damn good question! WCG don't seem to do much of the actual finer homework on this route. There are plenty of people doing it, so there could well be a bike friendly shuttle service that is just not advertised much to the wider market.

https://capecycleroutes.co.za/route/cross-cape-route

the fb page they have is sort of monitored, you might have some luck here.

hello@wesgro.co.za

 

finally @Dom N it's not "The Plett". unless you are referring to a fancy hotel and stay there enough to give it a nickname. If that's the case, then try 2oceansvibe airways

 

 

 

 

 

12 hours ago, milky4130 said:

Fly to George, rental vehicle to Plett if you can drop it off there or just join the Cross Cape route from George.

rental car for 4 bikes? that sounds like a really expensive way to save about 2 hours of travel time.

[hubbernero]

A suggestion, depending on when you are planning on doing this ride. 

There are loads of people travelling up for the Karoo2Coast. Enter the K2C and see if you can potentially get a lift up for the K2C (Uniondale). Ride the K2C (You end up in Knysna). Stay over in Knysna the Sunday night and start your ride from there - you are only missing out on the Plett - Knysna section, but you have done Uniondale - Knysna. 

 

[milky4130]

1 hour ago, Shebeen said:

This is a damn good question! WCG don't seem to do much of the actual finer homework on this route. There are plenty of people doing it, so there could well be a bike friendly shuttle service that is just not advertised much to the wider market.

https://capecycleroutes.co.za/route/cross-cape-route

the fb page they have is sort of monitored, you might have some luck here.

hello@wesgro.co.za

 

finally @Dom N it's not "The Plett". unless you are referring to a fancy hotel and stay there enough to give it a nickname. If that's the case, then try 2oceansvibe airways

 

 

 

 

 

rental car for 4 bikes? that sounds like a really expensive way to save about 2 hours of travel time.

Not really if you are splitting that 4 ways and don’t have other options. Budget Rental just responded to my query now saying that they will only charge an additional fee of R217.

[eddy]

4 hours ago, Ncayi said:

You can travel with a bike on Intercape as long as its packaged properly. I paid just north of R600 from JHB to Cape Town when I last used it.

This is the solution.

Cheap, convenient and safe 

[Shebeen]

2 hours ago, milky4130 said:

Not really if you are splitting that 4 ways and don’t have other options. Budget Rental just responded to my query now saying that they will only charge an additional fee of R217.

ok. can you split the flight 4 ways too then?

let's pad this one out then.

Cape town airport to plett/beacon isle in rental car - 5:54h according to google

 

cape town airport: arrive 90 minutes before flight leaves (you have 4 bikes to check in)

flight time:1hour

land, collect bikes, get to rental car and on road: 1 hour (conservative)

george to plett/beacon isle 90 minutes

total travel time 5:00

 

seems like a lot of effort to save 54 minutes.

 

 

edit: I will give you one thing though, 1way flight to George and riding back from there does seem quite rockstar.

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 01:06 PM by Shebeen

[andreas17777]

On 3/31/2025 at 12:40 PM, Dom N said:

Hi All,

 

Myself and 3 friends are looking at bikepacking the Cross Cape Cycle route this year, starting in Plett. 

Has anyone got any suggestions on the best way to get 4 people and 4 bikes from Cape Town? Has anyone used a service they can recommend? 

Cheers! 

 

My one friend is an Agricultural seed merchant driving to George basically every week from Somerset. He has a bakkie and thule x3 bike carrier, I can ask him if you can join him to George? dm me your number.

[splat]

Rent a kombi - drive to Plett - Ride home
Winning !

Riding back from George means that you miss the first 2 days, which might be the best, given that they are mostly forest roads. Certainly my favourite.

[milky4130]

6 hours ago, Shebeen said:

ok. can you split the flight 4 ways too then?

let's pad this one out then.

Cape town airport to plett/beacon isle in rental car - 5:54h according to google

 

cape town airport: arrive 90 minutes before flight leaves (you have 4 bikes to check in)

flight time:1hour

land, collect bikes, get to rental car and on road: 1 hour (conservative)

george to plett/beacon isle 90 minutes

total travel time 5:00

 

seems like a lot of effort to save 54 minutes.

 

 

edit: I will give you one thing though, 1way flight to George and riding back from there does seem quite rockstar.

 

 

Seems the cheapest option one I would definitely consider as well but only if others have tried it first. Years ago I travelled one of these luxury liners to Joburg from Cape Town and it wasn’t a pleasant experience then. It was a long trip and you get all sorts of characters on the bus too. So happy to hear the feedback on this route in todays times once someone has tried it.

[milky4130]

3 hours ago, splat said:

Rent a kombi - drive to Plett - Ride home
Winning !

Riding back from George means that you miss the first 2 days, which might be the best, given that they are mostly forest roads. Certainly my favourite.

This seems a winner for a group of 4

[Spafsack]

4 hours ago, andreas17777 said:

My one friend is an Agricultural seed merchant driving to George basically every week from Somerset. He has a bakkie and thule x3 bike carrier, I can ask him if you can join him to George? dm me your number.

Please do his number.