Drostdy Hotel in Graaff-Reinet is pitching South Africa’s N9 as an inland add-on to the Garden Route for European self-drive travellers, the hotel said in October.
The pitch targets a market already on the move. South Africa received a record 10.48mn international arrivals in 2025, up 17.6%, and European arrivals rose 12.6%, led by Austria on 15.6% and the UK on 15.4%. Many of those visitors already self-drive the Garden Route, and the hotel wants them to add two or three nights in the Great Karoo.
“There is a psychological shift once you turn onto the N9,” said Tebello Polisane-Casper, executive director of Drostdy Hotel and the South African College for Tourism.
The tarred road runs about 400 km north from George over the Outeniqua, Potjiesberg, Buyspoort and Perdepoort passes. Willowmore is the gateway to the Baviaanskloof, part of the Cape Floral Region Unesco World Heritage Site, and Aberdeen has terracotta dragons on its 1898 former post office.
Graaff-Reinet, officially renamed Robert Sobukwe Town, was founded in 1786 and marks its 240th year. It has more than 220 heritage sites, more national monuments than any other town in South Africa.
Nearby, Camdeboo National Park includes the Valley of Desolation, where dolerite columns rise up to 120 m. Karoo Origins: The Fossil Centre, opened in April 2025, displays more than 850 fossil skulls, including all 107 holotypes of the Rubidge Fossil Collection, the largest number shown in a single exhibition.
“Graaff-Reinet used to be a stopover,” Polisane-Casper said. “Now guests book two or three nights.”
The hotel says March to May is the best season. Drostdy Hotel occupies the former seat of the district magistrate, built in 1804-1806. The Rupert Family Foundation bought it in 2012 and reopened it in 2014 with 48 rooms across three precincts, and it has since been donated to the non-profit South African College for Tourism, which trains young people from rural communities in hospitality.
