Beyond Safari: Why Africa’s Next Great Road Trip Is on a Plate

For years, Africa has been sold to the world through one dominant lens: safari. And fair enough, the continent’s wildlife offering is extraordinary. But anyone who has travelled properly, windows down and appetite fully switched on, knows the story does not end with game drives and sundowners. Sometimes the real memory is the meal after the long road. The one you did not plan on. The one that makes you sit back, look around and think, right, this place gets it.

That is where culinary road tripping comes in. It is not just about eating well on holiday. It is about discovering a destination through flavour, local produce, family run kitchens, lodge dining, farm stalls, small-town bakeries and those places people mention with a grin and a “just trust me”. Increasingly, tourism bodies are recognising gastronomy as a serious part of destination development, not an optional extra. South Africa’s own national framework for gastronomy tourism treats food as part of a broader tourism strategy, while UN Tourism continues to position gastronomy tourism as a driver of local economic growth, cultural preservation and rural development.  

That matters, because travellers are changing. South African Tourism noted in its 2025 international performance reporting that shopping, dining and wildlife experiences all anchored visitor activity. In other words, people are not only coming for the animals. They are coming for the full flavour of the journey. South African Tourism has also highlighted that travellers increasingly want connection over consumption and that the country’s food routes deliver encounters with heritage, creativity and community.  

And honestly, that makes perfect sense. Food is often the quickest way into a place. You can learn plenty from a museum, but one proper plate will tell you who grew here, who traded here, who stayed, who adapted, and who still cooks from memory rather than measurement.

I say that as someone who has eaten my way through a fair few corners of South Africa. From the refined calm of The Thistle Restaurant in Port Alfred, where smart casual fine dining proves that coastal towns can absolutely punch above their weight, to Shepherd’s Tree Game Lodge in the Pilanesberg, where boma dinners, bush dining and even a surprise gin or wine stop become part of the wider safari experience. These are not meals that merely fill a gap between activities. They are the activity.  

The same applies to the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, where the Midlands Meander has long understood that road tripping works best when there is excellent food involved. Officially described as a collection of tourist routes offering accommodation, arts and crafts, fine cuisine and more, it remains one of the clearest examples of how food can shape a region’s identity. Nearby, Rawdons Hotel leans into classic country-hotel comfort with lakefront dining, while aha Alpine Heath Resort in the Northern Drakensberg builds variety into the stop itself with multiple on-site eateries, from a restaurant and coffee bar to a wood fired pizzeria and village market.  

And then there is the bigger picture. Culinary road tripping fits the “Beyond Safari” conversation because it opens up Africa’s tourism portfolio in a more layered way. It gives smaller towns a stronger role. It stretches spend across local producers, chefs, markets and accommodation providers. It encourages people to slow down instead of flying over everything. One well planned food route can pull travellers into farm regions, mountain towns, cultural precincts and coastal communities that might otherwise be skipped entirely. That is exactly why official routes like Cape Route 62 continue to hold such appeal, linking travellers across the Western and Eastern Cape through farming towns, fruit-growing areas and wine-producing regions.  

There is also something wonderfully democratic about a food road trip. Yes, it can include polished lodge dinners and chef-led tasting experiences. But it can also include a proper roadside stop, a casual pub lunch, a bakery pie that disappears before the next petrol station or even a cheeky fast-food break that hits the spot when the road has been long and everybody in the car has become slightly dramatic. Culinary travel does not have to be precious to be memorable.

That may be the real opportunity for Africa right now. To remind travellers that this continent does not only offer spectacle. It offers taste, texture, hospitality and story. It offers meals with a view, meals with history, meals after muddy roads, and meals that become the reason you return.

So yes, go for the landscapes. Go for the lodges. Go for the long stretches of road and the playlists and the scenic pullovers. But leave room for the plate. Because beyond safari, Africa is serving something far richer than a checklist. It is serving a journey.

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