Free State
The highlands route, one of South Africa's most attractive drives, skirts the mountainous eastern flank of the Free State, the established heartland of conservative Afrikanerdom, which lies landlocked at the center of the country. If you're driving from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth or Cape Town, the Eastern Highlands, which brush up to the subcontinents highest peaks in the Lesotho Drakensberg, are worth the detour off the more unexciting N6.
The eastern Free State is also the gateway to Lesotho, with border posts close to each of the small towns on the South African side. Bloemfontein, the capital, is only worth visiting if you're driving on the N6 to find very good guesthouses, restaurants and museums. The highlight of the Eastern Highlands is the Golden Gate National Park, selected a national park not for its wildlife, but because of the beauty of the Maluti Mountains with their stripy red sandstone outcrops. It's an easy three- to four-hour drive from Johannesburg, and from here it's possible to do a round trip of the highlands,
Southeast of golden Gate you can drive to the Sentinel car park passing through the hike up to the highest plateaus of the Drakensberg - easier than starting from a much lower altitude in the Royal National Park. West of the park is Clarens, by far the nicest of the string of towns running along the Lesotho border. It has a distinctly arty feel, good guesthouses and outdoor cafes, and some of the country's best horse-riding, taking in Bushmen cave paintings as well. For young travelers, party-goers and ageing hippies, the real focus of the region is Rustler's Valley, west of Clarens, where you can ride, hike in the hills, party or simply hang out on a truly magnificent farm. In the rest of the province, flat farmlands roll away into miles of bright-yellow sunflowers and lilac- and pink-petalled cosmos, with maize and wheat field glowing under vast blue skies.