Drakensberg
South Africa's great mountain range — sheer basalt escarpment, San rock art, and the country's best high-country hiking.
Trip Role
Ideal stay
Best for
Our take
South Africa's definitive mountain range, offering unparalleled scale and the most serious trekking in the country.
South Africa's definitive mountain range, offering unparalleled scale and the most serious trekking in the country.
- Trip Role
- Worth a Detour
- Ideal Stay
- 2–3 nights
- Best For
- Hikers, scenery
Why it's worth your time
The Drakensberg forms a massive basalt escarpment that serves as the country's premier high-altitude hiking destination. Beyond its sheer vertical scale, the range is home to a significant concentration of San rock art, providing a cultural layer to its challenging mountain trails.
More mountain in KwaZulu-Natal
Cathedral Peak (Mountain)
A standalone Drakensberg summit — the most photographed peak in the range, climbed from the Didima valley.
Champagne Castle
The Drakensberg's second-highest peak at 3,377m — a Monk's Cowl ascent and one of the berg's great summits.
Mafadi
South Africa's highest peak at 3,450m — a Drakensberg escarpment summit on the Lesotho border, climbed from the Injisuthi side.
Mont-aux-Sources
A high Drakensberg massif at the source of the Tugela — the escarpment peak reached by the chain ladders.
Thabana Ntlenyana
The highest peak in southern Africa at 3,482m — technically in Lesotho but reached via the Sani Pass route from KZN.
The Amphitheatre
A five-kilometre, 1,000-metre-high basalt wall — the iconic face of the northern Drakensberg.