In a recent tallying of Instagram hashtags of the world’s most photographed road trips (yes, someone actually went to the trouble of doing that), Chapman’s Peak in Cape Town came out fifth out of twenty, which translates as 3,425 pictures per mile.
The research, by a British motor group – which explains the use of pics per mile – listed Australia’s Great Ocean Road as “the most beautiful road trip in the world,” which means it got the most pictures per mile (8,418). Next came Big Sur, in California, the 7-mile Jebel Hafeet Road in United Arab Emirates and, in fourth place, Hai Van Pass in Vietnam.
About Chapman’s Peak, the survey said: “5.5 miles, 3,425 pictures per mile.” In fact, if the survey had used the #chapmanspeak hashtag instead of #chapmanspeakdrive, the tally would have been much higher, at 14,727 per mile, way outstripping the Great Ocean Road per mile.
No other South African roads feature in the top 20, but many South Africans or travelers who have driven them would rate these roads highly. In fact, numerous great road trips in South Africa they clearly didn’t know about because they would have ranked higher than some of their top 20. Using their methodology, the Garden Route would have come out at No. 6, far ahead of the Blue Ridge Parkway in the United States. Or the Cape Point road, which came out at a whopping 9,444 pics per mile. Even the Swartberg Pass would have come out at No. 14, before the Tioga Pass in the United States and after the Pacific Highway in Australia. (See our list of Best South African Road Trips.)
“This stretch is affectionately known as ‘chappies’ in Cape Town, South Africa. It winds between Noordhoek and Hout Bay along the Atlantic Coast right at the tip of South Africa’s south-western coast. The spectacular driveway took 7 years to complete and first built in 1922 but has since undergone major work to improve the road for tourists.
The survey said it analysed over seven million Instagram hashtags associated with the world’s most popular road trip destinations, “the country with the most Instagram posts per mile being crowned the most picturesque in the world.” Many of the roads listed are short, but the grandfather of them all must be Route 66, which crosses America, and gets a phenomenal 780 pictures per mile over 2,448 miles!
(See our list of the best road trips in South Africa).
