Port Elizabeth — now officially known by its Xhosa name Gqeberha since 2021, though almost everyone still calls it PE — is a city of around 1.3 million people on Algoa Bay, roughly halfway between Cape Town and Durban on the Indian Ocean coast. It was founded in 1820 as the landing point of the British settler scheme that brought 4,000 immigrants to the eastern Cape frontier, and the colonial-era buildings of Donkin Street and the old town hill above the harbour still carry that history. Today it is the main port and industrial city of the Eastern Cape, with a reputation for sunshine — the nickname is "the Friendly City" or "the Windy City" (both fit) — and for being the best base for exploring the Garden Route to the west and the Eastern Cape game reserves to the north.
Most visitors use PE as a short stopover between the Garden Route and the parks. The city's own attractions are modest but pleasant: the broad beaches of Hobie Beach and Kings Beach along the bay, the Donkin Reserve with its pyramid memorial and lighthouse, the Route 67 public art trail that celebrates Nelson Mandela's 67 years in public life, and the small but dignified Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Art Museum. Children's attractions include the Bayworld oceanarium complex and the South End Museum, which tells the story of a mixed-race district demolished under apartheid in the 1960s.
The real reason to come, though, is for the wildlife. Addo Elephant National Park, about an hour north-east, is the third-largest national park in South Africa and holds the densest population of elephants anywhere; more than 600 of them roam the dense spekboom thickets, along with black rhino, buffalo, lion and leopard (the full Big Five plus the Southern right whale offshore — the "Big Seven"). Further out, Kariega, Shamwari and Kwandwe are private reserves offering classic Big Five safaris without the long flight to the Kruger. The Eastern Cape's Wild Coast begins a few hours' drive east — rugged, undeveloped, and among the most beautiful coastline in South Africa.