The Garden Route is one of the most beautiful regions of South Africa. Known to many throughout the world, this scenic paradise stretches along approximately 210kms of coastline with its bays, cliffs, beaches, lakes, dense forest and National Parks.
Officially starting about 300kms from Cape Town, the Garden Route includes beautiful towns such as George, Wilderness, Sedgefield, Knysna and Plettenberg Bay. No holiday to the Western Cape would be complete without a few days along the Garden Route – easily accessible by self-drive from Cape Town (about 5 hours’ drive), or a short flight to George.
The region has become sought after not only for its natural beauty but also for its adrenalin activities and variety of outdoor adventures. The lakes, forests, oceans and mountains provide many choices of activity for the true adventure seeker. Here you can enjoy everything from hiking in the mountains, fabulous championship golf courses, scuba-diving the ocean, mountain-biking trails, surfing, beach walks, ocean-sailing, canoeing, kloofing, horse-riding, kite-surfing, paragliding and on and on and on!
For those in seek of some added adrenalin rush, there’s the highest bungee jump in the world at Bloukrans Bridge or fun for the whole family on Treetop Ziplines even.
The most popular towns to base yourselves at while exploring the region, are Knysna and Plettenberg Bay. Knysna is a picturesque town that spreads itself alongside the gorgeous Knysna Lagoon. It’s breathtakingly beautiful! The lagoon offers not only a lovely setting but also many activities from guided lagoon cruises, canoeing, boating, diving, swimming and fishing.
Plettenberg Bay is located a mere 40kms from Knysna and is a holiday-makers paradise with many locals spending long summer vacations.
Plett (as the locals call it), is surrounded by the majestic Outeniqua and Tsitsikamma Mountains and has miles of white sandy beaches and clear, warm waters. You can enjoy long walks on the beach, refreshing swims in the ocean (a lot warmer to the Cape Town ocean at least!) and other great activities nearby including hiking, mountain-biking, boat-based whale and dolphin watching and more. In fact, it’s not uncommon that you can see dolphin playing in the waves on a daily basis, just from the beach!
There are also many fabulous sporting events that take place throughout the year. The most popular being the Knysna Festival which hosts mountain-biking races, trail running marathons and canoeing races. The event runs concurrently with the famous Knysna Oyster Festival and lasts about 10 days – usually around the first weeks in July. It’s a fabulous, festive time to visit and loads of great activities to enjoy for all.
For an overview of everything on offer in this magical country, please see South Africa
