Garden Route

This area is world-famous due to some strong marketing to overseas tourists, but I don't think that all who pass through necessarily enjoy it to the full. This is mainly because the best it has to offer requires some effort from you. The Garden Route is a narrow strip of coastline, hemmed in and well watered by rain falling on the seaward side of a wall of mountains that runs parallel to the coast. (The Klein Karoo on the other side is a virtual desert.) The unusually high rainfall (for South Africa) allows for deep forests and lush vegetation (thus the "Garden Route") and there are many permanent rivers.

Its real treasures are only accessible by foot, whether you walk into the forests for bird-watching, secluded picnics and fresh-water swimming; or along the ravishing coastline with its gorges, cliffs, lagoons and the first bit of warm-enough sea-water to swim in as you go east from Cape Town. Boat trips and birding, kayaking and canyoning, it's all on offer. Don't miss one of the dolphin or whale trips and set aside time for beach walks and braais.

The only logical, and therefore best, route to take if coming from Cape Town (which almost everyone will be) is to skip along the N2 from west to east, stopping off wherever you fancy until you reach the magnificent Tsitsikamma Forest at Storms River. From here you can hop north over the mountains and return to Cape Town via the Klein Karoo, making for a perfect round trip of about a week to 10 days that takes in several very contrasting regions.

Accommodation in Garden Route
Things to do in Garden Route