How To Have The Time Of Your Life In The Garden Route Of South Africa
If you have never been to the so-called Garden Route in South Africa, you are missing out on some serious fun in the sun. This stretch of coastline starts at Mossel Bay in the west and ends at the the Tsitsikamma Forest near Plettenberg Bay in the east. In between are a number of scenic little towns full of character and life.
If you arrive from Cape Town’s side, the first town you will encounter is Mossel Bay. This old town with its many colonial buildings has a different atmosphere than the more modern towns to the east. It used to be the least developed of the Garden Route towns, but during the past two decades it has started to develop into a tourist town of note. The standards of hotels and guest houses are high – we noticed that our guest house even had baby bath tubs for those traveling with infants.
Further east you find the beautiful towns of Groot Brak River and Klein Brak River, both popular resort towns drawing thousands of South African holidaymakers during the peak December/January tourist season. When the Northern hemisphere is groaning under a blanket of snow, it’s of course summer in South Africa. This fact makes it an ideal winter holiday spot for Europeans.
Sixty kilometers to the east of Mossel Bay the road enters the commercial and industrial center of the Garden Route. George has numerous excellent restaurants, cinemas and shopping malls. This the place to go when it’s raining and you can’t go to the beach. Fifteen minutes drive east of George lies Wilderness – a stunning combination of white beaches and lush green mountainside. Once again there are many restaurants, some with live music at night (during the season). We once spent a great evening at one of these restaurants where I noticed that the guitar player had a Martin acoustic electric guitar, just like the one I have back home!
Leaving Wilderness, the road criss-crosses through a series of lush green hills and valleys where you will catch a periodic glimpse of the Indian Ocean to your right. A few km further to the east the road passes through Sedgefield. This is a timber-producing area with many lovely lakes. Despite asking around, we couldn’t find the fine costume jewelry wholesale distributor mentioned in our guide book.
The beautiful historic resort of Knysna is located sixty kilometers from George. Strictly speaking it’s not a seaside resort (it’s on the shores of a lagoon), but the southern part of town, called The Heads, does overlook the sea. This has become a tourist town per excellence over the past few decades. There are more restaurants per capita than in any other town on the Garden Route.
The last town on the route is Plettenberg Bay. This is where the wealthy and well-known hang out to see and be seen. There’s a legion of upmarket hotels and guest houses and just as many restaurants. A few km further to the east you arrive at the eastern border of the Garden Route – the Tsitsikamma rain forest. Here you will forget for a few hours that you are only 200km away from the semi-desert Karroo region – it’s a haven of waterfalls and ferns and you might even run into one of the few remaining elephants in the forest.
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Tags: Garden Route, holidays, south africa, travel, vactions