Garden Route
(Best Road Trip in the World & great holiday destination)
One of the most beautiful stretches of coastline in the world (200 km / 125 mi). Enjoy excellent beaches, picturesque lagoons and lakes, ten nature reserves, a National Park (121,000 ha / 300,000 ac), dramatic sea cliffs, rocky coves, forests and two mountain ranges (Outeniqua and Tsitsikamma).
There are some amazing road trips in the world, but when it comes to wildlife and nature you cannot beat the Garden Route. In their list of the world’s 10 best road trips, the UK Telegraph rated the Garden Route best for wildlife lovers. When you consider the Cape Floral Region, coupled with the Outeniqua and Tsitsikamma mountain ranges, you cannot beat the Garden Route for nature. Another contributing factor is that the Garden Route has the second mildest climate in the world, after Hawaii (Wikipedia).
There are several small coastal towns along the route. The largest town on the route is George which has a domestic airport. Oudtshoorn is a town close by and well worth visiting.
If you want a longer road trip (748 km / 465 mi) and/or you like the idea of "a journey to the unexpected" (CNN) then take the famous Route 62 to Cape Town. Don't forget to include Table Mountain, Cape Point and the six Cape Town coastal drives on the route.
For more information on the Garden Route and surrounding areas see the Surround page.
External Links: Lonely Planet - SA-Venues - UK Telegraph - Wikipedia - Garden Route - CNN - Route 62 - National Geographic
Note: The Knysna and Plettenberg Bay area was hit with a major fire in June 2017 which destroyed a lot of greenery.
Oudtshoorn (Next-door to Garden Route)
