Set on the shores of a beautiful lagoon, Knysna (pronounced 'Nysna') is a bustling little holiday town.

Several operators offer relaxing catamaran trips and sunset champagne cruises across the lagoon out to the Knysna Heads and into the open sea, which is a great way to escape the busy streets for a while.

Oysters are cultivated in the lagoon and served in most of the local restaurants. The Knysna Oyster Company, established since 1949, is situated on Thesen Islands and offers daily educational tours, accompanied by fine cuisine. and the annual Knysna Oyster Festival attracts thousands of visitors every year.

The Featherbed Nature Reserve is a unique 150 hectare private Nature Reserve, which  encompasses the whole of the Western Head of Knysna and is one of South Africa's Natural Heritage Sites.

It is home to 2 of the Garden Route's 'icons', namely the Knysna loerie and the blue duiker, one of Africa's smallest antelope species. Other wildlife found on the reserve include Cape mountain tortoises, blue cranes (South Africa's national bird), and the rare and endangered black African oyster catchers.

There is a daily schedule of trips to the reserve, which can be booked from the Knysna Tourist Information Centre or at the booking office located at the Knysna Waterfront.

Knysna Forest is one of the the largest remaining forested areas in South Africa, covering almost 80,000 hectares.  It comprises of tall and ancient trees of local and exotic species, including stinkwood, yellowwood, blackwood, ironwood, white alders and Cape chestnut.

There are several trails through the forest of differing lengths, including the Elephant Trail, in recognition of the fact that the forest used to be home to great herds of Knysna elephants.   However, don't expect to see any elephants during your walk- there haven't been any in the forest since the late 1990s. Instead, there are plenty of vervet monkeys swinging in the treetops which will provide lots of entertainment if you stand and watch them for a while. 

Plettenberg Bay is a trendy, upmarket holiday resort set in a curving bay, with a backdrop of rugged mountains.

Outdoor enthusiasts can enjoy mountain biking, horse riding, hiking trails, golf, diving, excellent salt and fresh water fishing - even skydiving.

Plett is also home to some of the best beaches along the Garden Route, and is an excellent place to do many watersports, including hobie cat sailing, surfing, water-skiing and canoeing. It also offers some of the best whale watching in season (July-November), and there are many lookout points along the coastline which offer excellent land-based whale watching during these months, or regular boat based whale watching tours provide the opportunity to see these gentle giants at close quarters.

Just 8 km south of Plett is the Robberg Nature and Marine Reserve, situated on a rugged coastal peninsula. It offers sweeping views of the bay, as  well as superb whale and dolphin watching, a huge Cape Fur seal colony, excellent birding, and 3 hiking trails to choose from - a 45 minutes trail, a 2 hour trail, or a 9.2 km/4½ hour trail. 

There is also the Nelson Bay Cave - an archaeological site with evidence of human habitation that stretches back for more than 120 thousand years.

Monkeyland is a small primate sanctuary set in forest about 16 km east of Plettenberg Bay, and is an excellent place to spend a couple of hours.  The sanctuary is home to a wide variety of monkeys from around the world, including gibbons from Asia, lemurs from Madagascar and howler monkeys from South America. All the primates live and roam freely in the forest.

Visitors to Monkeyland can enjoy a one hour 'monkey safari' walk through the forest, led by knowledgeable guides who will tell you all about these fascinating creatures as you encounter them.  Part of the safari, for those who wish, includes walking across a rope bridge which spans a canyon above the forest canopy giving you a birds eye view of a section of the forest and its inhabitants otherwise seldom seen.

Birds of Eden is the Garden Route's only free flight bird sanctuary, developed from the need to create a safe environment for birds that have been rescued from undesirable conditions such as small pet cages, zoos or irreputable breeders.

The unique 2 hectare dome (the world’s largest) spans over a gorge of indigenous forest, and also has its own mysterious ruin, which incorporates a walk-behind waterfall. There are over 200 species of bird here, comprising a mixture of exotic as well as African birds. 

Like its neighbour, Monkeyland, Birds of Eden boasts its own canopy walk, which hangs above the clouds.

An opportunity to get extremely close to an elephant and learn more about these magnificent creatures is on offer at the Knysna Elephant Park and The Elephant Sanctuary, both conveniently located just of the N2 near Plettenberg Bay.  All the elephants are rescued African elephants.

Tours leave a different times throughout the day, and visitors have the opportunity to touch, feed, walk with, photograph and even ride these gentle giants - with no barriers or fences to spoil the close encounter.

A combined marine and forest Park, Tsitsikamma has numerous forest and coastal hiking trails, or if you just want to relax, there is the choice of a small beach at Storms River or the unspoilt sands at Nature's Valley.

Tsitsikamma is also the Garden Route's adventure playground.  Adrenalin junkies will revel in the diverse range of activities offered by Storms River Adventures.  The adventures cater for all tastes - mild or wild - and experiences include the Woodcutters Journey, scuba diving, guided hiking, and the unique Tsitsikamma Canopy Tour, where you are are harnessed to a series of cables up to 30m above the forest floor, and glide from one giant tree to tree.

The Bloukrans Bungee offers the highest commercial jump in the world at over 200m, and if that isn't bad enough, you also get to freefall for 7 seconds/180m.

The history of Mossel Bay dates back to when Bartolomeu Dias visited the bay in 1488.
The port became an important trading point for all passing ships, and sailors began to leave messages for other ships in a boot hanging from an old milkwood tree. This 'Post Office' is commemorated today by a stone shoe monument in the exact place where the old tree once stood.

Several operators run shark cage diving trips and champagne sunset cruises around the bay, or it is possible to take a boat out to the nearby Seal Island, which is home to 4,000 Cape fur seals.

Oudtshoorn, 55 km north of George, is the tourist mecca of the Little (or Klein) Karoo, and is famous for its ostrich farms. 

Before the First World War, thousands of ostriches were bred on farms across the area, primarily to service the growing fashion trend for ostrich feathers. Today, there are still many breeding farms, but the main tourist attraction are the Ostrich Show Farms, which offer a 2 hour tour of the breeding camps and hatcheries, ending in a 'Derby' style ostrich race with local jockeys.

The impressive Cango Caves are 30 km from Oudtshoorn. The caves are illuminated to show some of the biggest stalagmite formations in the world. The largest chamber is the Grand Hall, 107 metres across and 16 metres high. Cango Caves was proclaimed a Historical Monument in 1938.