The Garden route is one of the best holiday destinations in South Africa. It has moderate hot summers and mild chilly winters. It is one of the richest rain forrest in the country. If you are looking to spoil your self a tour of the Garden route is just what you need.  You get it all in this part of the country - which is made up of beautiful cities such as Mossel Bay, Oudstshoon, George, Knysna, and Plettenberg Bay not to forget the Wilderness National Park. Garden Route accommodation is one of the best as you get luxury 4 star country house mountains, B&B, beach houses where you will wake up to the sound of the waves. Go on take this tour filled with natural beauty.

The article below will give you an insight of the Garden route. If you are looking to learn more about the Garden route use the navigation link above.

The Garden Route Tour
By Mariska Cronje

The Garden Route Tour kicks off in the seaside town of Mossel Bay. Once home to a clan of Khoi known as "Strandlopers" or (Beach Walkers in English) who lived off what the sea provided, before Bartolomeu Dias came in 1488. Mossel Bay is also where one can find the Post Office Tree, and a petrified forest on one of the beaches, sais to be 15 million years of age and 90m in height!

Next we find ourselves in the so called "Ostrich Country" of the Little Karoo, so known because most of it's estates were built on the profits Ostrich farmers made from the feathers of these huge birds. Oudtshoorn is also situated just 30 km (19 miles) from the magnificent, mystical Cango Caves!

Moving along we reach the centre of the Garden Route, George. Named after King George the third, surrounded by rivers and trees and home to St Paul, (built in 1843) the oldest surviving Catholic Church in South Africa. Described as "The prettiest village on the face of the earth." by the English Novelist Anthony Trollope in 1877, George is also the only district in the country to grow Hops!

The Garden Route lures nature lovers of all sorts onwards to The Wilderness Lakes, where the Wilderness National Park is located. The park is 24 700 acres and caters to all tourists' needs. Sights include the Kingfisher Trail, Sedgefield, Goukamma Nature Reserve, Buffalo Bay and Walker Point.

Arriving in Knysna, one is immediately blown away by it's splendourous beauty. Home to the Knysna National Lake Area which consists of over 89000 acres of indigenous forests containing mostly Stinkwood and Yellowwood. Knysna is also the scene of the famous "Kringe in 'n Bos' (Circles in the Forrest) by the South African writer Dalene Mathee. During his writing of "The Black Girl in Search of God", the writer George Bernard Shaw also took a liking to Knysna when he paid the town a visit in 1932.

With more plant varieties than anywhere else in the Northern Hemisphere, Plettenberg Bay was settled by Portuguese sailors in 1630. Imagine snow white beaches with a backdrop of lush forrests and you have Plettenberg Bay.

The Garden Route comes to an end between forests and Fynbos in Tsitsikamma. The Tsitsikamma National Park stretches 50 miles along the coast and into the ocean. The Tsitsikamma comprises two sections: indigenous rain forest and a coastal strip. The rain forest is lush, green, thick and exotic. With a undergrowth consisting of protea, ferns, moss, creepers, heath and lichen, the forest also contains some of the country's prize tree species such as Black Ironwood, stinkwood, assegai, Outeniqua Yellowwood, White Alder and Candlewood. The rain forest has three exciting hiking trails, ready to take any tourist on a adventure filled with natural beauty.