South Africa: Garden Route Map

The Garden Route region runs along a scenic stretch of coastline beginning in Mossel Bay and ending at Storms River in the Tsitsikamma Forest Region. The region has become South Africa's most popular tourist destination after Cape Town, and it's not hard to see why. Visitors are drawn year-round to its indigenous forests, freshwater lakes, wetlands, hidden coves and long beaches. The narrow coastal plain is well forested and is mostly bordered by extensive lagoons that run behind a barrier of sand dunes and superb white beaches. The region has some of the largest patches of indigenous forest in the country - giant yellowwood trees and wildflowers - as well as commercial plantations of eucalyptus and pine.

Highlights of the Garden Route include the Wilderness coastal stretch, Knysna's lagoon and forest-based activities, as well as Plettenberg Bay, a location that combines some of South Africa's best swimming beaches with beautiful forest and indigenous vegetation. Near Plettenberg Bay is the unspoilt Tsitsikamma National Park, where dense indigenous forests are punctuated by streams and tumbling waterfalls flowing towards the coast.