The Garden Route
The Garden Route runs from the Cape Winelands east along the coast to Port Elizabeth. It’s a showcase for the magnificence of the landscape of the southern tip of this great continent. As you drive along good roads you discover sandy bays, rocky coves, towering cliffs, broad estuaries, giant passes, serpentine rivers tumbling waterfalls and wooded ravines. The Garden Route would take 10 hours to drive non stop so we suggest that you take it in easy stages over a week, lingering at a series of superb country house hotels.
Leaving the winelands you should head south to the spectacular cliffs of Hermanus where between June and November schools of magnificent Southern Right whales appear. Birkenhead House is the most luxurious beach hotel, perched on a clifftop with personal five star service and views to match. The Marine is a larger hotel, also excellent, or if you are particularly interested in the unique plant and birdlife, we recommend Grootbos lodge where expert guides take you on foot,, by vehicle and horseback.
You can see the whales at several points along the coast, and may even glimpse them from the superb links golf course at Fancourt Country Hotel near George. This is a golfer’s paradise with two Gary Player designed courses sandwiched between the wild coastline and the shimmering mountains. The twin towns of George and Knysna are the heart of the Garden Route and you really are spoilt for choice of places to stay. A little inland is Hunter’s country house, and a beautiful forest lodge called Tsala. If you enjoy riding, look no further than Kurland, another superb owner run property, where they breed polo ponies.
It’s important that you get out of your car and do some walking, both to enjoy the magnificent scenery, and to walk off the sumptuous meals that will delight your taste buds at these glorious little boutique hotels.
Driving the Garden Route, you can choose the main coastal road, or the quieter country road that winds its way through orchards, hill passes and quaint little towns like Robertson, Montagu and Oudtshoorn where you can spend a couple of hours in the Cango caves. The Garden Route is also excellent for a malaria free safari. Before the nineteenth century this was a natural habitat for the Big Five, which now thrive again at luxurious safari lodges like Kwandwe, Shamwari and Gorah.
So you could quite easily spend two weeks or longer in Cape Town, the Winelands and the Garden Route – the ideal refuge from a British winter. Now might be just the right time to contact us.
