Conveniently accessible from Cape Town, the Garden Route is famous for its hardy fynbos floral kingdom, its secluded little bays and its year-round holiday frame of mind.

Stretching from Heidelberg in the Western Cape to the Storms River in the extreme western reach of the neighbouring Eastern Cape, the name derives from the verdant and ecologically diverse vegetation encountered and the numerous lagoons and lakes dotted along the coast.

The main arterial highway of the Garden Route is the N2 which passes through towns such as Mossel Bay, Knysna, Oudtshoorn, Plettenberg Bay and Nature's Valley and George, the Garden Route's largest city and main administrative centre.

Ten nature reserves embrace the varied ecosystems of the area as well as unique marine reserves, home to soft coral reefs, bottlenose and common dolphin, seals and a host of other marine life including killer whales that frolic close to shore, especially near Plettenberg Bay. Various other bays along the Garden Route are nurseries to the endangered Southern Right Whale which come there to calve in the winter and spring (July to December).