Garden Route stops

[whiteroseredrose]

Hello. I’m looking for opinions on nice places to stop on the Garden Route. The idea is to stay 2 nights in one location and 3 nights in another.

We are looking to do the Half Collared Kingfisher Trail near Wilderness, the Featherbed Reserve near Knysna, Robberg Reserve near Plettenberg Bay and also Tsitsikamma Reserve.

We’d ideally want to be able to walk to restaurants if possible.

Has anyone been to Wilderness, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay etc and mind sharing experiences?

Ive been to all 3 but it was 15 years ago. Knysna was one of my favourites and most memorable. We stayed at the Knysna Belle on a bnb basis, it was beautiful. Plettenberg we passed through, it was very nice. Didnt really take to Wilderness, it was extremely windy.
Some if my other favourites (that I can recall names of) were Camps Bay, Franschhook, Hermanus.

We stayed at Kanonkop House in Knysna. It was absolutely wonderful. However you need to get the car out for restaurants so look for somewhere near the sea. There’s very similar places near Plett so you are spoilt for choice. We stayed at a guest house that’s now closed but guest houses are fantastic in SA.

Id also recommend Hermsnus between August and Nov to see the whales very close to the shore. We stayed at Ocean 11 guest house and whales were literally below us in the bay. You will get a warm welcome everywhere in SA.

I agree, we also stayed at Oceans 11! The first time there were lots of whales. The second time the whales were there but it was very windy so hard to see them in the waves. It's fun to drive around different parts of the coast to look for the whales, and the town has nice restaurants etc.

Hermanus is lovely generally even out of whale season. Gorgeous beaches, lots of hiking trails both along the coast and up the mountains. Town has great restaurants, art galleries everywhere and v walkable. Shark diving down the coast if you are into that sort of thing 🤔