Top Rated Tourist Attraction Of The Week

From national parks to iconic symbols of freedom and democracy, this popular and highly regarded Mzansi's attraction cannot be missed.

South Africa is a patchwork quilt of many different landscapes, cultures and sights that have been around since ancient times or the country's founding. Its also filled with superb hiking areas, action-packed cities, thrilling theme parks and more. 

Here is my favorite tourist attraction of the week: 

The Garden Route

The Garden Route District Municipality is a district municipality located in the Western Cape Province of South Africa.

Along the country's southeast coast, the Garden Route runs for about 200 kilometers through some of South Africa's most breathtaking coastal scenery. The route stretches along the Indian Ocean from Mossel Bay, in the Western Cape, to the Storms River, in the Eastern Cape.

This popular driving route passes through rolling green hills, pretty coastal towns, lagoons, lakes, and coastal cliffs. Highlights of the Garden Route include the charming town of Knysna, snuggled between dense forests and a sparkling lagoon; the beautiful Garden Route National Park, with its gorges, tidal pools, and thick forests; Oudtshoorn's ostrich farms and Cango Caves; and the seal colony of the Robberg Nature Reserve in Plettenberg Bay.

Adventures along the way run the gamut, from elephant experiences and whale watching trips to bungee jumping and tree canopy tours.

The Tsitsikamma sector of the Garden Route National Park protects a vast tract of indigenous forest along with a series of breathtaking cliffs that rise 180 m above the breakers below. Highlights include the thrilling suspension bridge across the Storms River Mouth, and the 6 km Waterfall Trail, which follows the same stretch of rocky wave-battered shore as the legendary five-day Otter Trail.

A short distance inland of Tsitsikamma, the 215 m Bloukrans Bridge bungee jump is reputedly the world’s highest.

Birds of Eden sanctuary is a safe haven for rescued and abandoned birds from all over the world

Family friendly Monkeyland is a private sanctuary offering refuge to more than a dozen species of monkey and lemur, all rescued from domestic captivity. The adjacent Birds of Eden is a massive free-flight aviary run through by a 1km walkway and suspension bridge. A third associated sanctuary Jukani is home to rescued lions and various other big cats and smaller carnivores.

The twin peaks of the Knysna heads. Take a boating trip during the annual Knysna Oyster Festival

The charming town of Knysna, whose Holy Trinity Church might have been transplanted from a sleepy English village, stands on a pretty lagoon hemmed in by a pair of sheer rock faces known as the Knysna Heads. Several quayside eateries specialise in fresh oysters cultivated in the lagoon and crafts beers such as those pioneered by the legendary Mitchell’s Brewery. Despite its genteel veneer, Knysna supports a thriving alternative scene whose annual highlight is the Pink Loerie Mardi Gras and Arts Festival, a five-day gay pride event held every April or May.

Shark cage-diving off the coast of Mossel Bay

Mossel Bay is where, on 3 February 1488, Bartolomeu Dias became the first European to set foot on South African soil. Three years later, it is where a stranded Portuguese navigator left an account of his misfortunes in an old shoe suspended from a milkwood tree that went on to serve as South Africa’s first ‘post office’ for decades. The post office tree still stands in the grounds of the Bartolomeu Dias Museum, but Mossel Bay is now better known as a base for caged shark dives and boat trips to the aptly named Seal Island.

The Swartberg pass

In the scenic Swartberg (Black Mountains) north of Oudtshoorn, guided 60-minute trips lead deep underground through the sequence of well-lit labyrinths of the Cango Caves, whose chambers are decorated by all manner of unusual limestone formations. An extended 90 minute ‘adventure’ tour into Cango Caves entails squeezing and clambering through crevices unsuited to the claustrophobic or seriously overweight.

The ostrich the the world’s largest bird

Set in the arid Little Karoo an hour’s drive inland, Oudtshoorn is was the booming centre of a lucrative trade in ostrich feathers in the late 19th century. The CP Nel Museum has good displays on the ostrich trade while a number of out-of-town ostrich farms offer travellers the opportunity to learn about, pet and ride these bizarre outsized birds.

The twin peaks of the Knysna heads. Take a boating trip during the annual Knysna Oyster Festival

The charming town of Knysna, whose Holy Trinity Church might have been transplanted from a sleepy English village, stands on a pretty lagoon hemmed in by a pair of sheer rock faces known as the Knysna Heads. Several quayside eateries specialise in fresh oysters cultivated in the lagoon and crafts beers such as those pioneered by the legendary Mitchell’s Brewery. Despite its genteel veneer, Knysna supports a thriving alternative scene whose annual highlight is the Pink Loerie Mardi Gras and Arts Festival, a five-day gay pride event held every April or May.

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