Travel to Knysna

now shamefully over-developed

Knysna is located on the Garden Route, some 440 km east of Cape Town.

This place is geographically rather special, a huge lagoon separated from the ocean by a dramatic cleft known as The Heads and surrounded by beautiful verdant hills.

As recently as 1990 the reasons to stop here were to walk the famous forests and sail on the broad lagoon, as well as enjoy what used to be a very pleasant and laid back village.

Unfortunately in recent decades the town, especially the lagoon frontage, has been developed out of all recognition, with enormous waterfront estates detracting greatly from the natural attractiveness of the situation.

An additional negative is that the main N2 highway (which of course now carries much more traffic) passes right through the centre of the old town, causing a near continuous traffic jam and further detracting from its appeal (although quaint back streets to the north give a hint of how lovely this place used to be).

Further development around the town and out onto The Heads leaves the whole place with an increasingly suburban feel, although it does still feel reasonably upmarket in the roads high above the ocean and on the fabulously named Leisure Isle nearby.

The Garden Route is considerably less seasonal than most other parts of Africa.
Most notably it experiences a good deal more consistent levels of cloud and rain year round, in contrast to the Cape which has a much more pronounced dry summer Nov-Mar.

The climate is still very pleasant, but you can expect a little bit more weather out here. For this you are compensated by the wonderful verdant landscapes and rich forests for which the area is named.

Summer : Nov-Apr

This period is generally considered to be the preferred time to visit, with pleasantly warm temperatures, longer days and marginally higher average sunshine hours.

Winter : May/Oct

This period is notionally winter, but temperatures are only a few degrees below their summer levels, average sunshine hours about the same and rainfall just as unpredictable. But the days are definitely shorter.

Where to stay

As you can gather, we are no longer great fans of Knysna, it tears us apart to see such lovely places fall so far. As a result we rarely end up recommending the town for inclusion in trips, more often leaning towards the much more pleasant Nature’s Valley area further east.

However there are sometimes occasions when Knysna is the right option for a trip, in which case there is a decent range of accommodation options.

a nice place to retire