The Garden Route is a favoured destination for many holiday-makers, with its charming combination of spectacular scenery and vibey villages. But once you've got there, what do you do? We put together a list of family-friendly activities everyone will enjoy.

  • Go to the beach. The Garden Route boasts some of SA's best beaches and it would be a crying shame not to make as much use of them as possible. Build a sandcastle, play a ball game, go for a swim, or just soak up the sun. It's up to you, and best of all, it's free.

  • Take in some history. Mossel Bay's Bartolomeu Dias Museum Complex, near the town's tourist bureau, includes the famous Post Office Tree and a fascinating Maritime Museum, complete with a reproduction of a Portuguese caravel. A Shell Museum and Aquarium features some living cowries.
    Open Monday - Friday, 9am – 4.45pm, weekends 10am – 4pm.
    Entrance to the Maritime Museum: R3 or R10 including access to caravel replica.

  • Leave the under-18s at home and go beer-tasting. Mitchell’s Brewery in Knysna offers 30-minute guided tours and the chance to sample some of their excellent products, such as the Forester's Draught and Bosun's Bitter.
    Tours: Monday - Friday, 10.30am.
    Arend Rd, off George Rex drive, Knysna

  • Go elephant-spotting. You probably won't see one, but Knysna's Diepwalle Forest is worth the trip anyway. You can choose from three easy trails (between seven and nine kilometres long), and see the giant yellowwood trees. Click here to read more about walks in the forest, or if you want to be sure of seeing some ellies, visit the Knysna Elephant Park.

  • Crocodile time! Take the kids to George Crocodile Park, and be sure to stick around for feeding time at 3pm.
    Open daily from 9am to 5pm.
    Tel: (044) 801 9295

  • Visit a ghost town. The remains of Millwood, in the Goudveld State Forest, abandoned by gold miners when their search for the yellow metal proved futile, are fascinating. Don't forego the nearby Jubilee Creek trail either, where the old mines can be seen.
    Open daily, sunrise to sunset. Entrance R4.
    Knysna Forestry Department: (044) 382 5466

  • Everybody loves dolphins, and if you happen to be in Plettenberg Bay you shouldn't miss the MTN Centre for Dolphin Studies. There's a community environmental centre, whale and dolphin info centre, shop and library. The centre also runs boat-based whale-watching tours.
    Tel: (044) 533 6185 / 082 784 5729
    26 Main Street, Plettenberg Bay

  • The Outeniqua Choo-Tjoe is one of the region's not-to-be-missed attractions, even if it does require splashing out a bit. It's a romantic journey through awesome scenery in one of the country's last working steam locomotives.
    Departs George daily at 8.30am, arrives in Kynsna 11.30am, returns at 12.15pm. Tickets can be bought at the train station.
    Tel: 082 569 8997

  • City-slicker kids love going to farms. Take them along to the Farmlands Animal Farm, eight kilometres from George. They'll get to pet farm animals and enjoy a pony ride.
    Tel: (044) 870 8013

  • Monkeyland, in a rainforest sancturay, is another of those holiday must-do's. Entrance to the viewing deck is free, and you'll see Madagascan lemurs, South American squirrel monkeys, and many more primates roaming free. If you choose to take a ranger-led safari, you'll be led across a rope bridge above the forest canopy. Funds raised are donated to a charity which rescues monkeys from laboratories.
    The Crags, Plettenberg Bay.
    Tel: (044) 534 8906
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