With its pristine forests, beautiful lakes, lagoons, rivers and waterfalls, the Garden Route is nature’s playground for outdoor and adventure lovers. Off the property there is an incredible range of activities for the whole family, from mountain biking to canoeing and paragliding.
Some of the Garden Route’s best beaches are just 15 minutes away and in summer offer wonderful snorkeling. We have snorkeling equipment which we will gladly lend to our guests.
Below are some suggested activities for you to do during your stay with us, but please speak to us about more suggestions and recommendations.
Touw River / Half-Collared Kingfisher Trail: This trail is best done by hiring canoes from either SANParks or Eden Adventures. Canoe upstream for about 3 km and then beach the canoes and walk along the trail and boardwalk to a set of waterfalls. A great swimming spot in summer. Take drinking water and a picnic!
Swartvlei Beach and Gericke’s point: The best time to visit Gericke’s Point is three hours before low tide. Walk from the Swartvlei Beach car park to the headland on the right. At low tide there are fascinating rock pools for snorkeling.
Mountain biking: The Seven Passes road is accessed directly from Reflections and offers a stunning and challenging ride that includes a number of passes, stunning scenery, rolling hills, farmland and forests. Bergplaas is a forestry station accessed via the Rondevlei Pass and offers hundreds of kilometres of jeep track trails that you will probably have all to yourself, as well as stunning fynbos, plantations and mountain scenery.
The Garden Route Trail Park has carefully designed routes laid out to suit riders of all levels with over 20 km of hand built single-track. in the infamous farmer tradition, with flowing turns, burms, rollers and river crossings. The trails link directly onto SANparks Farleigh MTB routes, three marked routes with over 50 km of forest, fynbos, big mountain climbs and amazing views. A permit is required to ride these trails.
For runners there is a forest trail which passes the Karatara River with its rock pools and waterfalls.
Big Tree/Woodville: An easy forest walk for the whole family, this 3.5 km circular trail off the Seven Passes Road leads through pristine mature forest. The trail starts and ends at a magnificent Outeniqua yellowwood tree. Great birding and the country’s best cheesecake at the Hoekwil Country Cafe!
Brown-Hooded Kingfisher Trail: A short drive from Reflections, this is a fantastic, short walk through drier forest, which is doable by the whole family. Great birding, especially if the figs are fruiting.
Mole-Rat Trail: Directly opposite Reflections, this is a very pretty walk with stunning views over the Wilderness lakes. Mostly fynbos but some stunning patches of coastal forest and reedbeds. This is a fantastic spot for sundowners.
Whale watching: From June to November you can book a whale watching excursion with Ocean Odyssey to see southern right and humpback whales up close as they migrate along the coast past Knysna.
Paragliding: The area offers numerous excellent paragliding sites, one of the best known being Cloud 9 in Sedgefield. Various companies with qualified flight instructors offer tandem flights for beginners, including Dolphin Paragliding and Flytime Paragliding.
Canoeing: Hire canoes from Eden Adventures or take a tour with them which includes canoeing, kloofing and abseiling. Routes on the Routes on the Touw River include the Touw River Waterfall – 40 mins (3 km) of paddling through indigenous forest and 40 min (2.5 km) of walking on a boardwalk to a waterfall; Island Lake – 1.5 to 2 hour (3.5 km) paddle down the Serpentine River with its abundant birdlife; the river mouth – 30 to 40 min paddle.
