Accommodation in Plettenberg Bay on the Garden Route, Western Cape 

View map of Plettenberg Bay

Over the Christmas holidays, 40,000 residents from Johannesburg's wealthy northern suburbs decamp to PLETTENBERG BAY (usually called Plett), 33km east of Knysna, and the flashiest of the Garden Route's seaside towns. It's wise to give it a miss at Christmas, when prices double, accommodation becomes impossible to find and everything gets very crowded. Yet, during low season, sipping champagne and sucking oysters while watching the sunset from a bar can be wonderful - the banal urban development on the surrounding hills somehow doesn't seem so bad because the bay views really are stupendous. The deep-blue Tsitsikamma Mountains drop sharply to the inlet and its large estuary, providing the constant vista to the town and its suburbs. The bay generously curves over several kilometres of white sands, separated from the mountains by forest, which makes this a green and temperate location receiving rainfall throughout the year.

Southern right whales appear every winter, and are a seriously underrated attraction, while dolphins can be seen throughout the year, hunting or riding the surf, often in substantial numbers. Swimming is safe, and though the waters are never tropically warm they reach a comfortable temperature between November and April. River and rock fishing are rewarding all year long, and one of the Garden Route's best short hikes covers a circuit round the Robberg Peninsula - a great tongue of headland that contains the western edge of the bay. 

Plett's town centre, at the top of the hill, consists of a conglomeration of supermarkets, swimwear shops, estate agents and restaurants aimed largely at the holiday trade. But the town also has the distinction of being home to the MTN Centre for Dolphin Studies at 26 Main St. Under the direction of Dr Vic Cockroft, one of the world's leading scientific authorities on marine mammal conservation, it includes a community environmental centre, a whale and dolphin information centre, a reference and video library and a shop. Working in association with Ocean Safaris, the centre is also the most successful operator of boat-based whale-watching excursions in the country.

Visitors principally come for Plett's beaches - and there's a fair choice. Southeast of the town centre on a rocky promontory is Beacon Island , dominated by a 1970s hotel, an eyesore blighting a fabulous location. Beacon Island Beach, or Main Beach , right at the central shore of the bay, is where the fishing boats and seacats anchor a little out to sea. The small waves here make for calm swimming, and this is an ideal family spot. To the east is Lookout Rocks , attracting surfers to the break off a needle of rocks known as the Point and the predictable surf of Lookout Beach , to its east, which is also one of the nicest stretches of sand for bathers, body-surfers or sun lizards. Lookout Beach has the added attraction of a marvellously located restaurant, from which you can often catch sight of dolphins cruising into the bay. From here you can walk several kilometres down the beach towards Keurbooms and the Keurbooms Lagoon.