If lounging around on a crowded beach isn’t your scene, perhaps you need something more active – and exclusive. Here’s how: pack a backpack (or a daypack if you’re not feeling all that energetic), get your boots on and take a hike on one of these incredible coastal trails.
No roads required: Mountain biking on the Wild Coast
On a two-day mountain-bike trail through Pondoland on the northern Wild Coast, you can pedal through a paradise of rolling grasslands, coastal cliff tops and beaches speckled with sunbathing cattle. Bring your bicycle, GPS and sense of adventure.
A bitter-sweet symphony: Backroading the West Coast
The stretch of coast between Cape Town and Lambert’s Bay is heart-breakingly beautiful, but it’s also suffering from a severe case of progress. Alison Westwood went to see if there’s still any soul left.
Spioenkop: A tragedy of errors
At Spioenkop, in the bloodiest battle of the Anglo-Boer war, the British generals snatched a humiliating defeat from the jaws of victory.
Secret Durban
Sunny skies, warm waves and bunny chow – what more could you ask from Durbs? Alison Westwood missioned beyond the usual beach scene and scored all kinds of kiff places to park off.
Living on the edge: Exploring the Greater Richtersveld
“We'll take you nowhere and show you nothing,” said a tour operator's brochure at the entrance to the Richtersveld National Park...
Deeply Dippy: Learning to Scuba Dive in Cape Town
Divers love to point out that we know more about space than what's under the sea – and that learning to dive is much easier than becoming an astronaut. Alison Westwood went scuba diving for the first time and discovered she was in her element.
The Sabre-toothed Otter Trail
Naming South Africa’s most popular hiking trail after a cute, furry, clawless animal was a diabolical exercise in false advertising: there’s nothing soft about the Otter.
Kruger Park: The Olifants River Trail
In the Kruger National Park, most people enjoy the show from the seat of a vehicle. But for a privileged few, a four-day hiking trail along the Olifants River offers an intimate glimpse of a wild place beyond the roads and behind the scenes.
Hluhluwe-Imfolozi: The park that cheated fate
Hluhluwe-Imfolozi is the home of one of Africa's greatest conservation coups – the resurrection of the white rhinoceros from near extinction. But few visitors realise how close this park and the rest of its animals came to vanishing.
KwaZulu-Natal North Coast Photographs
Photographs of the KwaZulu-Natal north coast in South Africa and some of the child-friendly holiday activities.
Holidays with kids on KZN’s north coast
Carting the kids off to the coast of KwaZulu-Natal is one of Gautengers' oldest holiday traditions. But that doesn't mean it's lacking in surprises, or that visitors are treated like travelling credit cards. There are plenty of exciting and affordable getaways to take children on the North Coast.
Alison Westwood 