Vejret i Plettenberg Bay i december

December is the Garden Route's best weather and its heaviest traffic at the same time. South African school holidays begin around the 10th and run through New Year, which fills the public parks and the coast road, and the Christmas-to-New-Year stretch in particular gets described as extremely busy - the practical problem regulars name is finding accommodation at short notice rather than finding good weather. If avoiding that matters more than catching the season, they point to February through April instead. The record for Knysna: 23.5C days that feel like 25C, 17.1C nights, 8.9 precipitation days carrying 40.4mm, 12.4 hours of sun, a 20.5C sea and a 23 kph wind.

Plettenberg Bay's forum describes July as about as wintry as the Garden Route gets - chillier and windier than the rest of the year - but posters were quick to add that South Africa's winter isn't a washout: some days hit a sunny 25C, others turn cold, windy and wet, and it genuinely doesn't rain for days on end. A few visitors even reported swimming and wearing short sleeves during a June/July stay when a warm spell lined up. Pack for both extremes rather than assuming either a beach day or a full winter coat is guaranteed.

Forum posters name Plettenberg Bay as one of the better bets on South Africa's eastern stretch for good weather with a lower rain chance in January, though they warn the first two weeks of the month get genuinely busy with South African families on school holiday. Beach options vary by character: Robberg Beach has strong undercurrents but makes a nice walk, Central Beach is calmer and family-friendly with a small lagoon to paddle in, and Lookout Beach offers a sheltered lagoon that changes with the tide. Beyond the beach, posters point to whale and dolphin-watching boat tours, cape fur seal colony visits, bungee jumping and the Robberg Peninsula nature reserve as the main draws for a January visit.