GR boasts 19 Green Flag trails
Hiking trails on the Garden Route continue to be maintained at and held to a worldclass standard, with a total of 19 multi- and single-day hiking trails named on the latest Green Flag Trails list.
Green Flag Trails is a certification that recognises trails for their accurate data, environmental responsibility and sustainable management. It focuses on sustainability and responsibility towards hiking and walking tourists and aims to stimulate ecotourism on a global level. Green Flag Trails is a scientifically based trail auditing system that has been developed in South Africa and applied and tested in six different countries to date, including Nepal, St Helena and Peru as well as various countries in southern Africa.
The Green Flag certification system has again proved that the Garden Route boasts a wide variety of world-class hiking trails, after 19 Garden Route trails have been handed Green Flag status.
The 19 trails are made up of four multiday hiking trails and 15 single-day hiking trails, with the majority belonging to Garden Route National Park's Tsitsikamma section which offer eight multi-day trails and one single-day trail – the Tsitsikamma Hiking Trail – with Green Flag status. The Knysna section has two multi-day hikes and one single-day trail (Harkerville), while the Wilderness section contains five singleday hiking trails and one multi-day trail (Outeniqua Hiking Trail). The final multiday hiking trail with Green Flag status on the Garden Route is the Oyster Catcher