Leisure Isle accommodation,
on an island with one road in

Before you book

Staying on Leisure Isle, answered

Where exactly is Leisure Isle?

In the Knysna estuary, on the Garden Route in the Western Cape. It is a residential island laid out in the 1930s, joined to the mainland by a single concrete causeway: Armstrong Road, off George Rex Drive. Knysna itself is just back over the causeway. It is not Plettenberg Bay, which is a separate town further east, and it is spelled Isle rather than Island.

Is it really only one road in?

Yes. Armstrong Road is the only connection, so nothing drives across the island on its way to somewhere else — there is nowhere to pass through to. That is most of why it is as quiet as it is, and it is worth knowing before you book: everything arrives and leaves the same way.

Can I walk to places to eat?

For a coffee and a meal, yes. There is a restaurant and a couple of cafés on the island, along with a bike shop, a surf shop, a gallery and a library. It is a residential island rather than a resort strip, though, so it is a small handful of places rather than a choice of twenty. For a proper range of restaurants, it is a short drive back over the causeway into Knysna.

What is there to do on the island itself?

Steenbok Nature Reserve is on the island: seventeen hectares, free to enter and open at all times, a joint initiative of the Leisure Isle Residents Association and Knysna Municipality that forms part of the greater Knysna Protected Environment. Beyond that the island is small enough to walk end to end, with the estuary on every side of it. There is also the Leisure Isle Festival, a community fundraiser run by a group of local friends and endorsed by the residents’ association, with the proceeds going to charities in and around Knysna. Dates are announced on leisureislefestival.co.za rather than here, because an event date printed on a page like this one goes stale quietly.

What is the difference between Leisure Isle and Thesen Island?

They are two quite different places that happen to both be islands. Thesen is a purpose-built marina on the site of an old timber mill. Its owners’ association describes artificial islands linked by arched bridges and threaded with tidal waterways; it has a shopping and dining precinct of its own, and is within walking distance of Knysna’s waterfront and town centre. Leisure Isle is a natural island, laid out as an ordinary residential suburb from the 1930s: houses, gardens, a nature reserve and one causeway, with no precinct and no through-traffic. So if you want to walk to restaurants and the harbour, Thesen suits you better, and we do not list it. If you want somewhere quiet with the estuary around it, and you do not mind driving into town to eat, that is this island.

Can I swim there?

The island sits in a tidal estuary rather than on the open sea, so the water changes a great deal between high and low tide and what the shoreline offers depends entirely on when you look at it. Conditions are a local question, not a general one — ask where you are staying, or the people at the water on the day, rather than planning around anything you read here.

What kinds of accommodation are there?

Almost entirely self-catering: whole houses, villas and apartments, most of them ordinary island homes let out rather than purpose-built holiday units, alongside a handful of guest houses. Use the filters on this page to see exactly what we list right now. Every listing links through to its own Booking.com page for live photographs, guest scores, dates and prices.

Background: The Knysna lagoon from Bollard Beach, Leisure Isle — photograph by Bernard DUPONT, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr.