Luxury 4‑bedroom villa on Leisure Isle – perfect for golfers and Garden Route explorers
Luxury 4‑bedroom villa on Leisure Isle – perfect for golfers and Garden Route explorers
Thanks to the mild, oceanic climate with warm summers and gentle winters, Leisure Isle is an attractive holiday destination all year round. The surroundings stay green in every season, making it always feel inviting.
While you enjoy peace and nature on the island, you are just minutes away from the center of Knysna with its restaurants, shops, and cultural attractions. The famous Knysna Heads and other sights are also within walking or short driving distance.
Enjoying summer while it’s still winter in Europe, just a 1-hour time difference, and daily direct flights between Amsterdam and Cape Town—then you’ll understand why this is our dream spot and perhaps your next holiday destination.
In 2014, we, Paula & Coen, traveled to South Africa for the first time for work. We combined that visit with a trip to the Kruger Park and the beautiful surrounding area.
Since then, we have been captivated by this extraordinary country and return almost every year. During those trips, we gradually discovered the Garden Route, with its rugged coastlines, vast beaches, and charming villages. This included Knysna, where we regularly stayed with our South African friends in their holiday home at The Heads, featuring a magnificent view over the lagoon.
Thanks to them, we got to know the Knysna area better and better. In January 2025, we happened to walk past a house on Leisure Isle – and we knew immediately: this is where we want to be. It was love at first sight.
On this website, we don’t just show you our house, but we also take you to the places we’ve discovered ourselves and love to return to. We hope to convey something of the beauty of the country and the warmth of the people who make South Africa so special to us.
Modern holiday villa with 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms on the charming Leisure Isle in Knysna. Just a 300-meter walk from Bollard Bay Beach and Knysna Lagoon. Available for short stays and holidays.
The separate lounge is stylishly furnished and features a fireplace for cozy winter evenings and air conditioning for cooling in the summer. Sliding/folding doors open onto a spacious wooden deck, covered patio, and a lush green garden with an outdoor dining area.
The kitchen is fully equipped with electrical appliances and a dishwasher, leading through to a separate utility room with a washing machine and tumble dryer.
The open-plan dining room with a table for 8 people is integrated with the kitchen – the heart of the home for family gatherings – while a glass door leads to a comfortable outdoor lounge under the covered patio, with a wooden deck and garden in total tranquility.
Bedrooms:
Bedrooms 1, 2, and 4 have extra-long king-size beds and en-suite bathrooms, stylishly finished with elegant fixtures. Bedroom 3 has a queen-size bed and is adjacent to the guest toilet.
All bedrooms are equipped with ceiling fans and wall heaters for extra comfort.
Terrace
Covered, spacious wooden terrace-patio with a full outdoor lounge set, a dining table for 8 people, and a Weber barbecue/braai.
Highlights:
Enjoy luxury finishes, perfectly located in the friendly, close-knit community of Leisure Isle in Knysna. Admire breathtaking views over the Knysna Lagoon and the famous Knysna Heads as you walk across the island and take in the beautiful surroundings.
Designed for the discerning traveler who loves peace and quiet, birdsong, refined simplicity, and a magnificent indoor-outdoor lifestyle.
Parking:
Private covered parking, enclosed by our carport. Suitable for 2 cars.
Other:
Enclosed, fenced, and secure house with intercom access and an alarm system. The villa has its own off-grid water supply with a groundwater pump and continuous supply of filtered drinking water, and also features solar panels including a battery to handle potential power outages. Wifi is available throughout the house.
Leisure Isle is located in the Knysna Lagoon on South Africa’s famous Garden Route. The island features beautiful beaches like Bollard Bay, where you can safely swim, sunbathe, and enjoy water sports. The proximity to nature reserves and hiking trails makes it a paradise for nature lovers and active vacationers.
Thanks to the mild, oceanic climate with warm summers and gentle winters, Leisure Isle is an attractive holiday destination all year round. The surroundings stay green in every season, making it always feel inviting.
While you enjoy peace and nature on the island, you are just minutes away from the center of Knysna with its restaurants, shops, and cultural attractions. The famous Knysna Heads and other sights are also within walking or short driving distance.
The drive from Cape Town to Knysna is a diverse journey via the excellent N2, passing coastlines, mountains, and rural villages. From Cape Town, you drive via Somerset West and over Sir Lowry’s Pass, with views of False Bay, towards the fruit valley around Grabouw. Then the road continues through open farmland and small towns until you reach Swellendam, a quiet historic town at the foot of the mountains, ideal for coffee or lunch and a short walk.
After Swellendam, you follow the N2 towards the coast. The surroundings become more open, with wide vistas and eventually the bay at Mossel Bay, where you can stop for a beach walk or a bite to eat with a sea view.
Next, you drive to George, nestled against the Outeniqua Mountains, and then descend to Wilderness. Here you’ll find long beaches, an estuary, and viewpoints above the coast—a beautiful place to stretch your legs.
The final stretch to Knysna runs along lakes and lagoons via Sedgefield. The road leads through greener vegetation, with views of water and low forested hills. Just before arrival, the view opens up over the Knysna Lagoon and you see the forested slopes surrounding the town. The drive feels like a gradual transition from city and farmland to the peace and nature of the Garden Route, where your holiday home forms the comfortable end point of the day.
South Africa has a reputation among Europeans for being an unsafe country, but our experience – especially in the Western Cape, Knysna, and particularly Leisure Isle – is very different. It feels like a welcoming and relaxed environment, provided you take a few simple and sensible precautions, just as you would in any large European city.
Interested in including Leisure Isle in Knysna in your holiday and enjoying these special surroundings from a stylish villa? Then contact Manhattan Properties – so the excitement, planning, and dreaming about your stay can begin right away.
