By Peta Lee

It's become a Mecca for local and overseas visitors and, with its choice of luxury accommodation, top restaurants, superb shops and fabulous beaches, it's hardly surprising.

Umhlanga and surrounds is fast becoming the new Durban CBD, with numerous businesses flocking to establish their headquarters there.

But it's not just executives who love the area: holiday-makers throng - and thrive - in the local village and on the beaches, and over the festive period it's awash with accents (and bodies) from across the globe.

That's the downside if you're seeking a quiet and pretty seaside sanctuary.

The upside is it's the ideal spot for fun-seekers and adrenaline junkies.

Why? Because you're spoilt for choice. You can swim on the Blue Flag beaches, (all protected by shark nets and with lifesavers in attendance), charter a boat to take you out diving, fishing or dolphin watching, stroll along the promenade or take in the sights while sipping a gin sling on the veranda of the Beverly Hills hotel.

Despite hectic storm damage earlier this year, the promenade and beaches have ALMOST been restored to their former pristine beauty.

So okay, it's not St Tropez, or the French Riviera, but you've still got the golden sands, picture-perfect red and white lighthouse, terrific restaurants and some first-class galleries, and, at this time of the year, the hugely popular annual Umhlanga Festival, which started on December 19.

It offers children's activities on the beach daily between 10 am and 3 pm, the famous street party on December 28, themed Calypso Caribbean party with a steel drum band, the Umoja singers and dancers, as well as all-evening dining along Chartwell Drive. Many of the pubs will have karaoke evenings and competitions, and the Lighthouse Mall will host carols by candlelight. And that ever-popular jolly fat man in red, Father Christmas, as well as the Hogs (the Umhlanga Chapter of the Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Club), will be arriving with toys to be distributed to Rotary.

And if the weather's particularly lousy and the children are bored, you're a stone's throw from the Gateway Theatre of Shopping on Umhlanga Ridge. With its 300 shops, 18 cinemas (including IMAX and Cinema Nouveau), the world's highest indoor climbing rock, Nissan's 4x4 track, more than 60 restaurants, the Wave House and huge skate park, and a Science Centre, how can anyone get bored? It may not be Disneyland, or Biarritz, for that matter, but Umhlanga still rocks!