Featherbed is the departure point for excursions to the privately owned Featherbed Nature Reserve on the Western Head of the Knysna Lagoon.

Visitors board a ferry at the Featherbed Ferry Terminus, located at the Cruise Café restaurant on Remembrance Drive on the town-side shore, for a roughly 30-minute crossing of the Knysna estuary.

The reserve itself, established in the mid-1980s, protects a stretch of critically endangered Knysna Sands Fynbos and is home to wildlife including the Knysna Loerie, Blue Duiker, Bushbuck, and Cape Mountain Tortoise.

Activities on the western head include guided 4x4 transfers and walking trails with views over the lagoon and the sandstone Knysna Heads, where the estuary meets the Indian Ocean.