Adventure
Shark cage diving
Gansbaai, a surface cage, and no diving qualification needed.
A morning, roughly five hours on the water and back
Western Cape
The Whale Coast and Overberg
Whales below the cliff path, and a forest gorge on the way there.
Over Sir Lowry's Pass and an hour from the city. Hermanus has the best land-based whale watching in the world, Gansbaai has the shark boats, and the Elgin valley on the way has a forest canopy tour and the best apples in Africa.
Southern right whales come into Walker Bay to calve, and they come close. From the cliff path at Hermanus you look down on them.
They arrive from the Southern Ocean in June, peak in September and October, and are largely gone by early December. Walker Bay is shallow, sheltered and warm enough for a calf, which is why they choose it, and the town happens to have a twelve-kilometre cliff path running the length of the shoreline at exactly the right height. There is no other whale watching like it: no boat, no seasickness, no chase.
Beyond the whales
Hermanus has a serious wine ward of its own in the Hemel-en-Aarde valley behind the town. Gansbaai, half an hour east, is the shark cage diving capital and the departure point for boats out to Dyer Island. And on the way over, in the mountains above Elgin, there is a canopy tour running thirteen zip lines down a forested gorge, which is the single best thing we know of out here for a family with teenagers.
One night or two
Most Cape itineraries give it a night on the way to or from the Garden Route, which works. Two nights lets you do the cliff path properly at dawn and still have a day for the valley.
The practical detail
- How long to stay
- 1 to 3 nights
- Best months
- July, August, September, October, November
- Getting there
- Ninety minutes from Cape Town on the R44 coastal road, which runs between the mountains and the sea for most of the way and is one of the finest drives in the country. It works as a long day trip, though the coast is better with a night in it.
Local knowledge
Things worth doing here
Adventure
Zip lining in the Overberg
Thirteen slides through an indigenous forest gorge above Elgin.
Half a day, about three hours on the cables plus the drive
Food and wine
Wine tasting in the Cape
Three estates, one long lunch, and a guide who drives.
A full day, or a half day from Cape Town
Itineraries that include it
7 days · 6 nights
The Classic Cape Week
The city, the peninsula, the Winelands and the whale coast, in one region.
8 days · 7 nights
A Family Week in the Cape
Penguins, a canopy tour, a boat and a beach, with the driving kept short.
7 days · 6 nights
A Cape Honeymoon
Seven days, two people, and a guide who knows when to disappear.
10 days · 9 nights
Ten Days in the Cape
The unhurried version, with time on the water and two nights on the coast.
More about this region
Often combined with
Cape Town
A working city wedged between a mountain and two oceans.
4 to 6 nights
The Cape Peninsula
Forty miles of mountain and ocean, ending at a lighthouse.
0 to 2 nights
The Cape Winelands
Three hundred years of vines, an hour from the airport.
2 to 3 nights
Worth reading
Planning ·
When to visit Cape Town, month by month
High summer is not the best month here, and winter is a great deal better than its reputation. A month-by-month guide to the Cape, with the trade-offs stated plainly.
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