Destinations / The West Coast >>

Running north of Cape Town, the west coast is still largely undiscovered by foreign tourists. Capetonians have been exploring its delights for some time now, but there are still some gems out there.

To the east of the N7 you have the rolling hills of Swartland – farming country with Tulbagh and the remarkable wilderness area of The Cedarberg being the highlights. To the east you’ll find fishing villages, coastal lagoons and the best oysters in South Africa.

Paternoster is the pick of the West Coast, although lunch overlooking the Langebaan lagoon is time well spent and the West Coast National Park is a bird-lover’s dream. The real show begins in springtime when the coastal dunes are carpeted with fynbos and other wildflowers. This is a more convenient, but smaller-scale, version of the spectacular explosion of colour further north in Namaqualand which is truly the stuff of postcards and nature documentaries. The West Coast Fossil Park near Vredenburg is an excellent, if relatively unknown, chance to see an ongoing fossil excavation and actually handle ancient fossils.

Avoid St Helena Bay unless you’ve got a fetish for the smell of fish-processing factories.