Mossel Bay

Mossel Bay is where the Garden Route officially starts, 400 km east of Cape Town and 400 km west of Gqeberha. It is a working town as much as a resort: the smallest commercial harbour on the coast, a gas-to-liquids refinery on the edge of town, and a long history that begins with Bartolomeu Dias stepping ashore on 3 February 1488, the first recorded European landing on South African soil.

Getting there

The N2 runs past the town. George Airport is about 40 km to the east and has flights from Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban. Coaches on the Cape Town to Gqeberha run stop here, as does the Baz Bus. The minibus taxi rank is at the corner of the R102 and Mossel Street. The old centre around the harbour is walkable; for the beaches and the Pinnacle Point caves you want a car.

When to go

The town has a mild, fairly dry climate for the Garden Route: around 420 mm of rain a year, most of it falling at night, with summer days near 26°C and winter days around 19°C. Southern right and humpback whales are off the coast from about June to October or November. December and January are the big local holiday weeks, when the town hosts tens of thousands of visitors a night and accommodation has to be booked well ahead.

What to do

Start at the Bartolomeu Dias Museum Complex near the harbour. It holds a full-size replica of Dias’s caravel, maritime exhibits and the Post Office Tree, a milkwood where in 1501 a Portuguese captain left a letter in a shoe, which is how the tree became an informal post office for passing ships. Up on the headland, the Cape St Blaize lighthouse dates from 1864 and the cave beneath it has deposits going back some 200,000 years. The St Blaize Trail starts at the cave and follows the cliff tops west to Dana Bay, 13.5 km one way; most people walk out for an hour or two and turn back. Just below the lighthouse, a zipline of roughly 1,100 m runs out over the sea and is claimed as the longest over-ocean line in the world.

Boat trips go to Seal Island and out for whales in season. Shark cage diving with great whites is the town’s biggest single draw and also its most argued-about activity. Santos Beach is in the town centre; Diaz Beach suits beginner surfers. The Pinnacle Point caves, 12 km east, hold evidence of people living here between about 170,000 and 40,000 years ago and can be visited on guided archaeological tours.

Good to know

One night is enough for the town itself; two if you want the trail and a boat trip. The lighthouse is open to visitors until 16:00. The refinery and harbour mean the town is bigger and less polished than Knysna or Plett, and prices and crowds are correspondingly gentler outside the holidays.

Last updated 6 October 2026. Sources: Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, Viel Unterwegs (travel blog, German), Freedom Travel (travel blog), Timbuktu Travel.