Eastern Cape Beaches, South Africa

The Eastern Cape in South Africa boasts some of the world’s best beaches and 800 km of unspoilt picturesque coastlines where blue oceans tumble onto quiet beaches. The Eastern Cape coastline is a mecca to all water sports enthusiasts and has a popular and thriving surfing culture.

The world famous Jeffreys Bay beach offers a long stretch of pristine beaches with fantastic waves and swells. The waves that hit these shores are so incredible that this town hosts the Billabong Pro each year. Popular spots include Kitchen Windows, Magna Tubes, Boneyards, Supertubes and Tubes.

South Africa’s friendly city of Port Elizabeth offers 40km of magnificent beaches with a perfect combination of warmer waters, calm sees and fair breezes. These beaches offer safe and sheltered swimming, body surfing, sun tanning, boardsailing, excellent waves and surfing opportunities as well as fantastic inter-tidal sea life. These beaches also offer one of the best sailing venues in the world. On the tame and more commercial side, visit Hobie Beach and Kings Beach. These beautiful beaches are surrounded by café’s where you can sip on refreshing cocktails and admire the scenic view.

On the wilder side, visit Maitlands, Seaview, Sardinia Bay and Virgin Bay. These beaches are unspoilt and virtually untouched. The Southern Right Whales and their calves are regularly spotted from the high dunes at Maitlands and Seaview, usually between May and November. Bottlenose dolphins are often seen close to shore and if you’re lucky you might get to swim with these beautiful creatures.

Popular surfing spots in Port Elizabeth include The Fence, the Pipe and Millers Point to mention a few. Just outside Port Elizabeth, be sure to visit Bluewater Bay. This beach is exquisitely wild, offering fantastic surfing adventures. Port St Johns is a lovely and unspoilt stretch of tropical coastline. It is a fairly undeveloped and quiet beach for great swimming and just lazing in the waters of the coastal lagoon. East London has a thriving beach culture boasting magnificent sand dunes, rock outcrops and ocean views (more info available at East London Beaches). Orient Beach offers fantastic swimming. Eastern Beach is home to an abundance of black rocks and is a perfect destination for photos and exploration. Other popular beaches include Nahoon Beach and Gonubie Beach. These are surfing hot spots and boast awesome waves.

Eastern Cape beaches are more wild and unspoilt compared to the many commercial beaches in South Africa. Visit these pristine beaches and experience something different.