Marina Beach, South Coast

Once you've booked your Marina Beach accommodation explore our pages for info on attractions and what to do in Marina Beach.

Just south of Margate lies Marina Beach, between the villages of San Lameer and Southbroom, an easy hour and a half’s drive from Durban. Close to the Mpenjati River mouth and lagoon, it is a long sandy beach with its own tidal pool and a well deserved blue flag status.

Marina Beach has often been called the “Honolulu of the South Coast” and it isn’t hard to imagine why. The subtropical climate easily combines with a beach that is lovely, sandy and clean, whilst the little village, not much more than a superette, Post Office, bottle store and petrol station, lies next door to the Mpenjati Nature Reserve that adds to the lush vegetation.

Together with the Trafalgar Marine Reserve, it provides a calm enclave on what can sometimes be a rather busy coastline. This little 60 hectare reserve interlinks wetlands, grasslands and dune forest that provide ample opportunity to swim, hike and fish. There is a selection of pretty picnic sites on each bank of the Mpenjati River and the Ipithi Trail, on the south bank, is a short walk that normally guarantees sightings of the blue, red and grey duiker, whilst the Yengele trail on the north bank sends its way through the largest dune forests on the KwaZulu Natal coastline.

For the golfer, this part of the coastline is a treat. There are no fewer than nine 18-hole golf courses and none of them too far to reach, including the ones at Southbroom and San Lameer. For others, the coastline is a feast of water activities, fishing, diving and seaside action. The restaurant on the Marina Woods beach is said to be one of the finest.