The first afternoon usually goes like this: park the car, walk down Market Street, past the museum to the harbour where the trawlers lie. Then follow the road around the headland to the Point. And there you stand, the lighthouse at your back, children jumping off the edge of the tidal pool in front of you, and you realise the rest of the programme has moved to tomorrow. Almost everything worth seeing in Mossel Bay lies inside a kilometre and a half between the museum and the lighthouse. Only the caves of Pinnacle Point, the seal island and the game reserve need a car or a boat.
Eleven places are on this page, each with its own entry: what it is, how long you need, what it costs and when it pays off. The order is geography, not ranking. The museum comes first because that is where you start anyway.
- Places
- 11eight of them walkable from the museum
- Entry
- mostly freemuseum, boat, cave tour and game drive extra
- Trail
- around 13 kmfrom the lighthouse to Dana Bay
- Best months
- June to Novemberwhales off the Point, swimming from December
The harbour and the town centre
A mill with a ship inside it, a tree with a postbox, a harbour that still works, and the beach right next door. The centre of Mossel Bay is small, and all of it fits into one kilometre.
- Dias Museum tells the story of the 1488 landing inside a mill from 1901, with a ship in the hall, a shell museum and a garden.
- Post Office Tree is a milkwood tree that had a letter in a shoe hanging from it in 1500 or 1501. The postbox underneath still works.
- Santos Beach is the town beach: sand, lawn, a pavilion, facing north into the bay and therefore calm.
- The harbour and Kaai 4 is a working harbour with a jetty from 1912, the place the seal island boats leave from, and home to Kaai 4, where the fires burn in the evening.
The Point and Cape St Blaize
The headland at the southern end of town: a lighthouse from 1864 on top, a cave underneath, a tidal pool between the rock shelves below. The bay ends here, and out in the water lies the seal island.
- Cape St Blaize Lighthouse has stood on the headland since 1864, a 14 metre tower on 73 metres of rock, and it is still in service.
- St Blaize Cave is the cave directly under the lighthouse, lived in for thousands of years and excavated in 1888; the trail starts here.
- The Point is the headland with the tidal pool between the rock shelves, the surf break in front of it and the restaurants at the water.
- Seal Island is the seal island out in the bay; an hour under sail from the harbour, and with it the question about the sharks.
West: cliffs and caves
Past the lighthouse the coast turns west and goes steep. A path along the top of the cliffs, and a few kilometres further the caves that hold the oldest traces of modern humans.
- St Blaize Trail runs from the cave under the lighthouse along the cliffs to Dana Bay, around 13 kilometres, without a scrap of shade.
- Pinnacle Point holds the caves where people ate shellfish and ground ochre 164,000 years ago; World Heritage since 2024, guided visits only.
Inland
Half an hour away from the water, and coastal fynbos turns into a reserve with elephants in it. For the day the sea takes off.
- Botlierskop is a private game reserve halfway to George, 6,000 hectares with the Big Five, game drives morning or afternoon.
One day, two days, three
With one day you go to the Dias Museum in the morning, post a card at the Post Office Tree, eat at the harbour and spend the afternoon at the Point, in the pool or on the rocks, until the sun stands behind the lighthouse. Two days add the boat to the seal island in the morning and the guided tour of Pinnacle Point in the afternoon. Book that tour in advance. The third day belongs to the St Blaize Trail, or, if your legs object, to the game drive at Botlierskop.
Our tipBook the cave tour to Pinnacle Point and the boat to the seal island on your first evening for the second day; both run in small groups and depend on the weather. Everything else in Mossel Bay works without a plan.
Frequently asked questions about the sights
What should you see in Mossel Bay?
The Dias Museum with its caravel and the Post Office Tree, the Cape St Blaize lighthouse with the cave beneath it, the tidal pool at the Point, and, with a guide, the caves of Pinnacle Point. Apart from Pinnacle Point, the seal island and Botlierskop, all of it sits inside a kilometre and a half.
Do the sights in Mossel Bay charge entry?
Little. The lighthouse from outside, St Blaize Cave, the Point, Santos Beach, the harbour and the St Blaize Trail are free. The Dias Museum with the Post Office Tree charges a small entry; the boat to the seal island, the guided tour of Pinnacle Point and the game drive at Botlierskop cost extra, and the prices with their dates are on the individual pages.
Is one day enough for Mossel Bay?
For the museum, the Post Office Tree, the harbour, the Point and the lighthouse, yes, on foot. Two days add the boat to the seal island and the guided tour through the caves at Pinnacle Point. The third belongs to the St Blaize Trail. Or to Botlierskop.
What is Pinnacle Point?
A group of caves in the cliffs six kilometres west of Mossel Bay where people lived between 170,000 and 40,000 years ago. The oldest evidence for the use of marine food and of ochre as a pigment is around 164,000 years old; the site has been UNESCO World Heritage since 2024. Visits are by guided tour only, through Point of Human Origins.
When is the best time for the sights in Mossel Bay?
For swimming at Santos Beach and in the tidal pool, December to March; for whales from the lighthouse and the St Blaize Trail, June to November. Museum, caves and Botlierskop work all year; the Christmas holidays are packed, and in winter you have the Point almost to yourself.