Things to do in Mossel Bay

Seven o’clock at the Point. Three surfers stand at the railing above the tidal pool watching the Outer Pool, where the sets come in in even lines. Behind the lighthouse a boat leaves the harbour for Seal Island, the cages lashed down on deck. Nobody says anything. In Mossel Bay almost everything starts at the harbour or at the Point, and the best time for it is the morning, before the wind arrives. Here is what you can do in the water, on the sand and above the bay, and what it costs.

Shark cage diving off Seal Island: the honest version

White Shark Africa has run out to the sharks from the harbour since 1995. The target is in sight: Seal Island, ten minutes out, a rock shelf with a colony of more than 3,000 Cape fur seals. For decades that was the great whites’ laid table, all year round. The cage hangs off the side of the boat, you climb in wearing a wetsuit, your head usually stays above water, and the crew works with bait and a seal decoy.

And then the truth you need before you book. Since 2021 and 2022 great whites off Mossel Bay have declined sharply, and nobody can promise you a sighting. The reason is orcas, which hunt great whites along this south coast; in May 2022 a drone filmed one such attack in the bay. One operator reported fewer than a handful of sightings between April and December 2023, as National Geographic reported in July 2025.

What does that mean for you? If you travel for the one photograph, a fin next to the cage, you may go home disappointed. If you take the trip as a morning on the water, with seals, birds and the bay seen from outside, you will get that for certain. Ask the operator when a great white was last at the boat, and have them tell you what applies if the trip finds nothing. White Shark Africa gives the price on its own website; check it there.

Our tipDo not book the cage as the reason for the trip; book it as a bonus. Put it on your first morning. If wind or missing sharks cancel it, the hour around Seal Island with Aquamarine @ Sea is your plan B, and the seals are always there.

Whales: June to November, mostly without a boat

From June to November southern right whales come into the bay to calve and raise their young in sheltered water. Humpbacks join them, on the way up in May and June and on the way back between November and January. Bryde’s whales stay all year but keep their distance. The best window is July to October.

You need no boat for this. At the Point you stand on the rock shelves and watch the blows against the dark water, and with luck a calf beside its mother. The St Blaize Trail runs high above the coast and gives you the wide view you never get from the shore. And at Dana Bay, where the red cliffs drop into the bay, the animals sometimes lie close in.

Boat trips run from the harbour under licence, usually from July to October or November depending on how long the animals stay. No boat may approach whales without a permit, which is why there are only a few operators. The price is on the operator’s website, worth checking. If you simply want to get out on the water, take the hour around Seal Island; that runs all year, and in season a whale may cross your path.

Seal Island, sunset, fishing: the hour on the water

Aquamarine @ Sea, which used to trade as Romonza, leaves from the harbour and circles Seal Island in an hour, with up to 45 people on board the schooner. 400 rand per person (August 2026); the website gives no child rate, so ask. On request the boat anchors for a quarter of an hour off Santos Beach on the way back. The seals lie on the rocks as though dropped there. You smell them before you see them.

The same operator runs two hours into the sunset in the evening, 500 rand per person (August 2026), and fishing trips: four and a half hours at sea, up to twelve people, 750 rand per person. For anglers that is the simplest way out. For everybody else, half a day with dinner in prospect.

Seal Island

400 randone hour from the harbour, Aquamarine @ Sea (August 2026)

Sandboarding

450 randthree hours on the Dragon Dune (August 2026)

Tandem skydive

from 4,050 randout of 10,000 feet, Skydive Mossel Bay (August 2026)

Game drive

890 randthree hours at Botlierskop (rate period to September 2026)

Whale season

June to Novemberbest between July and October

Great whites

rare since 2021/22orcas, no guarantee of a sighting

Surfing: the Point and its two pools

The Point is the break Mossel Bay is known for in South Africa. The wave breaks right along the rock shelves below the lighthouse and splits into two sections: the Outer Pool further out, fast and hollow, for people who know what they are doing; the Inner Pool inside, softer and more forgiving. In a big swell the two run into each other, and the locals have been out there since first light. A little further around the headland lies Ding Dangs, the fallback for days when the Point is too big or too crowded.

Beginners go to Santos Beach. The bay sits in the lee of the headland, the waves are small and run onto sand, and nobody drops in on you. The water is around 16 degrees in winter and a good 20 in high summer, so a wetsuit belongs here all year. There are surf schools and board hire in town; ask at your guest house who is teaching at the moment.

Sandboarding on the Dragon Dune

You meet at the Engen 1-Stop on the N2 towards Cape Town, daily at nine, with afternoons on request (August 2026). From there you drive in convoy to a private property with three dunes in a row: the Baby Dune with a 100 metre run to start, the Big-Boy Dune with 180 metres and the Dragon Dune with 350, which gives the place its name. You ride standing, sitting or on your stomach. On the belly board the operator says you reach up to 90 kilometres an hour.

Allow three hours including the climbs; there is no lift, and the sand underfoot is the real effort. Visitors from abroad pay 450 rand, locals 400 rand, spectators 100 rand, and a transfer for backpackers costs 200 rand (August 2026). Bring sunscreen and water. The board is included.

On foot: the St Blaize Trail and the Oystercatcher Trail

The St Blaize Trail starts at the Cape St Blaize lighthouse and follows the cliff coast west to Dana Bay, always along the top edge, fynbos on one side, surf on the other. Allow a good half day for the whole route; local operators put it at around 13 kilometres, worth confirming before you set off. There is no shade. You carry your own water, and in whale season you stop every few hundred metres. If you do not want the whole thing, walk to the first bay and back.

The Oystercatcher Trail is the larger version: 46 kilometres over three walking days from the Gouritz mouth to Mossel Bay, guided, with four nights, full board and transfers to the start points. It has run since 2002. Shorter versions of 28 kilometres or a day and a half are also on the programme, along with day walks on the St Blaize and along the coast at Vleesbaai. Prices are not on the website, so ask for them; the 2026 and 2027 dates are there.

Skydiving over the bay

Skydive Mossel Bay jumps from Aalwyndal airfield, a few minutes inland from the centre. The tandem jump goes from 10,000 feet for 4,050 rand, from 14,000 feet for 5,300 rand or, depending on the season, from 16,000 feet for 7,600 rand (August 2026, worth checking before you book). Free fall lasts between 35 and 60 seconds. Video and photographs from the tandem master’s hand camera cost 1,050 rand extra.

You can jump if you are at least twelve years old and 135 centimetres tall; men up to 100 kilos, women up to 90 (August 2026). Adults and children pay the same. They operate seven days a week between sunrise and sunset when the weather allows, and below you lie the bay, the Point and, on a clear day, the Outeniqua mountains.

Golf: three courses, three characters

Mossel Bay Golf Club has played since 1905, the present course dates from 1924, and Danie Obermeyer redesigned it in 1999 and 2000. A town course with a view over the bay. Pinnacle Point is the opposite: fairways on the cliffs west of town, several holes directly above the surf, every shot in the wind. Add Oubaai at Herolds Bay, a good half hour east. Golfers on the Garden Route have it on their list anyway. Green fees are on the clubs’ websites, with seasonal and visitor rates; check them before you travel.

Safari: half an hour inland

Botlierskop lies halfway between Mossel Bay and George, 6,000 hectares of fynbos and river valley with free ranging Big Five. The guided game drive runs three hours, leaving at nine or at one, 890 rand for adults and 445 rand for children from three; the three and a half hour sundowner drive costs 1,440 rand and the two hour horseback safari 1,120 rand (rate period October 2025 to September 2026, August 2026). A new list applies from October 2026.

Indalu, 30 kilometres west and two kilometres off the N2, puts the elephants at the centre: an hour to ninety minutes walking alongside the animals, or a shorter encounter, plus game drives with four of the Big Five. The Garden Route Game Lodge near Albertinia, a good half hour west, is the stop for anyone arriving from Cape Town: lion, white rhino, giraffe, elephant, buffalo and cheetah. Both give their prices on their own websites, worth checking.

Two days, one plan

Day one belongs to the water. Out to Seal Island from the harbour in the morning, or into the cage if you accept the risk of an empty bay; then the Point with the tidal pool and the surfers, and in the afternoon the lighthouse and the first stretch of the St Blaize Trail. Day two belongs to sand and height: meet at nine at the Engen station for the Dragon Dune, back around midday, and if you have adrenaline left, drive out to Aalwyndal for the tandem jump. With three days, put Botlierskop in between. In whale season from June to November, one morning at the Point is enough to understand why so many people stay longer.