West Coast

The West Coast Region, located along the South-West Coast of South Africa, skirts the Atlantic ocean from Bloubergstrand in the Cape Metropolitan Area in the south, to the provincial border in Namaqualand in the north, all within the Western Cape. It is a remote strip of land and famous for its spectacular fields of flowers in the Spring, west coast hospitality, wild and desolate coastline, freezing cold water, peace and tranquility.

Regions

Swartland The inland southern region of the West Coast.

Towns

• 1 Bitterfontein — a quiet village on the road to Namibia
• 2 Langebaan — a fishing, holiday and retirement village on the beautiful Langebaan Lagoon
• 3 Paternoster — a small, traditional fishing village turned holiday destination
• 4 Saldanha — a paradise for the watersport enthusiast
• 5 Wupperthal — a village near the stunning Cederberg mountain range and the Cederberg Wilderness Nature Reserve. Mostly destroyed by fire in 2018
• 6 Yzerfontein — a fishing village known for its west coast hospitality, long beach, spring flowers and beautiful views

Other destinations

Diepkloof Rock Shelter

• 1 Dassen Island — an island and nature reserve in front of Yzerfontein, home to tens of thousands of African Penguins
• 2 West Coast National Park
• 3 Diepkloof Rock Shelter - a rock shelter with some of the earliest usage of symbols by humans: engraved patterns on ostrich eggshells, about 60,000 years old. One of three components of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "The Emergence of Modern Human Behaviour: The Pleistocene Occupation Sites of South Africa".

Get in

By car

There are two main routes north from Cape Town to the West Coast area:

• The R27 along the coast (the West Coast Road) via Langebaan, Vredenburg and Eland's Bay.
• The N7 national road, which is inland via Malmesbury and Clanwilliam.

Get around

You can explore the beauty of the West Coast by hiring a car from one of the many car rental companies operating nationally in South Africa.

See

• The flowering of the wild flowers in spring. The landscape will be covered with beautiful flowers wherever you look.