Travel to Jeffreys Bay

mainly servicing domestic tourism

Jeffreys Bay is located around 65 km west of Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa.

Widely known as “Jay Bay”, this place is generally considered to be the surfing capital of South Africa, with the main Supertubes Beach providing year-round action.

This place is a full-on resort town and in the South African holiday seasons it fills to bursting point with families from upcountry coming to stay in their second homes. The packed beaches are lined with surf shops and fast food outlets. It’s not particularly pretty, but there is quite a buzz.

At other times of year, Jeffreys Bay has that same timeless out of season quality that befalls most beach resorts, something of a ghost town, but the surf remains alluring and Jul-Oct whales can often be spotted from the shore.

On the rare occasions that we include the area in trips, it’s virtually always as part of a self-drive exploration, usually starting in Cape Town, heading east through the Winelands, the Little Karoo and the Garden Route, to overnight here before either heading on to the wildlife reserves of the Eastern Cape or ending at Port Elizabeth.

We are only asked to include Jeffreys Bay in trips relatively rarely, usually when guests specifically want to do a bit of surfing on the way through.

Otherwise guests tend to more often stay at St Francis Bay, which is a much quieter and prettier seafront settlement a little further to the southwest.

we more commonly include the nearby St Francis Bay