Safari to De Hoop

fabulous beaches and superb biodiversity

De Hoop Nature Reserve is located in the Whale Coast area of the Western Cape.

This wonderful 340 square kilometre coastal reserve, lying some 250 km east of Cape Town, is definitely the wilderness highlight of this part of the coast.

The reserve consists mainly of rare fynbos vegetation, with its myriad of 1500 rare and endemic plant species. There are also 86 mammal species including bonteboks, Cape mountain zebras, elands, baboons and caracals, plus over 260 bird species.

This is also the most aesthetically pleasing location from which to view whales from the shore Jul-Oct, although from a greater distance than other locations.

Activities on the De Hoop Nature Reserve include gentle vehicle safari, guided fynbos and inter-tidal nature walks, sand-boarding, cave tours, snorkelling, mountain-biking, coastal hiking and whale-watching (Jun-Oct).

We regularly recommend including 2-4 nights in De Hoop in trips, usually in combination with Cape Town and the Cape Winelands, which adds up to a really varied and high quality experience over 7-10 nights. This triangle also keeps the mileage down and gets you onto some very nice back roads, which can be much more attractive than flogging up and down the N2 coastal highway to the Garden Route.

The De Hoop area is much overlooked, but we love it and include it in trips relatively frequently. It works so much better in combination with Cape Town than the much more distant and touristy Garden Route.

The usual stay duration is 2-3 nights.

Getting there

De Hoop is accessed by road, usually as part of a self-drive triangle between Cape Town, Franschhoek in the Cape Winelands and here.

This routing is not only advantaged by being relatively short, but it also includes some particularly scenic drives. The drive between Franschhoek and De Hoop, with lunch in the sleepy village of McGregor is particularly lovely.

If you can approach De Hoop via the village of Malgas, you will have the added pleasure of using the quaint hand-pulled ferry.

Where to stay

In terms of accommodation, the stand-out option is Morukuru Ocean House, a fabulous retreat for private groups of up to ten guests. This is closely followed by the similarly upmarket Morukuru Beach Lodge and Lekkerwater Beach Lodge. There’s also a good range of much lower cost accommodation closer to the main Opstal farmstead.

the best coastal reserve in the Cape