Wild Coast Holidays

The Wild Coast is South Africa’s finest coastline. The coast and rural hinterland are very undeveloped and rich in flora, marine and bird life. Before 1994, this was rural Transkei, a Xhosa homeland, and its rolling hills are studded with the turquoise thatched kraals of the inhabitants.

It’s a place where ancient customs and traditions remain very much alive. It is a very different experience from touring the Garden Route; this feels like black Africa. It’s a region which has produced several of modern South Africa’s finest leaders: men like Walter Sisulu, Goven Mbeki, and his son, Thabo, and Nelson Mandela himself, grew up and went to school in the tiny villages of the Transkei.

This is where South Africans go for beach holidays, and you won’t find many international travellers. It’s a bit out of the way. Consequently, the hotels offer excellent value, with fresh seafood meals included in the price. However, please don’t come looking for all the luxurious bits-and-pieces you get on the Garden Route; there are no designer toiletries, no waffle bath robes, no minibars, and the satellites that power the Wild Coast televisions seem to have left the solar system altogether.  These hotels like to keep their prices down because they have a loyal and regular clientele and people come for the landscape and the great outdoors rather than the luxuries.

Walk the Wild Coast

The Wild Coast is a paradise for walkers, and our escorted walks deserve to be more popular than they are. The scenery is stunning. You walk on cliff tops, along beaches and even across rivers. Your luggage is transported. You can choose a walk lasting from one day long to five and the average distance is only about 13 km per day.

We can arrange all kinds of mobile adventure-holidays on the Wild Coast, for active people and for families. Please ask for details.

When to go

West of KwaZulu Natal and east of the Cape, the Wild Coast has slightly different weather. April to September is normally the drier period, with clear sunny days and cool nights. May is considered to be one of the best months. August and September can be windy. October and November are the rainier months. That being said, the weather is not as predictable as it was in the past.

It is very hard to book a room in any of these hotels over the Chistmas/New Year and Easter periods, because the regular South African guests return year after year.