FIVE STAR GUIDES
Overberg Tour
Tour Overview
The Overberg is an often overlooked region, just south of the central Winelands and around a hour away from Cape Town. The coastal road, Clarence Drive, is arguably one of the most spectacular in the world with enormous escarpments from the nearby Koeberg Biosphere Reserve (also a UNESCO World Heritage Site) sweeping down to long sandy beaches and then out to False Bay where whales and dolphins can be seen playing in the surf.
On top of this, the beauty of the Harold Porter Botanical Garden and the delights of the penguin colony at Stoney Point often top the appeal of their more famous cousins Kirstenbosch and Boulders Beach in the eyes of many travellers. The Overberg also has a stunning range of wineries to be found on the Hemel en Aarde Valley and brims with history in the towns of Hermanus, Stanford and Arniston.
What To Expect
- Gordons Bay – a beautiful and very much underrated seaside town
- Clarence Drive (which connects Gordons Bay to Klienmond via Betty Bay) is a stunning coastal road equal in beauty to Chapmans Peak but longer, less busy and with more stop offs.
- Bettys Bay Beach with its many wild penguins is far nicer than its cousin Boulders Beach mainly because it takes much longer to get here and you can only really do it by private transport so there are far fewer tourists.
- The Kogelberg Biosphere is officially the world’s most complex biodiversity site by square kilometre and merits a whole day trip on its own.
- The Harold Porter Botanical Gardens which are small but no less impressive than their big sister Kirstenbosch and both run by SANBI to a very high standard.
- Hermanus itself which has transformed itself from an old whaling town into a vibrant retreat for Capetonians. You can do whale watching by boat, kayak or land-based here.
- The Hemel en Aarde Valley (the R320 which connects Hermanus to Caledon) is a delightful meander of world-class wine estates and food, and is far easier to navigate than the myriad vastness of Stellenbosch and Franschoek.
