Hout Bay
Cape Town’s biggest tourism areas – boasting upmarket hotels and restaurants.
- Hout Bay (Wood Bay, after the extensive indigenous forests found there in the 1600’s) lies 20 kilometres from the V&A, at the end of the Twelve Apostles Mountain chain. It is a natural bay, and forms an ideal harbour for fishing vessels and leisure craft.
- Hout Bay is bordered by two striking geographical formations. To port, as you enter the Bay is the stunning Sentinel Peak, which looms over the rocks at its base. The local name of Hangberg, or ‘hanging mountain’ is derived from this effect. To starboard is the world-renowned Chapman’s Peak, which forms another steep shelf to the coastline.
- Hout Bay is unique in that it is completely surrounded by mountains. Three roads lead out of the valley; to the City along the coastal road, to Constantia and Newlands heading inland, and to Noordhoek and False Bay over Chapman’s Peak road.
- Hout Bay has one of the most active fishing communities in the country, and many of the residents in the Hangberg vicinity have ancestral ties to fishing stretching back generations.
- Hout Bay is one of Cape Town’s biggest tourism areas, and boasts upmarket hotels and restaurants. With mountains and sea in close attendance, a range of leisure activities are available, from high-energy indoor and outdoor markets to fishing charters and visits to a densely populated seal colony. The beach itself is sheltered and is ideal for families.
- Hout Bay hosts one of the world’s biggest surfing contests, in all senses of the word. The Red Bull Big Wave Africa surfing contest is held between May and August at Dungeons, an area on the ocean side of the Sentinel. With waves at times in excess of 8 metres, it is only for the experts in the business!
