Just an hour's drive (120 kilometres) from Cape Town on the highway to Langebaan lies West Coast National Park. Its 28,000 hectares of protected islands and pristine golden beaches are home to thousands of nesting seabirds. It is suitable for holidays with family or friends.
West Coast National Park was established in 1985 to conserve Langebaan Lagoon and the surrounding area, including the Saldanha Bay Islands. The area in which the park is located, stretching from Iserfontein to Langebaan, is extremely rich in fossils. There are salt marshes and wetlands, coastal dune fields and calcareous soils. Saldanha Bay Island's nesting seabird populations inhabit its granite cliffs and sandy coastal shores.
A day is not enough to explore the park, you can spend a weekend here or a few days in beautiful hotel rooms. On these days, you can enjoy a relaxing holiday spent on the beach at Kraalbaai with family or friends. You can also go water skiing, snorkelling, diving, fishing or boating. At night, you can admire the scenery in the open sea by kayak. The shore of Langebaan Lagoon is also an ideal place for avid kiteboarders.
From August to September, during the spring bloom, you can visit Postberg with its unique multi-coloured tapestry of diverse flowering endemics. The park is home to over two hundred turtles, ostriches, flamingos, gazelles, zebras, scorpions and if you are lucky, even snakes. From August to November, southern right whales can be seen at Tsaarsbank. Throughout the year, West Coast National Park offers birdwatching in a variety of habitats. The park is one of South Africa's favourite destinations for birdwatchers.
The Geelbek Centre, conveniently located at the southern end of the lagoon, offers visitors refreshments, souvenirs and information on the cultural history of the park. The centre's restaurant, housed in a building dating back to 1744, will prepare traditional dishes for visitors. The restaurant also offers the best local wines. Conferences and weddings are often held here.
The Geelbek centre has stables - here you can ride a horse on specially prepared trails 30 km long. These trails are also suitable for cyclists and mountain biking enthusiasts.
