Start from 28 curated places around Hermanus, ZA, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Creation Wines Restaurant
Hemel-en-Aarde valley restaurant doing 'The Story of Creation' — a seasonal multi-course pairing menu matching estate wines to fish, game and produce from the valley. The destination meal of the region.
Newton Johnson Vineyards Restaurant
Lunch-only valley restaurant attached to the Newton Johnson cellar, a single set menu and a long view down the upper Hemel-en-Aarde. Smaller and more intimate than Creation, equally good.
Trails & outdoors
Fernkloof Nature Reserve
1,800-hectare fynbos reserve on the mountainside above Hermanus — 60km of marked trails from 1km strolls to a six-hour summit. One of the best fynbos walks in the country and free.
Hermanus Cliff Path Walk
The town's defining walk — 12km of coast from New Harbour to Grotto Beach, paved most of the way, with a string of viewing benches and whale lookouts. Walk all of it or any 2km section.
Things to do
Southern Right Charters Whale-Watching Boat
Two-hour permitted whale-watching boat from New Harbour into Walker Bay, June-November. Southern Right Whales close enough to see callosities; humpbacks early in season.
Old Harbour Museum
Compact museum at the Old Harbour with the original wooden fishing boats, whale-history exhibits and the chamber where the whale-crier reports sightings to via radio. Small, focused, free.
Landmarks & sights
Hermanus Cliff Path
Twelve-kilometre paved-and-rocky coast path from New Harbour to Grotto Beach, lined with benches, interpretive boards and — in season — Southern Right Whales sometimes within five metres of the rocks. The town's defining outdoor asset.
Old Harbour Hermanus
Original 19th-century fishing harbour at the foot of the village, now a small open-air museum of beached wooden whalers and the iconic whale-crier blowing kelp horn in season. The classic Hermanus photograph.