Linger a while in Lambert's Bay

Crayfish

Lambert’s Bay star­ted out as a small and humble fish­ing vil­lage, much like all the other fish­ing vil­lages along the Cape West Coast. Today, how­ever it is known as the Diamond of the West Coast and one of the major tour­ist des­tin­a­tions year-round because of the mod­er­ate climate.

Here Seafood is king. In all its won­drous vari­ety, the plen­ti­ful sea­food has made the town into the pros­per­ous com­munity it is today.  Fisherman come from all over when the snoek (Cape Barracuda) run. This unique tast­ing fish is deli­cious slow-cooked on an open fire, basted with lemon juice and apricot jam ...

Lamberts Bay

The bay boasts long stretches of pristine white beaches per­fect for strolling along. It's also an inter­est­ing place to watch divers bring out their catch of cray­fish and per­lemoen (aba­lone) and just gen­er­ally soak up the peace. The two and half-hour trip from Cape Town is worth­while even if you do noth­ing else but come watch the dol­phins or the yearly vis­its by the Southern Right Whales from July to November.

Lambert’s Bay caters well to all the var­ied needs in accom­mod­a­tion that the influx of vis­it­ors require with an upmar­ket hotel and taste­ful gues­t­houses, hos­pit­able B&Bs, fully equipped self-catering flats and chalets and for the out­doors enthu­si­asts there are camp­ing and cara­van­ning facil­it­ies with all amen­it­ies (see West Coast Accommodation).

The Harbour

What I truly love about Lambert’s Bay is that they have made the change over from fish­ing vil­lage to thriv­ing tour­ist des­tin­a­tion without giv­ing up the char­ac­ter of the town. You have  pro­fes­sion­ally run tour­ist indus­tries of organ­ised boat trips to go seal and dol­phin watch­ing, the 4x4 trails, the yearly Crayfish Golf Classic tour­na­ment, the smoothly organ­ised hol­i­day pro­grams for vis­it­ors and the Lambert's Bay Crayfish Festival that bring Capetonians in their droves every year.

All this, yet the people of Lambert’s Bay have stayed humble, down to earth and totally com­munity ori­ent­ated. Sitting on the beach around a ‘swart drie-poot pot’ (heavy three-legged cast iron pot) as wait­ing for the cray­fish to cook; sur­roun­ded by sun and sea, good friends, good wine and nature at its best, one starts to under­stand just how valu­able this dia­mond really is.

Useful Links:
Lambert's Bay Attractions
Cape West Coast Attractions
Cape West Coast Accommodation
Things to Do in the Cape West Coast