Driving in Saldanha Bay, South Africa

The deep-water port of Saldanha Bay is located on the west coast of South Africa, looking out on the Atlantic Ocean. It's a magnet for watersports enthusiasts and there's also excellent access to nature reserves.

Saldanha is located on Saldanha Bay, just 140km north of Cape Town on the west coast. The bay was used for centuries as a sanctuary from stormy seas. Although there have been settlements and villages around the harbour for a long time, the area didn’t really take off until WWII, when a military base was established in the bay, which necessitated the piping of fresh water from the Berg River.

What to see in the Saldanha area?


Saldanha has much to offer the adventurous tourist who is interested in water-based activities such as fishing, boat trips, yachting, sea kayaking and shipwreck diving.

If, on the other hand, you don't have sea legs, then you might be more interested in the horse riding stables, the wagon rides or the hiking opportunities. The absolute best time to visit this area is in the South African spring when the countryside is in bloom with colourful flowers. Other areas of interest include Docs Cave, the World War II Coastal Cannon Battery and the French Huguenot Memorial.

Venturing out of town you'll find the West Coast National Park. This is especially good for bird watching and the Postberg section is open during the spring and is full of mammals. West Coast Fossil Park is located adjacent to the National Park - this is your chance to see some of the animals that used to frequent this part of the world. Hoedjieskoppie Nature Reserve is the ideal place for bird and dolphin spotting and to check out the stunning scenery, while the SAS Saldanha Nature Reserve is great for some Southern Right Whale watching.

Why not hire a car?


Saldanha/Vredenburg Airport serves a number of domestic flights to major cities in South Africa such as Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg. Cape Town is the nearest international airport.

The R27 connects you directly to Cape Town and the N7 passes through the West Coast area on its way up to Namibia.

The best way to get around Saldanha Bay and the surrounding area is by hiring a car. Public transport isn't great and you won't have the freedom to come and go as you wish. You can pick up your car rental at Saldanha/Vredenburg Airport or in the city Vredenburg, 13km north of Saldanha. Alternatively you could get a car in Cape Town so have a look at our Car Rental Cape Town page.

Maybe you've been to Saldanha Bay and have some travel tips you'd like to share. If so, or indeed if you have any queries about car rental in the area, just leave a message in the comment box below.

Comments

We really appreciate your comments. We reserve the right to moderate posted comments and may paraphrase individual entries. Opinions expressed here are not the opinions held by Novacarhire.com unless expressly stated.

There have been no comments made on this article. Why not be the first and add your own comment using the form below.

Leave a comment

Please complete the form below to submit a comment on this article. A valid email address is required to submit a comment though it will not be displayed on the site.

HTML has been disabled but if you wish to add any hyprlinks or text formating you can use any of the following codes: [B]bold text[/B], [I]italic text[/I], [U]underlined text[/U], [S]strike through text[/S], [URL]http://www.yourlink.com[/URL], [URL=http//www.yourlink.com]your text[/URL]

Before submitting this form, please type the color of the first character: