Simon's Town in South Africa - seaside accommodation, penguins, excursions

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Simon's Town in South Africa is a real gem, located relatively close to Cape Town. Here you can enjoy fantastic seaside accommodation, see penguins in the wild and take excursions to places like Godahoppsudden and charming Kalk Bay.

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Simon's Town in South Africa

Simon's Town is a beautiful and historic harbour town, which for more than 150 years was the main base for the British Navy in the South Atlantic. Today, South Africa has its own navy here, and it's also a popular holiday destination.

There are beautiful beaches, nice restaurants and shops, some small museums, opportunities for boat trips and shark cage diving, and a large colony of wild South African penguins.

Simon's Town is located about 45 kilometres south of Cape Town, on the road to Godahoppsudden.

Seafront accommodation in Simon's Town

You can discover Simon's Town on a day trip from Cape Town, but there's so much to see and do here that it might be worth spending a few nights on site. Alternatively, you can stay in relaxed Simon's Town for a longer period, and from here make excursions into Cape Town.

We booked a house, together with Peter's son Robin and his wife Alexandra, which is owned by friends of our friends, and which you can book via Airbnb: Seafront lux living and views. What a fantastic place!

When we arrived, we were "welcomed" by a bunch of baboons hanging on the wall. It gave a little taste of how close to nature and wildlife you are here.

The house is as close to the sea in Simon's Town as you can get, and you have a great view from the long balcony. The plot, which is in an elevated position, has everything from a swimming pool to a barbecue area.

The house is large and the living room offers a wonderfully relaxed environment, with large windows facing the sea. As soon as we got here, we changed any plans to have dinner at a restaurant in the evening. We wanted to hang out in the house as much as possible!

The kitchen, which is open-plan with the living room, is large and cosy.

There are three bedrooms, each with a double bed and a private bathroom. One of the rooms also has a sea view, so you can lie in bed and watch the waves.

We really enjoyed our days here, and Peter took every chance to sit or lie on the balcony, or in the living room with open windows. When you are not there, however, you should close them, so as not to be visited by curious baboons or cute "dassies" (rock hyrax).

Look closely at the picture below! Who do you see on the balcony, between the coffee table and the sofa? A curious little dassie peeking in!

Beaches and holiday life in Simon's Town

The beaches in Simon's Town are stunningly beautiful, with fine-grained sand and lovely rock formations. Although the water is a little cool, many people sunbathe and swim here.

Simon's Town is a popular holiday resort, and there are also plenty of shops and restaurants. We settled down one day for lunch at the Boulders Beach Hotel, where opted for a simple but very good Fish & Chips. The sign asking us to check for penguins under the car revealed how close we were to the penguin colony

Penguins at Boulders Beach in Simon's Town

Boulders Beach in Simons's Town is home to a colony of between 2,500 and 3,000 protected South African penguins. There is a lookout point, where you can watch them from a distance, and there are also opportunities for close encounters on the beach.

Boulders Beach is part of Table Mountain National Park, which means that there is an entrance fee to visit the beach. However, we were able to use our "Wild Card", which we bought at the visit to the Kruger Parkand we chose to go in at 4pm, an hour before closing.

The first part of the beach is mostly for bathing tourists, and to get to the penguins you have to go under and over some larger rocks. At certain times of the day, it can be even more challenging to get here, due to the tide.

And suddenly you see them! There are lots of penguins here, and they really are everywhere.

We kept our distance out of respect, but the penguins are probably quite used to humans and didn't seem to worry much about us. On the contrary, they sometimes chose to walk past us, right nearby.

We spent quite a long time just watching the penguins, hanging out on the rocks, bathing, walking in the sand, washing or frolicking. Fascinating!

On the way back we saw even more animals, in the form of "dassies", or rock hyraxes as they are apparently called in Swedish. These animals, as big as rabbits, look quite clumsy, but are incredibly agile when jumping among the rocks. The ones we saw here were also completely unconcerned about people. They were sitting or lying next to the footpath, and were not disturbed by us walking past.

Three excursions from Simon's Town

Simon's Town has a great location for excursions. Here are three really lovely and beautiful excursions that you can do starting from Simon's Town.

Excursion 1: Godahoppsudden

The Cape of Good Hope is a mythical headland located south-west of Cape Town. The cape is sometimes wrongly rumoured to be the southernmost cape in Africa, which Cape Agulhas is.

However, Godahoppsudden is the most south-westerly cape, and it has also been an important milestone for seafarers of the past. The Chinese rounded the headland in the early 15th century and the first European to pass here was the Portuguese Bartolemeu Diaz, who sailed past in 1488. A replica of his ship can be seen in Mossel Bay.

Today you can visit the old lighthouse at Cape Point, which was used between 1860 and 1919. A winding and beautiful walkway, with many viewpoints, leads up to the lighthouse.

After the visit to the old lighthouse, you can go to the most south-westerly point of Africa and on the way, if you are lucky, you can see wild ostriches. We saw a mother ostrich with her young, and in the distance we also saw the "common eland", which is a kind of antelope.

At the sign, which tells about the south-westernmost point, it is popular to take a photo. We had to queue for a few minutes for the photo, but it might be worth it!

Excursion 2: Kalk Bay and Muizenberg Beach

Another day we made an excursion to Kalk Bay and Muizenberg Beach. Kalk Bay is a fantastic charming seaside town, with dramatic scenery, a great fishing vibe and plenty of restaurants and shops. If you like browsing small boutiques selling clothes and antiques, then this is definitely the place for you.

If you take a walk down to the harbour, you can check out the fishing boats and the catches. You can almost be sure to see seals too. They like to stick around when it's time to clean the fish ...

We chose to have lunch at the charming restaurant Cape to Cuba. What a great place! The decorators have really gone all in here, and the Cuban atmosphere is felt everywhere in the walls.

We ordered a bunch of tapas, and even though we ordered less than recommended, we were very satisfied. It was delicious! On the veranda we had a view of the sea ... and the train track. There was an interesting interruption when a train suddenly chugged past in the middle of the idyll.

After the visit, we made a small excursion to Muizenberg Beach, where surfing is popular. Here we took photos of the incredibly charming bathhouses, which are located on the beach.

Excursion 3: Cape Town

Last but not least, you can make an excursion to lovely Cape Town. In Cape Town you can, for example, take the cable car up to Table Mountain, hike to the top of Lion's Head, see the colourful area of Bo-Kaap and visit nice restaurants in the Waterfront area. Here you can find all our tips for Cape Town:

Have you visited Simon's Town in South Africa?

Have you visited Simon's Town in South Africa? Have you seen penguins, here or anywhere else in the world?

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