South Africa · Africa · southern hemisphere
Hermanus & the Whale Coast is at its best for wildlife in August to October. Good but not prime in July and November. Crowds peak in August and bottom out in June.
| J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wildlife | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 42 | 67 | 90 | 90 | 90 | 67 | 42 |
| Crowds |
Swipe the table sideways for the rest of the year.
Southern right whales arrive along this coast from June to calve and nurse in sheltered bays, and leave for the Southern Ocean by December
The first five months of the year, for whales. They are not here: they arrive from June and have gone by December.
The December and January school holidays, and the whale season from August to October
You do not need a boat: the whales are easily seen from the cliff path above the bay.
Many Garden Route tours from Cape Town stop here on their first day, on the way east to Knysna and Tsitsikamma.
0 is this destination’s own quietest month and 100 its busiest. The scale never compares one destination to another. Source: Wikipedia — Hermanus
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Most places have one or two months that are genuinely better — and a booking moment that comes a lot earlier than the trip. I’ll write when one of those is coming up. No schedule, no filler.
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