Hermanus Whale Watching Day Trip from Cape Town
Description
This circular tour takes you over a mountain pass to the seaside town of Hermanus. This town, nestled between mountains and the sea is not only very beautiful but offers some of the best shore-based whale watching opportunities in the world (July – November). Close sightings of the Southern Right whale are likely. En route we are treated to a delicious wine tasting at a family-owned wine estate. On a Sunday, a visit to the Stony Point Penguin Colony will be included instead of a wine tasting, to have a look at a unique colony of African penguins (time permitting) before returning to Cape Town in the afternoon.
Tour Options
Itinerary
2020 Season - Enjoy a wine tasting at Bouchard Finlayson, a boutique winery in Hermanus dedicated to the making of Pinot noir, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc wines.
Highlights
What's included
Pickup Locations & Times
Should your Hotel not be listed, please contact us so we can confirm if we would be able to pick up and drop off from your hotel. Should guests meet at the starting point, guests are to contact us 24 hours prior to departure in order ffor us to provide collection time.
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Not recommended for travelers with spinal injuries
- Not recommended for pregnant travelers
- Not recommended for travelers with poor cardiovascular health
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- A minimum of 2 adults per booking is required
- Seasonal: the tour runs from July - November only
- Tour Departs Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays only
- Wine Estate is closed on Sundays. A stop at Stoney Point penguin colony will be included instead on Sundays.
- If guests are making their own way to a listed pick-up point, they need to allow sufficient travelling time (ie... traffic delays etc...) in order to arrive at the pickup point in time for collection.
- Should guests not arrive by the scheduled departure time, the tour will depart and no refunds will be given.
- It is compulsory that guests contact us 48 hours prior to tour departure to re-confirm pick up and drop off details. Should clients not make contact with us by 48 hours prior to travel date, the booking will automatically be cancelled.
- It is compulsory that guests contact us 48 hours prior to tour departure to re-confirm that they will still be travelling on the tour. Should clients not make contact with us by 48 hours prior to travel date, the booking will automatically be cancelled.
- When more than one person is travelling – we require names and last names of all guests travelling (reason being if tour booking is made with one person and the hotel reservation is made under another, we will be informed by the hotel that there ais nobody by that name at the hotel which will result in delays and could cause the guests to miss the tour).
Reviews(29)
The tour was amazing and the guide as well but when I booked the tour it said it was with a wine tasting and ticket entry as well and the day of the tour we didn’t do it and the guide was not told that was the tour we booked.
Good Afternoon Thank you for your feedback received. We are so sorry that you were disappointed with your Full day Hermanus Tour. We will pass on your feedback onto management.
Hermanus and the whale watching were amazing definitely worth doing. It would have been nice to have a little more time in Hermanus itself as the addition of the boat trip meant that we struggled for time. Jean our guide was great and made a booking for lunch in a lovely restaurant.
Good Morning Thank you for taking the time to provide us with your feedback. We are pleased to hear you had an amazing day.
Our tour guide, Armoy Olivier, was absolutely fabulous. He talked with the locals about best places to see the whales and made sure we had a wonderful day. I recommend you contact him about any trip you want to take.
Good Afternoon Thank you for taking the time and providing us with your feedback. We are thrilled to hear you enjoyed your Hermanus Tour with the Guide Armoy.
We had a driver rather than a guide. He did the minimal effort to explain and even mentioned “I appreciate you talking among yourselves”
Hi there, Thank you for taking the time and provide us with your feedback. We are very disappointed to learn of your experience with the guide. We are investigating the matter and will take the required remedial action. We apologize for the less than satisfactory experience.
A full day tour that brought us to many scenic places along the coast, with a 2hour boat ride out to catch the whales basking in the sun, followed by a yummy lunch in a quaint village. A perfect day!
<p>I booked the Full day whale watching in Hermanus trip from Cape Town. Not up to the usual Viator standards, by far. <br/> The tour as advertised in the UK is not what we got. We were not taken to the cliff top walk we were given restricted time in the town, which had to include lunch we did visit / tour an industrial estate we were taken to a hill top overlooking the town, but miles from the coastal pass. To see the whales, we had to take the boat trip, which was expensive, and many Japanese tourists found it much too rough. There was no time to visit the penguins, or the Nature Reserve, or the botanical Gardens but time was made to visit a winery.</p> <p>Conclusions - The whales were an exciting experience, but I would not recommend this particular trip to anyone.</p>
<p>The trip was very beautiful, passing through amazing landscapes. The guide Rodney was knowledgeable, though not a very good listener. Nevertheless, he made sure we got the best spots for each activity. We saw Whales and Penguins. Wine tasting was also done, though in short.</p>
<p>It was disappointing. We didnt feel the guide wanted to make a nice trip like I felt with other guides in South Africa.<br/> We spent only 10min in Hermanus, they guide wanted to do only a drive through!! and the town was nice enough to have been there more time.<br/> The boat was too expensive for its real duration and we were not informed about it, we felt the guide was more interested on her commission instead of informing properly the boat was 700ZAR, around 50, it was almost 2 hours but more than 1h was spent going to the whales, and after the boat we lost 1h in the harbor that could have been spent in Hermanus.<br/> Also, we didnt do the wine tasting, she said it was closed! We were given a bottle of wine, we didnt want a free bottle of wine, we wanted the experience of knowing more about South African wines!<br/> Hermanus is a nice place, the tour was not a nice experience.</p>
<p>A fantastic trip, a great driver/guide who was informative and amusing. Wonderful scenery, I managed to go out on a boat and had super views of the whales. Probably one of the best day trips I've done.</p>
<p>Tour was over all great, only irritant was that the boat was mega crowded and it made it hard to get a good viewing spot.</p>
