Garden Route · Mossel Bay

Self-Catering Accommodation in Mossel Bay

Self-catering apartments and holiday homes around Santos Beach and the Point peninsula — the Garden Route's warmest winter town.

181 self-catering properties · Rated 9.2/10 on average · 158 Apartments · 16 Holiday homes · 6 Villas · 1 Aparthotel · Sleeps 2–9
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About Mossel Bay

Self-catering in Mossel Bay, Western Cape

Mossel Bay is the western gateway to the Garden Route — a working-harbour town on a north-facing bay that stays warmer, drier and sunnier through winter than anywhere else along the coast. Self-catering accommodation is the mainstay, and it tends to offer better value per square metre than the more polished towns further east. Most of it clusters on the peninsula between two very different beaches, with a second band of family stock along the resort coast to the west.

The Point is the town's heart — a rocky headland where the Cape St Blaize lighthouse stands above the surf and the St Blaize hiking trail runs fifteen kilometres along the cliffs to Dana Bay. Self-catering apartments and holiday homes here step up the slopes with views over the tidal pool and the break, a short walk from the Point's cluster of restaurants. Around the other side, Santos Beach is the sheltered swimming beach — reputedly one of the few south-facing-protected beaches in the country warm and calm enough to swim comfortably most of the year — with apartments and homes above it looking across the bay to the breakwater and harbour. Diaz Beach, longer and wider, runs west toward the surf schools and the caravan-park end of town.

Around the bay the coast turns family-holiday. Hartenbos, Little Brak River and Great Brak River are river-mouth resort villages with rows of self-catering holiday homes, gentle lagoons for children, and the easy, unfussy seaside-town feel that has drawn the same families back for generations — flatter, quieter and cheaper than the Point, and built squarely for a beach-and-braai week. Hartenbos and Great Brak River each have their own pages here.

Mossel Bay carries its history openly — the Bartolomeu Dias Museum Complex marks the first recorded European landing in South Africa in 1488, and includes the old Post Office Tree where sailors once left letters in a boot. Out in the bay, Seal Island's colony draws great whites, and cage-diving and shark-and-seal boat trips run from the harbour year-round. Because the water stays swimmable through winter and the self-catering is well-priced, Mossel Bay is often the best-value stay on the Garden Route in the June-to-August off-season, when the eastern towns turn cool and grey. December to February is full summer and the busiest stretch.

The neighbourhood

What these Mossel Bay listings are near

Aggregated across every property in the listings above. The more properties that name a place, the more central it is to this town.

  • 01
    Beach Santos Beach
    ≈ 17 min walk listed by 95 properties
  • 02
    Beach Diaz Beach
    ≈ 16 min walk listed by 53 properties
  • 03
    Beach Hartenbos Beach
    ≈ 43 min walk listed by 45 properties
  • 04
    Beach The Point Beach
    ≈ 23 min walk listed by 39 properties
  • 05
    Beach De Bakke Beach
    ≈ 35 min walk listed by 39 properties
  • 06
    Beach Pinnacle Point Beach
    ≈ 13 min walk listed by 24 properties
  • 07
    Beach 1st Beach
    ≈ 23 min walk listed by 2 properties
When to book

Best time to visit Mossel Bay

Year-round mild — June–August is surprisingly warm, December–February full summer. Great white shark cage diving runs all year.

Common questions

Mossel Bay self-catering FAQs

Where should I stay in Mossel Bay?
The Point has the best position — apartments and homes above the lighthouse and the surf, walking distance to restaurants and the St Blaize trail. Santos Beach suits you if you want the calm swimming beach at your door. For a quieter, cheaper family holiday, the resort villages west of town — Hartenbos and the Brak rivers — have rows of self-catering homes near gentle river-mouth lagoons.
Can you swim at Santos Beach year-round?
Largely, yes — Santos is a sheltered, north-facing swimming beach, and Mossel Bay's water stays comparatively warm through winter, which is a big part of why the town is the Garden Route's best cold-season base. Diaz Beach nearby is longer and more exposed, better for surfing and beach walks than calm swimming.
Can you cage-dive with great whites in Mossel Bay?
Yes. Boat trips run year-round from the harbour out to the seal colony at Seal Island, where great whites hunt; sightings are most reliable from April to September. Mossel Bay and Gansbaai further west are the two main South African cage-diving areas.
How does Mossel Bay compare to Plett?
More working-harbour and less polished, but that's the appeal — beachfront self-catering costs a fraction of the Plett equivalent, and the year-round warm, dry weather sets it apart, especially in winter.
Elsewhere on the Garden Route

Other self-catering directories