Hostels in Cape St. Francis, South Africa

Cape St. Francis, South Africa, is a small village on the tip of a headland in Eastern Cape. It is about thirty kilometers south of the N2 highway, passing through Humansdorp, the main transport hub for this area. Cape St. Francis is home to no less than five nature reserves and is very popular with experienced surfers due to the year-round swells.

The area around Cape St. Francis and this stretch of coast is known for its wide variety of flora, particularly the Fynbos, which grows on the dunes. There are around nine thousand different species of plant here, seventy percent of which are endemic.

This is a region that rewards those who get out and walk the trails; there are around a dozen that can be interlinked to make longer overnight hikes. The most popular walks around Cape St. Francis include the nine-kilometer Shark Point Walk that passes the lighthouse and the Genesis yacht wreck, the six-kilometer Blowhole Hike through the Irma Booysen Flora Reserve, and the Bay To Bay hike of more than seven kilometers from Cape St. Francis to St. Francis Bay along the shoreline and through lush Fynbos.

Cape St. Francis Nature Reserve has a number of shorter trails via Seal and Shark Points. While on any of these walking trails, keep a lookout for bottlenose and common dolphins, great white and mako sharks and humpback and southern right whales, particularly during the June-to-July sardine run and the later August-to-November migration. Where the walking trail takes the beach route, look out for shells -- there is a wide variety that gets washed up here. This area is also home to the endangered African black oystercatcher.

There is a backpackers’ guesthouse in Cape St. Francis, but this is not a hostel in Cape St. Francis, South Africa, as it does not offer backpacker dorm beds. The nearest genuine backpacker hostel to Cape St. Francis is eight kilometers up the road at St. Francis Bay. The helpful hostel in St. Francis Bay has a lot of information on the walking trails and a good map of the area, and there are also two tourist information offices. The hostel can also organize guided hikes, especially if you want to do one of the overnight walks.