The Town
Mossel Bay's main urban attraction is the Bartholomeu Dias Museum Complex , housed in a collection of historic buildings well-integrated into the small town centre, all near the tourist bureau and within a couple of minutes' walk of each other. The highlight is the Maritime Museum (Mon-Fri 9am-4.45pm, Sat & Sun 10am-4pm; R3 or R10 including entrance to caravel), a spiral gallery with displays on the history of European, principally Portuguese, seafaring, arranged around a full-size replica of Dias' original caravel. The ship was built in Portugal and sailed from Lisbon to Mossel Bay in 1987 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Dias' historic journey. You can't fail to be awed by the idea of the original mariners setting out on the high seas into terra incognita on such a small vessel - particularly as the crew were accommodated above deck with only a sailcloth for protection against the elements.

The one Mossel Bay attraction that most South Africans have heard of is the Post Office Tree , just outside the Maritime Museum. Sixteenth-century mariners used to leave messages for passing ships in an old boot under a milkwood tree somewhere around here, and the plaque claims that "this may well" be the same tree. You can post mail here in a large, boot-shaped letterbox and have it stamped with a special postmark.

Of the remaining exhibitions, the Shell Museum and Aquarium (Mon-Fri 9am-4.45pm, Sat & Sun 10am-4pm; donation) next to the Post Office Tree is the only one worth taking time to visit. This is your chance to see some of the beautiful shells found off the South African coast, as well as specimens from around the world. The fascinating displays of living shellfish include cowries with their inhabitants still at home.

A short walk north down the hill from the Maritime Museum gets you to Santos Beach , the main town strand, and purportedly the only north-facing beach in South Africa - which gives it exceptionally long sunny afternoons. Adjacent to the small town harbour, the beach provides some of the finest swimming along the Garden Route, with uncharacteristically gentle surf, small waves and a perfect depth for practising your crawl.

East of the harbour, the coast bulges south towards the Point , which has several restaurants and a popular bar/restaurant with a deck at the ocean's edge, from which you may see dolphins cruising past, as well as a surreal five-hundred-metre rocky channel known as the aquarium, which is used as a natural tidal pool . Adjacent to this, the Department of Marine and Coastal Management has installed an Aquarium (Mon-Fri 9am-1pm & 2-4.30pm, Sat & Sun 9am-1pm; donation) under Tidals pub, which showcases local lobsters, crabs and fish found off this coast in a handful of small tanks, as well as a pair of Amazon piranhas.

A couple of hundred metres to the south at the top of some cliffs, the St Blaize Lighthouse , built in 1864, is still in use as a beacon to ships. Below it, the Cape St Blaize Cave , is both a marvellous lookout point and a significant archeological site. A boardwalk leads through the cave past three information panels describing the history of the interpretation of the cave as well as the modern understanding of it. In 1801 Sir John Barrow insisted that shells found at the site had been brought by seagulls, while others argued that they were relics of human habitation. It turned out that Barrow's opponents were right, but it wasn't till 1888 that excavations uncovered stone tools and showed that people had been using the cave for something close on a 100,000 years. The path leading up to the cave continues onto the Cape St Blaize Trail.