Seal swimming in Plettenberg Bay or Cape Town?

Both places have large Cape fur seal colonies, and the right choice mostly depends on your route: Hout Bay if you are staying in Cape Town, Plettenberg Bay if you are travelling the Garden Route. The main differences are water temperature, minimum age, shark season and how each place has responded to the seal rabies outbreak.

We operate in Plettenberg Bay, so we have an obvious interest here. We have described Hout Bay from what Cape Town operators publish about their own trips, and we suggest you check their current details before you book.

Side by side

Feature	Robberg, Plettenberg Bay	Duiker Island, Hout Bay
Where	Garden Route, about 520 km from Cape Town	Cape Peninsula, roughly 20 to 40 minutes' drive from the city centre
Colony	Several thousand seals on a mainland peninsula	About 5,000 seals on a small rocky island
Typical sea temperature	About 16°C to 22°C	About 10°C to 15°C
Boat ride	Beach launch from Central Beach, then along the coast	A short ride from Hout Bay harbour
Time in the water	Up to about 30 minutes	Traditionally 40 to 60 minutes, now often less
Whole outing	About 1.5 hours	About 2.5 to 4 hours
Minimum age to snorkel	From 6 years	Usually 10 years
Swimming ability	No experience needed	Operators generally ask that you can swim
Large sharks	Present in winter, no swimming in June and July	Operators report no great white sightings on their trips
Since the rabies outbreak	Swims continue at the colony, with extra precautions	Several operators have moved the snorkel away from the colony

Water temperature and wetsuits

This is the difference you will feel first. Hout Bay is on the cold Atlantic side of the Cape Peninsula, and operators there list water of roughly 10°C to 15°C. They supply thick wetsuits, typically 5 mm with a hood, and they need to.

Plettenberg Bay is on the warmer south coast. The sea usually averages between about 16°C and 22°C through the year, and it is warmest from January to March. You still wear a wetsuit, but the cold is less of a factor.

If you feel the cold or you are bringing children, that matters. If you are happy in cold water, it may not.

The setting

Duiker Island is a small rocky island a short boat ride from Hout Bay harbour, below the mountains of the Cape Peninsula. The water around it is shallow and thick with kelp. Snorkelling there means a kelp forest as well as seals, and operators describe small endemic catsharks living among the kelp.

Robberg is a peninsula inside a nature reserve and Marine Protected Area. The boat launches off the beach and follows the coast to the colony, where the seals haul out on the rocks below the cliffs. Here the focus is on the seals and the peninsula itself.

Both are good places to see seals. They simply look different.

Sharks

At Robberg, sharks are naturally present around the colony in winter. We stop swimming in June and July, and in May, August and September spotters on the mountain watch for sharks and alert the boats.

At Duiker Island, operators report that no great white sharks have been seen on their snorkelling trips, and they point to the shallow water and kelp as the reason. That is a real advantage for Hout Bay.

Hout Bay has its own seasonal limit. The island sits in open Atlantic swell, and Cape Town travel guides note that winter trips are often cancelled because of rough seas.

Rabies and how each place has responded

Rabies was confirmed in Cape fur seals in 2024, and cases have been found along the coast, including around Cape Town and in Plettenberg Bay. Neither place is free of it.

The two places have responded in different ways:

• Hout Bay: several operators say they no longer snorkel at the seal colony. Their trips now combine kelp forest snorkelling in other spots with seal viewing from the boat.
• Plettenberg Bay: we still swim at the colony. We work with the Department of Environmental Affairs and CapeNature, have spotters watching for unusual seal behaviour, keep guides close in the water, carry first aid supplies for bites and have slightly reduced the time in the water.

Both approaches are reasonable. One removes the contact, and the other manages it. If you would rather not be in the water with seals at all, you can watch from the boat in either place. In Plett that is our seal viewing trip.

Our guide to whether swimming with seals is safe goes through the risks in detail.

Children and nervous swimmers

Hout Bay operators usually set the minimum snorkelling age at 10 and ask that guests can swim. With colder water and longer trips, that makes sense.

In Plett the swim suits children from 6 years and you need no experience. The wetsuit keeps you buoyant, flotation aids are available on request and the guide is in the water the whole time. See swimming with seals with children.

Fitting it into your trip

Hout Bay is the easy one if Cape Town is your base. It is a short drive from the city, and the trip fits into half a day.

Plettenberg Bay is about 520 km from Cape Town, roughly six hours by road. Nobody should make that drive for a seal swim alone. It makes sense as part of a Garden Route trip, where there are plenty of other things to do in Plettenberg Bay.

Which one to choose

Choose Hout Bay if:

• you are staying in Cape Town and not travelling east
• you want to snorkel in a kelp forest
• cold water doesn't put you off
• you are visiting in June or July, when our swim is paused

Choose Plettenberg Bay if:

• you are travelling the Garden Route
• you want warmer water
• you have children between 6 and 10, or nervous swimmers
• you want to be in the water at the colony itself

If your route covers both, there is no reason not to do both. They are different trips. Details and booking for ours are on the swim with seals page.