Jacobs Bay, Western Cape

Peace & Quiet, Sand & Sea

Jacobs Bay can be found on a two kilometre stretch of coastline along the Cape West Coast, approximately and hour and a half’s drive from Cape Town. Although fairly isolated, it’s not far from its neighbouring seaside towns and is situated midway between Vredenberg and Saldanha Bay.

Unlike most of the West Coast villages, Jacobs Bay is young. There is only one restaurant and one tiny café and most of the roads are still gravel in this quiet hamlet. The purpose of the gravel roads is to keep the speed and pace of both traffic and life slow. Since its birth in the mid 1990’s the village has grown into a community of people all about preserving the traditional white-washed style buildings and natural coastline. Jacobs Bay is often referred to as “Namaqualand by the sea” because of its spring wildflower tapestry that meanders along the coastline.

Known for its abundance of Crayfish, Jacobs Bay is very popular with fishermen and of the seven little bays in the seaside village, Toothrock and Bamboesbaai are renowned for fishing as well as diving. The other bays each offer visitors something special as well, Kwaaibaai is popular for surfing and Smalbaai and Mauritzbaai are paradise for birdwatchers.

The village has become the perfect resort town for water sports enthusiasts as fishing, diving and boating are the towns’ main activities. For less active visitors there is always whale watching, bird watching and a few easy walking trails. The coastline has a peninsulas as well as rocky and sandy bays with cosy beaches, just perfect for swimming and lazing in the sunshine.

Jacobs Bay is the ideal holiday destination for those who love the outdoors and it has a range of accommodation on offer from quaint B&B’s and comfortable self-catering units to backpackers and camping facilities.

Places to Visit

Things to do and see

• Jacobs Bay Beach
• Hospital Bay Beach
• Tietiesbaai Beach
• West Coast Fossil Park
• Cape Columbine Nature Reserve
• West Coast National Park

Climate

Jacobs Bay receives most of its annual rainfall during the winter months.

Summer months, November to March will have average temperatures of between 15˚C and 30˚C.

Winter months, May to August will have average temperatures of between 6˚C and 16˚C.

Transport

There are daily flights into Cape Town International Airport. Jacobs Bay is approximately 150 km away along the R27. Car hire facilities are available at the Airport.

History

Jacobs Bay was founded as a small town on the farmland registered as 109 Jacobsbaai and the name was said to have evolved from Jacques Titius who was a French Colonial Trader in the West Coast at the time. TitiusStreet in Jacobs Bay was also named after him as is the area known as Tietiesbaai.

Some believed the story that and English King handed over a piece of land to a local resident named Jacob!

In the 1980’s Deon Meyer and Shaun Keegan bought up the choice seafront part of Jacobs Bay through their company, Kiron Holdings, and held onto it for future developments. The area spanned over 3  km of beautiful coastline. Nic and Marie Tredoux returned to Jacobs Bay, their place of birth, to retire and they bought the remainder of the area through their company Forellendam and together with Kiron Holdings the West Coast village was born.

A combined development between the two Companies kicked off in 1992 using 75 stands from the Kiron owned land and 140 stands of the Forellendam land.