Mossel Bay

Cruise ships dock close to the center of town. Larger ships often will tender you ashore.

Mossel Bay is a small harbor town situated on the Garden Route in the Province of South Africa. A favorite coastal and holiday destination, it has over the years developed into a town of unhurried hospitality, complementing the natural beauty and rich cultural history of the District of Eden.

Mossel Bay's main attraction is the Bartholomeu Dias Museum Complex. It comprises most of the surviving old buildings, the spring from which Dias replenished his fresh water supply and the imposing post office tree. This huge milkwood tree served passing sea captains as a convenient message center in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Visitors still can deposit letters here in a small postbox next to the tree, as long as it is nothing urgent.

You can easily walk around the city center, but taking a car to some of the outside destinations or restaurants is favorable.

The renowned Garden Route, stretching from Mossel Bay to around Storms River Mouth, is a very attractive part of South Africa's coastline. The name can be misleading to Europeans who come to the region expecting lush flowering gardens, which are in fact dense forests incorporating fynbos and hardwood trees. The Garden Route offers not only sea, sun & sand, but also a variety of activities ranging from whale watching and sea kayaking to forest canopy walks and bungee jumping for those people looking for adrenaline producing activities.

Mossel Bay has a few one-stop shopping malls offering a variety of boutiques, specialty and curio shops. At the Model Shipyard visitors can tour the factory and see how ship models are created. These hand made models can be purchased and shipped via DHL anywhere in the world.

The currency is the Rand (ZAR) Automated teller machines (ATMs), linked to all major international networks, are available throughout the country. It is best to use only ATMs that are inside a mall or other building. Always be careful to make sure no one is watching you enter your PIN, and be vigilant about scams (e.g. machines that seem to eat your card and won't give it back after you enter the PIN).

Most retail stores accept credit cards.

South Africa has 11 official languages. Most people other than rural black Africans speak English, although not many as a first language. Afrikaans is also widely-spoken, especially by the white and colored population.

Shopping hours Mon-Fri 0900-1700, Sat 0900-1400, although there is an increasing trend to open later and all weekend in major tourist spots. Shopping malls often stay open til' 9PM.