St Francis Bay is a small Eastern Cape holiday town where the coast keeps changing character. One side is white thatched houses and canals on the Kromme River estuary; another is Port St Francis, a working squid harbour; farther out, Cape St Francis turns wilder, windier, and better for surf.
This is not a big-city beach resort, and that is the point. The best day mixes a canal or beach walk, lunch near the harbour, and the short drive to Seal Point Lighthouse, which has watched this rough section of coast since the 19th century.
Surfers know the area for Seal Point and the breaks around Cape St Francis, while walkers get fynbos, dunes, rock pools, and long views over the bay. St Francis Bay is close enough to Jeffreys Bay to combine the two, but it has a quieter identity of its own.