Long Beach (Cape Town): It is the city's best walking beach and the best place to go horseback riding.  The beach is 4 kilometer long and almost equally wide. Even if you don’t have time to take a dip you can certainly take time off to admire the surf during your Chapman's Peak Drive

Clifton (Cape Town): A beautiful beach for the beautiful people, this beach is divided by large boulders into First, Second, Third, and Fourth beaches. It is only a few minutes drive from the city center. This beautiful beach is where the Cape Town’s beautiful people like to flock around. . It's also the most wind-free area in Cape Town--handy when the southeaster, known locally as the Cape Doctor, is driving one mad. Camps Bay and Llandudno are the other great Cape Town beaches. 

De Hoop Nature Reserve (Whale Coast, Western Cape): aquamarine sea, picture-perfect rock pools tall white dunes sliding into the sea, coves and evocative limestone outcrops, make this the most glorious beach in the Overberg, if not the entire Cape.

Noetzie (Garden Route, Western Cape): There are mini castles overlooking the beach and this adds to the charm of the sand stretch. Sometimes the sea is too wild and then you have a pleasant lagoon to take a dip.

Plettenberg Bay (Garden Route, Western Cape): The locals call it “Plet” and it has the best beaches on the Garden Route. There are some monstrous constructions overlooking the beach. But then one cant do anything about them. You can always head for Lookout for a view of the distant Outeniqua Mountains, and Robberg for whale watching.

Port St Johns (Wild Coast, Eastern Cape): Port St Johns is one of the most accessible of the renowned magnificent beaches on the deserted coastline of the Wild Coast. You can rush straight here and relax during the sultry days on Second Beach. It is a perfect crescent, fringed with tropical vegitation. A few miles south, there is Umngazi, a perfect place for total seclusion.

Rocktail Bay (Maputaland, KwaZulu-Natal): a good number of once magnificent beaches have been ruined by un planned development. The ‘Holiday Coast’ surrounding Durban has born the brunt. Greater St Lucia Wetland Park's beaches have been marred by four-wheel-drive tracks. The province's best beaches lie in northern Maputaland.  Rocktail Bay offers total seclusion for a maximum of 22 guests; if this is too pricey, strike out for Mabibi, the most remote coastal campsite in southern Africa.