Port St Johns
The Wild Coast's dramatic river-mouth surf — warm beach break between the First and Second Beaches, at the wildest Wild Coast town.
Trip Role
Ideal stay
Best for
Our take
The Wild Coast's dramatic river-mouth surf — warm, uncrowded, and at the country's most characterful frontier town. Go informed and in a group; the surf and the setting reward it.
The Wild Coast's dramatic river-mouth surf — warm, uncrowded, and at the country's most characterful frontier town. Go informed and in a group; the surf and the setting reward it.
- Trip Role
- Worth a Detour
- Ideal Stay
- 3–5 days
- Time Needed
- 3–5 days
- Best For
- Wild Coast travellers, surfers, slow-travel adventurers.
- Skip If
- Travellers wanting facilities or easy access; the safety-conscious should go informed.
- Go If
- You surf and want the dramatic Wild Coast river-mouth break, or you want the Wild Coast's most characterful town.
- Worth Extra Drive
- 90 min
Why it's worth your time
A warm-water beach break at the river-mouth town of Port St Johns, the wildest and most dramatically set of the Wild Coast villages — between the cliff-backed First Beach and the Second Beach, at the mouth of the Umzimvubu River. Port St Johns' surf is warm, uncrowded, beach break, set in one of the country's most visually dramatic coastal settings; the town itself is the Wild Coast's frontier edge — river, forest, cliffs, and a slow, real, off-grid feel. For surfers it's the deeper Wild Coast stop; for travellers it's the town the Wild Coast is famous for being. The honest note: safety awareness matters here more than elsewhere on the coast — go informed, go in a group, and go to surf, not to wander.
What we love
The cliff-backed beaches; the river-mouth setting; the warm, uncrowded surf; the genuine Wild Coast frontier-town feel.
What to know
Warm water. Beach break at First and Second Beach. Rough road in. Safety — go informed, travel in a group, keep to the beaches and the lodges, don't wander alone. Pair with Coffee Bay and Mdumbi for a Wild Coast surf run.
More surf spot in Eastern Cape
Coffee Bay
The Wild Coast's warm-water beach break — remote, cheap, and the country's under-the-radar surf-and-travel town.
Mdumbi
The quiet Wild Coast point — warm, uncrowded, and the more remote alternative to Coffee Bay, 15 km north.
Seal Point
The Cape St Francis lighthouse point — a powerful right-hander at the wild end of the J-Bay reach.
St Francis Bay
The Bruce's Beauties point and canal village — the wave Endless Summer II made famous, next to J-Bay.
Supertubes
The world's point-break mecca — J-Bay, where the right-hand Supertubes wall runs for 300 metres in a winter swell.