Plettenberg Bay is situated 210 km from Port Elizabeth and approximately 600 km from the Cape Town. Plettenberg Bay is renowned for its unique marine reserves and is home to soft coral reefs, dolphins and seals. The beaches and rivers are a water enthusiast's paradise.Plett offers the visitor plenty of night life, restaurant, pubs and an array of accommodation to suit all lifestyles.

The Bay acts as a nursery to the Southern Right Whale and they can be seen calving during July to December these beautiful creatures come into the bay to calve and protect their young. Plettenberg Bay offers outstanding whale watching facilities with ideal viewpoints along the coastline. The Whale Hotline is 0800 228 222 or visit the Information Centre on Kloof street.

The Southern Right Whale (Eubalaena Australis) was harvested in this bay until 1916 when the annual counts were a mere 10 to 40 adult females. Toady the total annual population along our coast is about ±1700. Other whales often seen include the Brydes, Humpback, Minke and Killer (Orca) whales.

Viewing sites that are easily accessible are:

History

Portuguese explorers of the 15th and 16th centuries called in and charted the bay, the first being Bartholomew Dias in 1487.

Ninety years later Manuel da Perestrello aptly called it Bahia Formosa or the Bay Beautiful. The first white inhabitants were the 100 men stranded here for 9 months when the San Gonzales sank in 1630.

In 1763 the first white settlers in the Bay were stock farmers, hunters and frontiersmen from the Western Cape. The Swede, Carl Peter Thunberg, was the first to document valuable observations on the bay and the Robberg.

The Governor of the Cape, Baron Joachim van Plettenberg, renamed the town Plettenberg Bay in 1779. In 1787 a woodcutter's post was established and Johann Jacob Jerling was commissioned by the Dutch East India Co. to build a storehouse for timber which was first exported in 1788.The timber trade grew leading to Thomas Bain building Prince Alfred Pass (1868) and the 90km forest road through the Tsitsikamma to Humansdorp. Three major passes had to be constructed: Groot Rivier, Blauwkrantz and Storms River.

The entire road was complete 16 years later in 1885. In 1910 Captain Sinclair set up the whaling station on Beacon Island to harvest the placid Southern Right whales but this ceased operation in 1916. The first hotel was erected by Hugh Owen Grant in 1940 and replaced in 1972 by the current well known landmark on Beacon Island.

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