At last the Western Cape is able to welcome visitors from all over South Africa again – and that means one thing… Fin Whale Beach House is 100% #tourismready and open to guests from across the Rainbow Nation!

Here in the gorgeous little village of Kommetjie, a short drive from the hustle and bustle of the Mother City of Cape Town and ideally positioned for exploring the entire Cape Peninsula, Fin Whale Beach House is a true hidden gem!

The tourism hotspots of this amazing province are on our doorstep – from the vibrant, cosmopolitan vibe of the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront to the breathtaking vistas of Cape Point and the brightly coloured beach huts and soft white sand of Muizenberg.

The Cape Winelands tourism route is within easy reach with its wonderful vineyards and world-class wines all set against the incredible backdrop of towering mountains and lush valleys. Add to this the beautiful Kirstenbosch botanical gardens set at the foot of Table Mountain and this iconic, flat-topped mountain itself that’s begging to be explored and you have a world-beating tourism destination packed with things to do, see and experience surrounding this luxurious beach house on the legendary Long Beach.

What better place to take a few days off with family and friends? Fin Whale Beach House can sleep up to eight people in four en-suite bedrooms and has a host of modern conveniences and state-of-the-art facilities, from its well-equipped kitchen to a marvelous outdoor entertainment area and swimming pool, all just footsteps away from the beach.

The views are extraordinary and the pace of life is idyllic and a far cry from the every day stresses and strains of the urban jungle.

The house is exclusively yours for the duration of your stay, meaning that you can enjoy a unique, home-from-home atmosphere and relax and unwind completely. Our wonderful housekeeper will ensure everything stays spick and span, leaving you the time you need to create wonderful memories and togetherness.

Get in touch for more info and to make a booking!

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Fin Whale Beach House is open for business travel, offering the perfect venue for small, intimate corporate groups to escape for a few days to focus on strategy building, sales development and team building.

Forget “bored” rooms and endless meetings in sterile office environments, and shake things up with a getaway for your executives located on one of the most beautiful beaches in South Africa. Sit around a roaring fire at sunset with your toes in the sand while you brainstorm… Gather on the beach at dawn to watch the sunrise and be inspired by nature’s beauty to take your business to the next level… Reshape and reprioritise to the sound of the waves crashing onto sand… Talk shop into the wee small hours while enjoying a locally caught crayfish braai… Take a yoga lesson on top of Table Mountain and think out of the box… Just because it’s a business trip doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy it!

With four beautiful en-suite rooms and more than enough space for breakaway sessions par excellence, from the impeccable, state-of-the-art modern kitchen to the pool deck nestled behind the dunes of Kommetjie’s Long Beach, Fin Whale Beach House has everything you need for the best business trip ever.

Available on an exclusive-use, self-catering basis, the house is literally a few steps from the beach and an easy drive from Cape Town International Airport, just half an hour away. With the whole of the Western Cape’s stunning coastline on your doorstep, there’s the opportunity to explore this beautiful part of South Africa and find inspiration in a myriad ways and to bond with your colleagues in a relaxed atmosphere.

Get in touch today to find out more and let us help you plan your next business trip.

Way back in 1741 the Dutch East India Company stopped anchoring its ships in Table Bay due to the constant barrage of winter storms. Instead, they chose Simon’s Bay further up the peninsula but faced the problem of a long trek to Cape Town to source supplies.

Cape Commissioner Baron Gustav Wilhelm van Imhoff came up with an alternative and constructed a refreshment station at Simon’s Bay in 1743, ordering the cultivation of lands in the Fish Hoek and Noordhoek valleys. He was not alone, as a local widow, Christina Rousseau, also supplied ships from her farm, Zwaansweide. Impressed with her efforts, Imhoff awarded her a piece of land near what is now Slangkop ridge. That land became known as “Imhoff’s Gift” and marks the first settlement in the area of what is now Kommetjie.

Formally established in 1902, the village of Kommetjie has a unique and special blend of mountains, sea, surf and sand. Originally a popular day trip destination for residents of Cape Town, and a camping spot for locals, Kommetjie has grown over the last 118 years into a sought-after place to live and one of the Cape Peninsula’s most popular holiday spots.

Originally a settlement of “weekenders” – those who would escape the bustle of the Mother City to a weekend home – the first house was built in 1903, and by 1910 houses had begun to spring up along the waterfront and families began to settle in Kommetjie itself. Many of the streets are named after these founding families – Benning, Van der Poll and Kirsten, for example. What is now Kommetjie primary school started out in 1908 as Slangkop Public School to cater for the children of the families that settled here.

The village grew steadily, with dairy and livestock farming at its heart. These days, commercial farming is no longer an option, but now on a busy tourist route, Imhoff Farm, named for Imhoff’s Gift, has become a tourism and commercial hub for restaurants, curio, craft and food shops.

In 2003 the land between the natural marshes that skirt the village and the sea was transferred to the Table Mountain National Park. In 2013 Kommetjie began the rehabilitation of its “green heart” – the Skilpadsvlei Conservation Area, a critically important wetland that’s home to endemic species such as the western leopard toad.

Check it out during your stay at Fin Whale Beach House, and spend some time exploring the area and Imhoff Farm – it will give you a fresh appreciation of this wonderful little seaside village.

There’s a long, winding road that slithers it’s way along the edge of the Atlantic that leads to the village of Kommetjie, home of Fin Whale Beach House. It’s been likened to a snake and (appropriately) leads to “snake head” – Slangkop – where a lighthouse has been burning for more than a century, warning passing ships of the danger of the rocky shoreline that has seen many a wreck over the ages.

Slangkop Lighthouse began operating in 1914 after being commissioned by Sir Francis Hely-Hutchinson, the governor of the Cape of Good Hope and didn’t become fully automated until 1979. Today, its light shines for 33 nautical miles out to sea, 41m above high tide. It’s one of South Africa’s oldest lighthouses, and emits four flashes every 30 seconds with a candlepower brightness of 5-million!

There are guided tours available of the lighthouse, taking you up the steep internal staircase from the base to a high, wire mesh balcony next to the light itself. The lighthouse is made from cast iron and is painted white, being the tallest cast iron tower in the country. Originally it was manned by three lighthouse keepers but these days there is only one senior keeper caring for it, washing the lighthouse windows.

The lighthouse tours look at the history of lighthouses on the South African coast and shed light on why South Africa is one of the only nations that still retains the services of lighthouse keepers. It’s an absolute “must do” during any stay at Fin Whale Beach House and will give you fresh appreciation for this wonderful landmark and the valuable role it performs.

Have you ever wondered about the amazing creature Fin Whale Beach House is named after? Well wonder no more – and meet our amazing namesake… The fin whale is actually the second largest species on earth, after the blue whale. It’s known as the grehound of the sea because of its sleek, slender body and even has the speed to match, being able to keep up with ocean liners.

It belongs to the cetacean order that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. There are two sub-species of fin whale – the northern and southern fin whales, with those spotted in our waters off the Western Cape belonging to the latter.

Southern fin whales are larger than their northern cousins and can grow up to 27m long, weighing up to 75 tonnes. They are thought to live for up to 100 years. Females usually give birth to a single calf every two to three years after a gestation period of 11 to 12 months.

Fin whales are found all over the world, from polar to tropical waters, but the biggest populations are found in cool, temperate waters where it feeds largely on krill and occasionally on small, schooling pelagic fish.

The fin whale is what’s known as a baleen whale – a filter feeder that has a complex filter feeding system of baleen in its mouth that’s used to filter out small prey such as krill. Baleen is similar to bristles and is made of keratin. It has a fine fringe of hairs attached to it to help filter out food species when the whale opens its mouth, takes in huge amounts of water, expanding its accordion-like throat, and then pushes the water out through the baleen.

Like all other whales on our planet, fin whale populations were decimated by whale hunting during the 20th century. As a result, the fin whale is now endangered, with only around 100,000 left on earth.

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South Africa’s beautiful Western Cape coastline has inspired poets, writers and artists from across the world. It’s beauty knows no bounds. And here in the little village of Kommetjie, our community is blessed to be surrounded by this serenity as we prepare to go into South Africa’s national lockdown in an effort to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus that is laying waste to our way of life.

While Fin Whale Beach House will be closed, the majesty and beauty of the magical ocean on our doorstep will go on and the soft white sands of Long Beach – literally a step away from our back door – will be here waiting to welcome guests once more when we re-open for business on 17 April 2020.

Our environment is precious to us, and we do everything we can to protect it. It’s also famous for its healing abilities, from the sights and sounds of the sea colliding with the shore that calm us to the endemic species of fynbos that grow on the hills and mountains surrounding us with their famous medicinal properties. Our people are also precious to us, from our guests to our staff, both here in Kommetjie and in our sister lodges and the African Trilogy offices in Hoedspruit, up in the northern reaches of the country.

So as we baton down the hatches and dig in deep, we’d like to thank all of our past guests for their incredible support and tell our future guests that we will be here waiting, with some of the most beautiful views in South Africa, when this crisis passes. We’ll be keeping in touch on our social media pages and via our blog. So stay tuned!If you are looking for bracelet. There’s something to suit every look, from body-hugging to structured, from cuffs to chain chain bracelet and cuffs.

In the meantime, stay well and stay safe. And see you soon!

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