A popular safe family beach on False Bay with lots of facilities. The town has a seaside village atmosphere with shops, restaurants and coffee houses. Take a gentle walk to Peers Cave for brilliant valley views and where Victor and Bertie Peers excavated the 12 000 year old Fish Hoek Man.
The Fish Hoek Valley Museum houses interpretive displays of the Peers Cave excavations as well as collections of local interest. Follow Jagar’s Walk along the rocky coastline to Sunny Cove, where sign boards, explain the life history of the dolphins.
Fish Hoek is home to traditional healers, herbalists and local growers and manufactures produce a wide range of organic and herbal products for health care and beauty treatments. The Fish Hoek Mardi Gras happens annually in December.
Fish Hoek is a small village situated past Kalk Bay before Simons Town.
The Fish Hoek Beach is a popular family beach. The long stretch of sandy beach is ideal for walking, as is the walkway at the far end of the beach that wanders past rock pools and offers long views out to sea. There is a play area for children as well as a relaxed beachfront restaurant. Good bathroom and changing facilities are available.
On occasion the Treknet fishermen land their catches on the beach. Treknet, meaning to pull the net, is a traditional method of fishing, where fishermen row out in small boats, letting out a large net as they go. The net encloses a shoal of fish, which had been picked out by spotters on the mountain slopes surrounding Fish Hoek. The nets are then manually pulled closed and hauled to the beach. The silvery fish slither and flap in the net and can be bought directly from the fishermen.
The fish spotters also watch out for sharks and issue a warning if any are seen which then gets transmitted to the lifesavers on the beach. It is an efficient practical warning system.
A quirk of Fish Hoek is that there are no liquor stores in the town. In 1818, the grant of land stated that there should be no public wine house. This was done in an attempt to prevent the drivers of wagon deliveries to Simons Town, from getting drunk in Fish Hoek on the way. The residents of Fish Hoek were determined to keep bottle stores out of the town and with the new South African constitution making the old laws fall away, the residents voted for restaurant and bar licenses only for their town. Thus you can get a drink in a bar or restaurant but you cannot by alcohol in Fish Hoek.
