Stanford

Stanford is a small village on the Klein River about twenty minutes inland from Hermanus, laid out in the nineteenth century and largely intact. It works as a calmer base with the same drives available: Hermanus, Gansbaai and the Walker Bay coast are all close, but the village itself is quiet, walkable and set among farmland rather than along a seafront.

Most of what is available here is guesthouses, riverside cottages and farm stays rather than hotels. The village core holds restored cottages and small guesthouses within walking distance of the square and the handful of places to eat. Along the river and out on the surrounding farms there are self-catering cottages and guest farms with more space and no walkable village around them.

That limited stock is exactly why booking ahead matters, particularly over weekends and through the whale months when Hermanus fills and visitors look inland. Choosing between the village and the farms comes down to whether you want to walk to dinner or to have the river and the fields to yourself; either way you will drive for the coast, and the roads out are short but unlit at night.