The Cliff Path is the reason people walk in Hermanus. It runs twelve kilometres along the top of the coast, from the New Harbour in the west to Grotto Beach in the east, and it is free, unfenced and open. The Cliff Path Management Group looks after it as the path’s steward, working within the Fernkloof Nature Reserve framework and alongside the Overstrand Municipality, which holds the statutory responsibility.
It is linear rather than circular, and it can be joined at a dozen points through town, so almost nobody walks the whole thing in one go. Pick a stretch. The section around Gearing’s Point is the busiest and the most level, and it is where the land-based whale watching happens between June and November, when southern right whales come in close enough that you hear them before you see them. Further west towards the New Harbour the path gets rockier and quieter.
Practical things: it is free, there is no gate and no permit, dogs are welcome on a lead, and the surface is described by its managers as level and mostly wheelchair-friendly, with a specifically accessible walkway at Gearing’s Point. Mostly is their word and worth respecting, so check the particular stretch you have in mind if wheels are involved. A section that once broke the path near Mollergren Park was closed by an 800 m link in 2025, so the route now runs through.
