Here are South Africa’s top 10 best-rated beaches

Dias Beach at Cape Point has topped a new ranking of South Africa’s best-rated beaches, with a Google rating of 4.87 stars. The beach tops a new ranking by SEO company seobacklinks.com, which analysed 162 655 Google reviews across 119 beaches in South Africa. Robberg 5 Beach in Plettenberg Bay and Struisbaai Main Beach share second place, each with an average rating of 4.75 stars.

The analysis used Google Maps listings collected on 5 October 2026. Only beaches with at least 200 reviews were included. Resorts, hotels and private beaches, tidal pools, inland swimming spots and duplicate listings were excluded.

The beaches were ranked by their exact average ratings rather than the rounded scores Google displays. Where beaches had the same average, the proportion of one-star reviews was used to determine their positions. What makes the top-rated beaches stand out?

Oliver Weston, founder of seobacklinks.com, said reviews of the highest-rated beaches frequently mentioned clean sand, calm water and space. “South Africa has some of the best beaches in the world, and with the summer holidays coming up, a lot of families will be choosing where to spend their beach days,” Weston added. He added that complaints about lower-rated beaches often focused on litter, damaged facilities and maintenance.

“The complaints are less about the sea and more about what’s around it, litter, broken facilities and a lack of upkeep. Even the lowest-rated beaches have plenty of fans.” South Africa’s top 10 best-rated beaches Dias Beach, Cape Point: 4.87 stars from 333 reviews. Robberg 5 Beach, Plettenberg Bay: 4.75 stars from 405 reviews.

Struisbaai Main Beach, Struisbaai: 4.75 stars from 768 reviews. Keurbooms Beach, Keurboomstrand: 4.75 stars from 216 reviews. Coney Glen Beach, Knysna: 4.73 stars from 285 reviews.