Long Beach (Cape Town): This 4km (2 1/2-mile) long stretch of sand -- almost as wide as it is long -- is both the city's best walking beach and the best place to go horseback riding. Even if you don't have time to sample the waves, at least stop to admire it during your Chapman's Peak Drive.

Clifton (Cape Town): A beautiful beach just minutes from the city center, this is where Cape Town's beautiful people like to parade. It's also the most wind-free area in Cape Town -- handy when the southeaster, known locally as the Cape Doctor, is driving you mad. Divided by large boulders into First, Second, Third, and Fourth beaches, it is accessible only via steep steps. Other great Cape Town beaches include Camps Bay and Llandudno.

De Hoop Nature Reserve (Whale Coast, Western Cape): Tall white dunes sliding into the sea, coves, evocative limestone outcrops, an aquamarine sea, and picture-perfect rock pools make this reserve's beaches the most glorious in the Overberg, if not the entire Cape.

Noetzie (Garden Route, Western Cape): One of the closest beaches to Knysna is also the most charming, not least because of the minicastles overlooking it. If the sea is too wild, take a dip in the lagoon.

Plettenberg Bay (Garden Route, Western Cape): It's a toss up between Lookout and Robberg Beach, but safe to say that "Plet," as the locals call it, has the best beaches on the Garden Route. Pity about the monstrous houses that overlook them. Head for Lookout for a view of the distant Outeniqua Mountains, and Robberg for whale-watching.

Port St Johns (Wild Coast, Eastern Cape): The entire Wild Coast is renowned for its magnificent, deserted coastline; but since Port St Johns is one of the more accessible points, you may wish to head straight here and laze away the sultry days on Second Beach, a perfect crescent fringed with tropical vegetation. For total seclusion, head for Umngazi, a few miles south.

Rocktail Bay (Maputaland, KwaZulu-Natal): With the "Holiday Coast" surrounding Durban largely ruined by an uninterrupted ribbon of development, and the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park's beaches marred by four-wheel-drive tracks, the province's best beaches lie in northern Maputaland. Rocktail Bay offers total seclusion for a maximum of 22 guests.