The Orient Beach Complex – an underrated East London gem!
The Orient Beach Complex and pay beach must be East London’s most underrated and under utilised tourism attraction. Why you may ask? Well it can only be that East Londoner’s have forgotten all the wonderful things it has to offer.
Situated next to the pier at the entrance to the Port of East London, the Orient Beach Complex offers families and visitors everything they need for a fun day out at the beach. As a pay beach, it avoids the problems experienced at other public beaches such as litter, garbage, crime and over crowding. At the Orient Pay Beach, visitors get to enjoy the wonderful beach, they also get to enjoy swimming in the wonderful swimming pools that are scattered throughout the complex.
Starting off at the Buffalo City Tourism Information Centre, visitors have the opportunity to view beautiful local art and browse through the intricate hand made crafts items on display. These traditional and modern traditional items make great gifts and often have a local story to tell. From there visitors can head down onto the beach or to the swimming pools, whichever takes their fancy.
The Orient Beach has lifesavers during the busy periods and offers families and visitors the opportunity to enjoy a great day swimming, surfing, tanning and enjoying a wide array of beach sports. There is ample room to enjoy fun activities such as beach volley ball, kiting, beach cricket and sand castle building, to name but a few. There is also a water slide in the complex, making for some exhilarating downhill water rides.
The Orient Pier offers great fishing opportunities and fishermen/women can purchase a daily, monthly or yearly permit (see pricing below). Walkers and joggers can also purchase these permits and enjoy walks and jogs to the Orient Pier Lighthouse at the end of the pier. The East London Sailing Club has it’s home just off the pier but is a private club and access is only granted to members.
The wonderful green lawns, gazebo’s and trees around the swimming pools (kiddies & adults) offer families and visitors protection from the hot sun and are the perfect place to enjoy a picnic lunch. All in all this is a wonderful and often forgotten, East London gem!
As a pay beach, the safety of this beach is high, and it is one we can highly recommend to our visitors as well as local families, who want to enjoy a great day out. Come on East London, pack a picnic, grab the kids, a book, some beach bats and some sunblock and head down to the Orient Beach Complex for a fun day in the sun. You will be so glad you did!
PRICING AS AT 01 FEB 2020 | |
Adult | R28.00 |
Child | R20.00 |
School Group (per child) | R15.00 |
SEASONAL TICKET PRICES | |
Adult | R233.00 |
Children | R177.00 |
FISHING PERMITS | |
Daily permit | R13.00 |
Monthly permit | R33.00 |
Yearly permit | R109.00 |
For more information you can contact Buffalo City Tourism on (043 705 2538).
Article & photographs: Sandy Loppnow