Betty's Bay is a coastal town located 96 km from
Cape Town beneath the rugged Kogelberg Mountains
on the scenic R44 ocean drive between Pringle Bay and Kleinmond.
This village is the longest in South Africa at over 13 km. During Colonial times Betty's Bay was a favourite place for runaway slaves, but in 1912 Betty's Bay became a formal whaling station running until the 1930s when the price of whale oil had fallen to such an extent that the Whaling station finally closed. Remains of the whaling station can still be seen at Stony Point. The land was later sold to a consortium of Arthur Youldon, Jack Clarence and Harold Porter, who called this the Hangklip Beach Estate. Three towns were established namely, Rooiels, Pringle Bay and Betty's Bay.

Harold Porter laid out the present Botanical Gardens and the street plans for the towns in the mid 30's. Arthur Youldon's daughter, Betty, gave her name to Betty's Bay. Italian prisoners of war during the Second World War did construction and worked on the road from Gordon's Bay, which is now known as Clarence Drive. During the War, Cape Hangklip assumed strategic military importance as a sentinel guarding the Eastern shore of False Bay from the lurking menace of the U-boats. Betty's Bay also contains a colony of African Penguin (Spheniscus demersus), also known as the Black-footed Penguin, is found on the south-western coast of Africa, because of their donkey-like braying call they were previously named Jackass Penguins. Since several species of South American penguins produce the same sound, the African species has been renamed African Penguin, as it is the only penguin species that breeds in Africa.