Lambert’s Bay is known both as the Diamond of the West Coast for its pristine white beaches and the West Coast’s crayfish industry mecca for its shellfish gems found among the rocks and kelp.

Named after Admiral Lambert of the British Navy, who did a marine survey of the bay between 1826 and 1840, the town hosts the annual Crayfish Festival – a West Coast favourite – and is home to the Muisbosskerm, an open-air seafood restaurant voted one of the "Top Ten Sea Views to Dine For" by National Geographic.

The first crayfish factory was started by a Mr Lindström in 1918 and the waters around the bay are also filled with snoek, the other West Coast staple the town is famous for. In addition to seafood, Lambert’s Bay is a producer of French fries, the surrounding farmland particularly suited for the cultivation of potatoes. Lambert’s Bay Foods is a large factory in the town which employs 305 people.

The Lambert’s Bay Sandveld Museum is filled with relics and documented history of the town, including the story of the HMS Sybille Gunboat that ran aground in 1901 after it was sent to Lambert’s Bay as a patrol boat during the Anglo Boer War (1899 – 1902). Divers have scoured the ocean’s bottom for artefacts from the HMS Sybille and, in 1999, came across the ship’s propeller, which can be viewed on display at the museum.

Tourism is another source of revenue for the town. The name of an island off the coast bears testament to the birdlife in the area’s rich diversity. Bird Island is the nesting and breeding ground of thousands of Cape gannets, penguins and other bird species and can be reached by walking on a breakwater wall from the town.