Hopetown is a town which lies at the edge of the Great Karoo in South Africa's Northern Cape province.

It is situated on an arid slope leading down to the Orange River.

Hopetown was founded in 1850 when Sir Harry Smith extended the northern frontier of the Cape Colony to the Orange River.

A handful of settlers claimed ground where there was a natural ford over the Orange River, and by 1854 a frontier town had developed.

Hopetown was named after William Hope, Auditor-General and Secretary of the Cape Colony Government at the time, and is often mistaken for a town in the Free State, South Africa, called Hoopstad.