South Africa
Cape Town and the Winelands
We visited in March
Two days is not enough for the city alone. Give Cape Town a week at the least, we would say, and split it in two: a few days in the city, then a few in the Winelands, over two mountain passes, where there are more wineries worth visiting than those days will hold. Plan on leaving some out.
In the city, start high. Walk up Table Mountain by Platteklip Gorge, or leave it to the cableway from Tafelberg Road, and spend the rest of the day coming down: through the coloured houses of Bo-Kaap, then to the old harbour at the V&A Waterfront, where Zeitz MOCAA has filled a grain silo with contemporary African art. Come on a Saturday and the morning goes to the food stalls of the Neighbourgoods Market at the Old Biscuit Mill in Woodstock, the same mill The Pot Luck Club cooks in. The penguins are further out, at Boulders Beach in Simon's Town, about 45 minutes' drive down the peninsula.
For the beach, Camps Bay, under the Twelve Apostles, with Victoria Road's restaurants and bars at the back of the sand. For dinner, Kloof Street in the City Bowl, which has the restaurants and the bars, and the bars, we thought, are great ones.
The Atlantic here is fresh in every month, about 20-21°C at its warmest in February, so the sea gets no vote on when to go and the land decides it: November to April, the dry, warm half of the year. Both our trips fell in the Cape's late summer, and the weather was lovely both times. June to August is the winter, when cold fronts come in off the Atlantic with wind and rain, and the Winelands go quiet.
The Winelands are the nature and the wine, and by February the vines are heavy, with the harvest running from January to March. Stellenbosch is a university town small enough to walk, but its estates are on the outskirts and a job for a car. Franschhoek is a village in a valley ringed by mountains, with cellar doors and restaurants down its main street, and the Wine Tram's hop-on hop-off routes run between the estates in the valley, which is the better arrangement by the third tasting.
- Best months
- November to April
- Avoid
- June to August, when Atlantic cold fronts bring wind and rain and the Winelands are at their quietest
- Nearest airport
- Cape Town International Airport (CPT)
- Transfer
- about 25 minutes to the City Bowl or the V&A Waterfront
Neighbourhoods
Where to stay
12 hotels
12 hotels
Grown-up & familyDelaire Graff Estate
££££Cape Town and the Winelands, South Africa
The Green Lady herself, Tretchikoff's original, hangs at a diamond jeweller's wine estate on the Helshoogte Pass, where each lodge keeps a heated pool of its own.
Grown-up & familyEllerman House
££££Cape Town and the Winelands, South Africa
A 1906 seaside mansion above Bantry Bay, hung with two centuries of South African art, where thousands of bottles of wine spiral up a corkscrew.
Grown-up & familyFuture Found Sanctuary
£££Cape Town and the Winelands, South Africa
Dark-gabled villas in the forest above Hout Bay, where the plunge pool is filled with spring water off Table Mountain.
Grown-up & familyGorgeous George
££Cape Town and the Winelands, South Africa
Pink pipework and raw concrete in two heritage buildings on St George's Mall, and on the roof a glass-sided pool beside a bar the neighbourhood comes up to.
Grown-upKensington Place
££Cape Town and the Winelands, South Africa
Eight rooms on the Higgovale slopes under Table Mountain, and a small pool for an hour with a book before the rest of the day goes to Cape Town.
Grown-upL'Avenir Country Lodge
£Cape Town and the Winelands, South Africa
The estate's own rosé by a rim-flow pool that looks over the lakes, on a working wine farm below the Simonsberg outside Stellenbosch.
Grown-up & familyLe Franschhoek Hotel & Spa
££Cape Town and the Winelands, South Africa
Under the thatch of a white Cape Dutch hotel in Franschhoek, some bedrooms have no ceiling but the roof, and the mountains fill the balcony doors.
Grown-up & familyMount Nelson, A Belmond Hotel
££££Cape Town and the Winelands, South Africa
A Cape Town grande dame painted pink for peace in 1918, with nine acres of garden under Table Mountain and a free club for children at weekends.
Grown-upPOD Camps Bay
£££Cape Town and the Winelands, South Africa
The entrance to this Camps Bay hotel is screened with scaffold planks recycled from its building site, and the lap pool, cocktail bar alongside, looks straight down to the sand.
Grown-upSea Five, Camps Bay
££Cape Town and the Winelands, South Africa
A white timber beach house of seven rooms just above Camps Bay, where the small bar mixes a cocktail the way a very sophisticated friend would at home.
Grown-up & familyThe Cellars-Hohenort
££Cape Town and the Winelands, South Africa
A white-gabled manor of 1906 in nine acres of Constantia garden, where the camphor trees were planted in 1773 and are now officially champions.
Grown-up & familyWelgelegen
££Cape Town and the Winelands, South Africa
Table Mountain framed in an arched sash, and port poured at five, in two Victorian Cape Town houses joined by a leafy courtyard and its plunge pool.
Where to eat
10 restaurants
The Pot Luck Club
£££ · We ate there
City Bowl · global small plates
Small plates grouped by flavour - salty, sour, umami - eaten six storeys up with Table Mountain in view.
Reviewed in The Infatuation
Chef's Warehouse at Beau Constantia
Recommended
Southern Suburbs · contemporary, Asian-influenced
Four courses from a working vineyard, with an interactive tasting to start the meal.
Reviewed in The Infatuation
Fyn
Recommended
City Bowl · modern African, Japanese-influenced
Modern African tasting menu with Japanese precision, five floors above the city and Table Mountain.
Reviewed in The Infatuation
La Colombe
££££ · Recommended
Southern Suburbs · French-influenced fine dining
Yellowfin tuna served in its own tin, with views across vineyards and forest toward Table Mountain.
Reviewed in The Infatuation
La Petite Colombe
££££ · Recommended
Franschhoek · French-influenced fine dining
Coal-roasted lamb and seared yellowfin tuna, with windows onto a sculpture garden and the Franschhoek mountains.
Reviewed in The Infatuation
Reading
3 pieces
Winter sun
Where to Travel in November
In November Dubai has a sea at 27-28°C and the sun down around half five, Cape Town has light past seven and an Atlantic at 15-16°C, and the choice is which you would rather do without.
With children
Where to Sit While They Sleep
A family hotel is decided at two in the afternoon, when someone small is asleep and the grown-ups need somewhere within earshot to sit.
Where to stay
Where to Stay in Cape Town and the Winelands
In Cape Town the first question is which side of Table Mountain to wake up on, and the second, a few days later, is which wine valley.