The Western Cape is heaven for gourmet gluttons. Whether you gorge on multi course tasting menus in Franschhoek or wolf down mouthfuls of umngqusho in Gugulethu there is something to suit every mood, palate and wallet.
Best time to visit
The Western Cape has hot dry summers and cool wet winters. The best time to visit is spring (September to October) and autumn (March to April).
It is impossible to do justice to the culinary and scenic splendour that awaits those who explore the food terroir of the Western Cape. Majestic mountains covered with indigenous edible flora give way to rugged coastlines dotted with whitewashed fishing villages, verdant vineyards and everywhere a fusion of people, history, cultures and flavour.
The essence of Western Cape foods is found in the complex, multi-cultural history of the province. In Cape Town you will find everything from indigenous Cape Floral Kingdom fynbos menus at Azure to Xhosa classics at Gugulethu’s Mzoli’s Place and Cape Malay fusion food at the Bo-Kaap’s Biesmillah, the city offers a melting pot of Asian, African and European food genres. Every dish reflects waves of historical settlement and layers of flavour interaction. In addition to its traditional tastes, Cape Town is currently experiencing an ultra-modern gourmet boom that sees molecular gastronomy, tapas and dim sum spin out of the restaurant kitchens.
As travellers move out of Cape Town and into the winelands, Cape Dutch settler cuisine is revealed in restaurants such as Stellenbosch’s De Volkskombuis. If the former reveals the tastes of times past, Franschhoek’s Le Quartier Francais offers a glimpse of the region’s future glories. The olive groves of Riebek Kasteel give way to the port wine and ostrich of the Klein Karoo and then on again to the oysters and champagne of Knysna.
The west coast offers up the traditional cuisine of Cape fishing villagers at eateries such as Lambert’s Bay’s Bosduifklip and Paternoster’s Tea Garden. Ancient indigenous culinary culture comes to the fore with !Khwa ttu’s San guided tours of hunting skills and edible plants in Langebaan and Samp and Souffle’s tour of Nama edible wild flowers and roots in Namaqualand. Wherever you go and whatever you eat and drink the food terroir of the Western Cape will have you begging for a second helping.
Cape Town Attractions
Cape Town is SA’s oldest city and it is for this reason that is known as the Mother City. There’s plenty to see and do in Cape Town, the legislative capital of SA. Take a trip through the Cape Winelands, visit Table Mountain or hang out at the V&A Waterfront.
Cape Town’s attractions have made it a famed destination for many Hollywood movies and European travelers alike.
Take a trip to on the Cape Winelands and taste our homegrown wines; see the world from your vantage point on the top of famed Table Mountain; dine like a king at any of our fantastic restaurants and celebrate the great outdoors even during the winter months.
For some great retail therapy why not head to the V&A Waterfront. It’s a super spot shopping and eating, and its attractions include the Two Oceans Aquarium, a craft market and an amphitheatre where local artists perform. From here you can take a harbour cruise or strike out for Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela spent many years in imprisonment.
The treacherous Cape Point promontory – a witness to many a shipwreck – enhances Cape Town’s reputation for dramatic scenery. It’s a trip well worth making, the last part up to a lighthouse completed by funicular. The journey to Cape Point includes a 10 km drive over Chapman’s Peak which, with its hairpin bends atop sheer cliff drops, sets the stage for scenic awe. The drive also links the city to Hout Bay and Noordhoek beaches.
Cape Town has activities aplenty for more sedate natural encounters in Cape Town. On the eastern slopes of the mountain are the celebrated botanical gardens at Kirstenbosch, with walks of all levels to tackle, landscaped picnic spots and restaurants serving as a refined break with their offerings of tea and scones (or a glass of good Cape wine).
Its striking beauty and rugged landscape makes Cape Town the ideal holiday spot for those seeking adventure, relaxation and entertainment. The city offers something for everyone and all accommodation tastes and budgets are welcomed.
The Cape Peninsula
The Cape Peninsula is a generally rocky peninsula that juts out for 75 km (47 mi) into the Atlantic Ocean at the south-western extremity of the African continent. At the southern end of the peninsula are Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. On the northern end is the Table Mountain, overlooking Cape Town, South Africa.
The peninsula was once an island, but about sixty million years ago it was joined to the mainland by the emergence from the sea of the sandy area now known as the Cape Flats. The towns and villages of the Cape Peninsula now form part of greater Cape Town.
The Cape of Good Hope is sometimes given as the meeting point of the Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean. However, according to the International Hydrographic Organization agreement that defines the ocean boundaries, the meeting point is at Cape Agulhas, about 200 km (120 mi) to the southeast
The Cape Winelands
The Cape Winelands is a region of the Western Cape Province of South Africa. It is the largest wine producing region in South Africa and is divided into six main wine regions, each offering their own unique wine route. Constantia, Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, Paarl, Robertson and Wellington are the most popular. The geographic area is generally referred to locally as the Boland, meaning uplands in Afrikaans.
Constantia Valley wine region is situated in mountainous surroundings, and boasts some of the oldest wine estates and homesteads along with several award winning wines and restaurants. 90% of the farms offer wine tastings and cellar tours.
Stellenbosch Wine region is the best known in the Cape. In 1971 the first official wine route was founded by Frans Malan of Simonsig, Spatz Sperling of Delheim and Niel Joubert of Spier. It is home to a variety of cellars producing some of the country’s most acclaimed wines. Simonsig, Boschendal, Neethlingshof, Delheim, Welmoed, Delair, Spier, Saxenburg, Asara, Blaauwklippen, Warwick, Kanonkop, De Trafford, Thelema, Niel Ellis, Rust en Vrede, Dornier, Watwerford and De toren,to name a few.
Franschhoek valley Wine region was settled over 300-years ago by the French Huguenots. Set against the backdrop of the Franschhoek and Drakenstein mountains, this quaint village has over 30 wine farms: Akkerdal Estate, Allée Bleue Farms,Bellingham, Boekenhoutskloof, Boschendal Cabriere, Chamonix, Dieu Donné, Eikehof, Franschhoek Pass Winery, Franschhoek Vineyards, Freedom Hill wines, GlenWood, Graham Beck cellar, Grand Provence ,Grande Provence Wine Estate, Haut Espoir, La Bourgogne, La Bri, La Chataigne, La Chaumiere Wine Estate, La Couronne Wine Estate, La Motte, La Petite Ferme, Chamonix, La Roche, Landau Du Val Wines, Le Manoir de Brendel, Lormarins, Lynx Wines, Mont Rochelle Mountain Vineyards, Moreson, Plaisir de Merle, Rickety Bridge Winery, Rupert & de Rothschild Vignerons, Solms, Stony Brook, Vrede en Lust wine regions of south africa.
Like many towns in the Cape Winelands, Paarl is home to a prosperous community, with many well maintained and attractive Cape Dutch houses, beautiful gardens and streets lined with old oak trees.
Paarl boasts a unique cultural attraction: it was here that the foundations of the Afrikaans language were laid by the Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners. The “Afrikaanse Taalmonument” (monument to the Afrikaans language) on the slopes of Paarl Mountain, the Language Museum and the Afrikaans Language Route through Dal Josaphat are memorials to this achievement.
The former headquarters of the wine industry in South Africa is also situated here.: This was the famous “Co-operative Wine Growers’ Association” (better known by its Afrikaans initials KWV). The KWV became a South African institution that has acquired an international reputation based on its unique achievements and its imprint of quality on the local wine industry. Over the past decade, however, KWV became a completely profit-driven private company that has no administrative role anymore. (KWV’s main wine production and maturation facilities are on its Paarl premises, while its brandy production takes place in Worcester and grape juice concentrate production in Upington in the Northern Cape).
The Garden Route
The Garden Route is a popular and scenic stretch of the south-eastern coast of South Africa. It stretches from Mossel Bay in the Western Cape to the Storms River which is crossed along the N2 coastal highway over the Paul Sauer Bridge in the extreme eastern reach of the Western Cape. The name comes from the shrubbery near the coast. It includes towns such as Mossel Bay, George, Knysna, Oudtshoorn, Plettenberg Bay and Nature’s Valley.
It has a maritime climate, with moderately hot summers, and mild to chilly winters. It is one of the nicest all-year-round rainfall areas in South Africa, most rain falling in the winter months, brought by the humid sea-winds from the Indian Ocean rising and releasing their precipitation along the high mountain ranges just inland of the coast.
The Route is sandwiched between the Outeniqua and Tsitsikamma mountains and the Indian Ocean. The Outeniqua and Tsitsikamma indigenous forests are a unique mixture of Cape Fynbos and temperate forest and offer hiking trails and eco-tourism activities. Nearly 300 species of birdlife are to be found in a variety of habitats ranging from fynbos to forest to wetlands.
Ten nature reserves embrace the varied ecosystems of the area as well as unique marine reserves, home to soft coral reefs, dolphins, seals and a host of other marine life. Various bays along the Garden Route are nurseries to the endangered Southern Right Whale which come there to calve in the winter and spring (July to December).
Mossel Bay
Mossel Bay (Afrikaans: Mosselbaai) is a town with 150 000 inhabitants in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It lies on the southern coast of South Africa, east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of Knysna on the Indian Ocean coast and is part of the Garden Route.
Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias arrived here on February 3, 1488, thus proving to his sponsors that Africa had a southern tip; making it theoretically possible to sail from Europe to India. Originally called by Dias Aguada de São Brás (Bay of Saint Blaise), the harbor and surrounding area was renamed Mosselbaai (Bay of Mussels) in 1601 by Dutch navigator Paulus van Caerden, as he found the bay to be abundant with mussels. He also called a nearby bay, where he found cattle herders, Vlees Bay (Bay of Meat). On the 28th of January 1846 the British refounded the town as Aliwal South in honor of the British victory at the Battle of Aliwal in India. However this name never caught on and the town reverted to Mossel Bay; this explains the now redundant North in Aliwal North. It received municipal status in 1852.