Wine Region, Cape Town

Spier estate just outside Stellenbosch is in my opinion a must on the itenery. They offer so much to the public and their cheetah outreach programme is great. Have dinner at Moyo's. Absolutely fab. See my tip on that.

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Franschhoek is a lovely little about 85km from Cape Town in mid of the wine region. It's well know for its fantastic restaurant, but has some wineries aswell. It's the place where French Huguenots settled back in the 17th century and you'll find a monument and a museum dedicated to them in town.
We've had a great lunch at "La Petite Ferme", which has a great garden with splended views over Franschhoek and the valley.

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As Stellenbosch wine route can be so incredibly busy in peak tourist season why not visit Wellington wine route, also there is plenty to do in Wellington on a visit here.

We paid a visit to Diemersfontein sampling some excellent Mocha, Chocolate Pinotage amongst other fine reds (ZAR 15) for tasting. On the Diemersfontein Wine Estate they have 20 room guesthouse, garden weddings, a large dam, a top notch restaturant & tastings 7 days a week. When I sampled their award winning 2006 coffee / chocolate ppinotage the aroma when it was being poured was just like cappucino heavenly. The label carries the words "It befriends - It converts - It seduces" visit www.diemersfontein.co.za (The products are available in other countries see website for stockists)

We also went to Ashanti & sampled some excellent wines which were incredibly reasonable. They have opened a small restaurant here as well the food is homemade and satisfying. At Ashanti you can sample all their wines for free and even though in comparison to Diemersfontein the wines are suprisingly reasonable they are good quality. I enjoyed the dry rose a bottle costing only R10 and the cabernet sav was only R25.
www.ashantiwines.com

Bovlei winery we did not visit this time but the scenery is beautiful.

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The Sante Wellness Spa is on the Simondium road between Paarl and Franschhoek and if you feel like you need spoiling for a day or more, this is the place the visit. The offer various treatments the latest being with grapes. They have a lovely big pool where you can do acquarobics or just swim at your leasure. Next to it is a jacuzzi. Then they have the wonderfull herbal showers, the sauna's etc that you can all use whilst there for the day. They offer a great lunch. So yes, take yourself there and be spoiled.

Franschoek is an area with lush vineyards, fishing and generally is a very arty and creative place. There are quaint coffee shops with traditional recipes found along the side of the village high street, local galleries and is basically a lovely town to dawdle along in.

There are some lovely wine estates here too, which are not as commercialised as some of the Stellenbosch ones.

approx two hours drive from Cape Town you will find the town of Tulbach with its well known Paddagang Winery. All the wines are named after local frogs and have drawings of frogs on their labels. The restaurant at Paddagang is excellent and should not be missed. The village of Tulbach has a lot to offer so put aside a full day to do this region

When you do the Paarl wineroute, make sure that you do not miss Fairview. Not only do they make lovely wines, but they also make the most devine goats cheeses that you can test on the premises and buy there.

If you go from CT to Paarl on the N1, you take the Klapmuts turnoff just before Paarl and then turn to your left. Follow the roadmarkings.

A two bedroom, two bath, with garage attached, Villa for four, at Montagu Springs next to the hot springs is about $70 a night. Did I mention the braii area off the living room or thr balcony off the second bedroom? $3 a day pp access to springs. Bring friends!