Cape Town Wine lands
Don't miss the Wine Region Highlights

Discover the Cape Town Wine lands highlights. You'll have the opportunity to combine a drive along mountain passes, excellent cape town wine tasting and having lunch in the finest of restaurants of the Cape Town wine region. The drive includes Sir Lowry’s Pass with the magnificent view over False Bay, Viljoen’s Pass in the fruit growing area between Villiersdorp and Grabouw, the Franschhoek Pass with its splendid view over the Franschhoek valley and Hell’s Hoogte pass, outside Stellenbosch. Come and explorer our South Africa wine region.


CAPE TOWN WINE LANDS TOUR DETAILS

Distance: 247 km / 154 miles

Duration: Full day

Best time: All year

Included: Certified driver/guide, a/c vehicle and gasoline

Excluded: Entrance / tasting fees, lunch, drinks

Price: R1400.00 pp for 2 persons per day, R950.00 pp for 3 persons per day, R750.00 pp 4+ persons per day.

Approximate tasting fees to pay: R 60.00 per adult per wine estate

Note: All tours can be customized


Inquire about the Cape Town Wine lands

1. GROOTTE SCHUUR HOSPITAL
We drive by the Groote Schuur Hospital on our way to the Cape Town Wine lands. Prof Christiaan Barnard transformed the first human heart transplant in 1967 in Grootte Schuur Hospital. Prof Barnard and his team implanted the heart in to Mr. Louis Washkansky, a Polish dentist. He lived for 18 days before succumbing to pneumonia. The operation was considered as a success.




2. RHODES MEMORIAL
Rhodes Memorial, temple-like, was constructed in 1912 from Table Mountain granite. At the foot of the monument’s stone steps, which are guarded by eight massive bronze lions, stands an impressive equestrian statue. Magnificent views of the city and the immediate suburbs below can be enjoyed. Afternoon tea can be enjoyed in a charming old stone cottage that serves as a restaurant.


3. TOWNSHIPS
The first township was built 1900 and situated next to the old harbour in Cape Town. The people were removed to Ndabeni when the bebonic plague broke out during 1918. They were again removed to Langa in 1923 when the Spanish flu broke out. Guguletu was built in 1948 and the hostels were developed to house the black male migrant workforce. Expansion of the local townships continued after that.


4. SOMERSET WEST
The quiet flower-filled residential town of Somerset West lies among vineyards, orchards and farmlands at the foot of the Helderberg Mountain. The Helderberg Nature Reserve on the slope of the Helderberg is famed for its magnificent proteas, disas and abundant bird life. The wine farm Vergelegen, is situated in the corner of the Helderberg and Hottentot Holland Mountains and producing fine wine. The ancient camphor trees on this farm have been proclaimed national monuments.


5. SIR LOWRY’S PASS
Sir Lowry’s Pass is also known as “Gantouw”, the Khoi Khoi word for Eland. The pass was built and opened in 1830 and named after Sir Lowry Cole, Governor of the Cape Colony 1828-1833. Major Charles Mitchell was instructed to repair the old pass but he decided to build a proper pass across the face of the mountain.


6. GRABOUW
Grabouw was built on the farm allocated to a German- born painter named Wilhelm Langschmidt in 1856. The town was given this name because of the birthplace in Germany (Grabouw) of the owner. Grabouw is known for the more than half of South African’s apples that are grown here. This town is also the commercial centre for the fruit and timber growing areas of Elgin and Hottentots Holland.


7. HOTTENTOT HOLLAND NATURE RESERVE
The Hottentot Holland Mountains Nature Reserve covers 42 000 ha and provides protection to 1 300 species of mountain fynbos. The reserve stretches from Sir Lowry’s Pass in the south to the Franschhoek Pass in the north and from the Stellenbosch Mountains in the west to the Groenland Mountains in the east. Several day walks and overnight trails can be explored.


8. VILJOEN’S PASS
Viljoen’s Pass twists and turns through the mountains between the towns Grabouw and Elgin through to Villiersdorp. It was named in honour of Sir Antonie Viljoen, the man who began the apple industry after the Anglo Boer War. The original pass was replaced in the early 1900s by a route cutting through the Groenland Mountains along a gorge carved by the Palmiet River. Lookout points give exquisite views from the crest over the fruit farms and the even more spectacular Theewaterskloofdam.


9. THEEWATERSKLOOF DAM
Theewaterskloofdam is built in the 1970s, it is the largest dam in the Western Cape. The dam was built to improved the water of a tangle of rivers including the east-flowing Riversonderend. The brownish colour of the water accounts for the name of the dam (Tea-water –ravine). The dam is a popular venue for water-sport enthusiasts.


10. FRANSCHHOEK PASS
The original route over the Franschhoek Pass Mountains followed the tracks of the San and migratory game – hence the original name of Elephant Pass. Building of the present pass began in 1923 and was completed in 1925. Viewpoints offer impressive scenes over the picturesque Franschhoek Valley. The mountains are covered with the Cape fynbos and one may encounters baboons along the way.


11. FRANSCHHOEK
Franschhoek (in the center of the Cape Town wine lands) was found 1688 when the Hugenots were settled here. The town’s name means “French corner”. As a legacy of their Hugenot past, many fine estates and homesteads still bears their original French names. A graceful, imposing memorial and museum commemorates the arrival of early Hugenots. Franschhoek is a pleasant little town and a culinary mecca to be explored.


12. HELLSHOOGTE PASS
Hells Hoogte Pass or literally Hell’s Heights meaning “Steep Heights”. Hell’s Hoogte Pass connects Stellenbosch with the Franschhoek Valley. It was built in 1854 and is a scenic drive through the Jonkershoek mountains and Simonsberg. En-route on the Hells’s Hoogte Pass one experience how the Jonkers Hoek Mountain changes its shape dramatically from a different point of view.


13. STELLENBOSCH
Stellenbosch is the second oldest Dutch settlement in South Africa (in the heart of the cape town wine lands) and is established in 1679 by the Dutch governor Simon van der Stel. The town has the most Cape Dutch style buildings that is only found in South Africa. The wineroute of Stellenbosch was the first to open in 1971 and is also the largest. Stellenbosch is the heart of the Winelands and a town enlivened by its large student population. Stellenbosch is well served by pubs and taverns and a very social life by students at the local university.


14. SPIER
The wine estate has recently been renovated and upgraded into a showpiece for the Cape Town wine lands. Spier offers much to the visitor. One can relax and spend the whole day at Spier. A cheetah breeding project, Eagle encounters and horses for equestrian and pony rides for children forms part of the property. Picnic baskets are for sale to be enjoyed under the lovely trees around a huge pond. Other attractions are wine tasting, a wine shop, an open air amphitheatre that offers live jazz, classical and light music in summer and much more.


15. ADDITIONAL: CAPE TOWN WINE TASTING
It was the Dutch who first brought the vines to the Cape in 1654 and harvested first grapes in 1658. On 2 February 1659 Jan van Riebeeck produced the first wine and wrote: “today, praise the Lord, wine was pressed from the Cape grapes for the first time” in his diary. The sunny slope, the cooling ocean breezes, exceptionally fertile soil, the fact that the coastal region at the Cape is free from hail and frost in the fall, create ideal conditions for growing wine. Wine king Hugh Johnson declared “Nowhere in the world it is easier to produce excellent wine than in Cape Town Wine Lands”.

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