Cape Town, the Cape Winelands, and the Garden Route: The Perfect South Africa Holiday for UK Travellers

Not every South Africa trip needs to be built around safari. The Western Cape: Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, and the Garden Route coast, is one of the world’s great travel regions: a combination of dramatic mountain scenery, world-class wine, spectacular beaches, and a food culture that stands comparison with anywhere in Europe. For UK travellers who want Africa’s warmth, scenery, and extraordinary setting without the safari premium, the Western Cape is the answer.

Flight Dreamers arranges Cape Town-focused South Africa packages from the UK: flights, hotels, car hire, and Winelands itineraries. Visit Africa Travel for current availability and deals.

Cape Town: Everything You Need to Know About One of the World’s Most Spectacular Cities

Table Mountain, the V&A Waterfront, and the Essential Cape Town Experiences for UK First-Time Visitors

Table Mountain is the defining image of Cape Town: and it is every bit as extraordinary in person as the photographs suggest. The aerial cableway runs from the lower station on Tafelberg Road to the summit in seven minutes, operating (weather permitting) daily from 8am. The summit plateau covers three square kilometres, with walking trails and views across the city, the Atlantic, and the surrounding mountains. Book cable car tickets online in advance, queues at the station can be significant in season.

The V&A Waterfront is Cape Town’s most polished district, a working harbour surrounded by restaurants, the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA), the Two Oceans Aquarium, and the famous Nobel Square with its statues of four South African Nobel laureates. The Waterfront’s hotel strip includes the One and Only Cape Town and the Table Bay Hotel, two of the finest addresses in South Africa. Southern Sun Waterfront offers strong value at a more accessible price point.

Beyond the headline attractions, Cape Town’s neighbourhoods reward exploration. Sea Point is the city’s most cosmopolitan suburb, a long promenade, good restaurants, and a relaxed atmosphere. Bo-Kaap, with its painted houses and strong Cape Malay identity, is fifteen minutes walk from the Waterfront. Camps Bay the crescent beach backed by the Twelve Apostles is the place to watch the Atlantic sunset.

Hotels in Cape Town South Africa: From Five-Star Waterfront Addresses to Camps Bay Boutique Retreats

Cape Town’s hotel market spans every budget and style. The One and Only Cape Town, the Table Bay Hotel, the Twelve Apostles Hotel and Spa (perched above Camps Bay on the Atlantic coast), and Ellerman House in Bantry Bay represent the ultra-luxury end, world-class properties with prices to match, typically £300–600+ per room per night.

The mid-range Cape Town market is excellent, hotels like the Vineyard Hotel in Newlands, the President Hotel in Sea Point, the Cape Grace and Commodore at the Waterfront, and City Lodge at the Waterfront all deliver strong quality at £100 – 200 per night. For Stellenbosch and Franschhoek stays, the Protea Franschhoek and numerous smaller wine estate guesthouses offer exceptional value.

Good hotels in Cape Town South Africa are rarely difficult to find, the challenge is knowing which properties deliver on their promises and which ones photograph better than they stay. Flight Dreamers has first-hand knowledge of Cape Town’s hotel stock and can advise on the right property for your budget and travel style.

The Cape Winelands: Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, Babylonstoren, and the World-Class Wine Country One Hour from Cape Town

Stellenbosch and Franschhoek: The Heart of South Africa’s Wine Country and What to See, Drink, and Eat

Stellenbosch is South Africa’s wine capital: a university town of oak-lined streets, Cape Dutch architecture, and wine estates dating to the 1680s. The Stellenbosch Wine Route is one of the world’s oldest demarcated wine regions. Groot Constantia, the oldest wine estate in the country, produces wine on land granted in 1685. The town itself has excellent restaurants, a strong coffee culture, and a walkable centre that rewards an afternoon of unhurried exploration.

Franschhoek, in a valley an hour from Cape Town, is South Africa’s culinary capital. The Franschhoek Wine Tram takes visitors between estates on a leisurely open-sided tram, one of the most enjoyable ways to spend a wine country afternoon. The town’s main street is lined with excellent restaurants. The Tasting Room at Le Quartier Français and La Petite Ferme are among South Africa’s best. Hotels in Stellenbosch and Franschhoek fill quickly in harvest season (February – April), book well ahead.

Babylonstoren and Delaire Graff: South Africa’s Most Beautiful Wine Estates and How to Visit Them

Babylonstoren, in the Simonsberg foothills near Franschhoek, is one of the most extraordinary farm stays in the world, an 18th-century Cape Dutch manor surrounded by a vast kitchen garden, with accommodation in converted farm cottages, two restaurants, and a spa. Booking accommodation at Babylonstoren takes planning, it sells out months in advance. Day visits for the garden and restaurants are available without a booking.

Delaire Graff Lodge on the Stellenbosch mountain pass is the wine estate reimagined as a luxury art hotel rooms with private pools looking across to Table Mountain, an art collection of significant value, and a restaurant that competes with any in South Africa. Both Babylonstoren and Delaire Graff are estates that reward being experienced as stays rather than day visits.

The Garden Route: South Africa’s Most Scenic Coastal Drive and How to Plan the Perfect Road Trip

From Mossel Bay to Tsitsikamma: Planning the Garden Route for UK Travellers on a South Africa Self-Drive

The Garden Route begins at Mossel Bay, a pleasant coastal town with a good beach and the Bartholomeu Dias Museum Complex marking the arrival of the Portuguese in 1488 and ends at Storms River in the Tsitsikamma National Park, where suspension bridges over the gorge are among South Africa’s most photographed sights.

Key stops along the Garden Route include George (the main airport hub for the route), Wilderness (a long sandy beach and lagoon system), Knysna (the lagoon town famous for its oysters and Heads viewpoint), Plettenberg Bay (‘Plett’ a popular holiday town with excellent beaches), and the Storms River area with the Tsitsikamma Canopy Tour and Bloukrans Bridge bungee jump (the world’s highest commercial bungee at 216 metres).

The Garden Route works best as a four to seven day self-drive from Cape Town heading east collecting a hire car at Cape Town Airport, driving the N2 eastward, and flying home from George or Port Elizabeth. Car hire in south africa is straightforward from major international agencies; Flight Dreamers can include car hire as part of a complete Garden Route package from the UK. Visit Africa Travel to begin planning.

Hermanus and the Whale Coast: South Africa’s Other Great Coastal Experience Within Easy Reach of Cape Town

Hermanus, 90 minutes east of Cape Town on the Walker Bay coast, is the best land-based whale watching destination on earth Southern right whales come to Walker Bay to calve between June and December, approaching close enough to the clifftop paths that binoculars are sometimes unnecessary. The town has its own whale crier who blows a kelp horn to alert residents when whales are spotted.

Hermanus also has excellent restaurants, the Hemel-en-Aarde wine valley immediately inland, and a relaxed atmosphere that makes it an easy two-night addition to a Cape Town itinerary. It is one of those South Africa destinations that most UK travellers do not find on their own and are always grateful to have discovered.

My Experience

Cape Town is the city I recommend most unconditionally of anywhere I have ever visited. It is the city I have returned to most often, the city I have sent the most people to, and the city where the reaction is almost universally the same: I had no idea it was this extraordinary.

The morning light on Table Mountain. The drive along Chapman’s Peak at sunset. The Constantia wine valleys on a still February afternoon. Camps Bay at the end of a perfect day, the Twelve Apostles turning amber in the last of the sun, a cold Sauvignon Blanc from Stellenbosch in hand. South Africa’s Western Cape region does not need safari to be one of the world’s great travel destinations. It simply is.

The Cape Winelands surprised me the most. I went expecting something pleasant, a few nice estates, a good lunch. What I found was a wine region that stands genuine comparison with Burgundy and Bordeaux in quality, is vastly more accessible in atmosphere, and is about a quarter of the price. The Franschhoek lunch I am thinking of cost roughly £40 per person including wine that would have been £80 a bottle in London.

Babylonstoren I cannot recommend highly enough as a stay rather than a day visit. Two nights there in the rose-covered farm cottages, with the garden in the morning mist and the mountains behind is as peaceful a travel experience as I have had anywhere.

The Garden Route road trip is best done slowly. The UK traveller instinct is to drive it in two days. It needs five or six. Stop at every viewpoint. Have the Knysna oysters. Do the Bloukrans bungee if your nerve holds. Walk the Otter Trail in Tsitsikamma if you have time and the permit (book months ahead). The Garden Route rewards the traveller who slows down.

Book your Cape Town and Garden Route South Africa trip through Flight Dreamers. We know the properties, the routes, and the experiences that transform a good South Africa trip into an exceptional one.

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