Gordon's Bay / Somerset West / Strand
Country Craft Market Southey's Vines, Main Road, Somerset West. Open Sept-May, last Saturday of the month.You can find all sorts of arts and crafts with wich to decorate your home.
Gordon's Bay Harbour This quaint yachting, fishing-boat and ski-boat harbour has a lovely little seafood restaurant and a coffee shop. The R44 coastal road from Gordon's Bay to Rooi Els, Pringle Bay and Kleinmond offers spectacular views across False Bay. It's well worth a day trip.
Helderberg Nature Reserve Access via Main Street and Lourensford Road, Somerset West. Admission Free.Stretch your legs on colour-coded trails in the large preserve on the slopes of the Helderberg Peak. A popular picnic spot with lily and duck ponds, streams, herbarium, arboretum, indiginous natural forest and endemic fynbos and birdlife.
Sir Lowry's Pass N2. Opened in 1838, the pass over the Hottentos Holland mountains leads into the ale country of Elgin and Grabouw. The viewpoint at the summit affords spectacular views of the Cape Peninsula and the ruins of an old fort (1734).
Vergelegen Lourensford Road, Somerset West www.vergelegen.co.za. Founded in 1700 by Governor Adriaan van der Stel, the 300-year-old camphor trees, the exquisite rose gardens, parklands and hilltop cellar draw the tourists - as well as the award-winning wines of Andre van Rensburg, one of South Africa's leading winemakers.
In and around Cape Town
Table Mountain Lower cable station, Tafelberg Road www.tablemountain.net. Cape Town's most recognisable landmark, Table Mountain and its smaller siblings Lions Head and Signal Hill are an inevitable destination for any visitor. Hiking up the mountain is free but the quickest and easiest way up is via the aerial 360 degrees rotating cableway.
V&A Waterfront Down in the docklands you will find the V&A Waterfront complex. Developed around the harbour's older wharves, the Waterfront has all the sophistication of a major destination, combined with the charm of a working harbour. Boasting restaurants, shops, cinemas and the Two Oceans Aquarium.
Robben Island Ferries depart from the V&A Waterfront's Nelson Mandela Gateway www.robbenisland.co.za. Lying right in the middle of Table Bay and surrounded by sharks and shipwrecks is Robben Island, the key site of South Africa's liberation struggle. Since the fall of apartheid, a trip to Robben Island has become an essential pilgrimage for visitors to Cape Town, and the entire island was declared a UN World Heritage Site in December 1999.
Top 5 "Must Do's" in the City
1. Footsteps to Freedom - City Walk Departs Mon-Sat 10h30, Visitor Information Centre Corner Castle and Burg Streets. This superbly researched walking tour of historic Cape Town is the ideal way to get an understanding of the history, geography and cultural diversity of Cape Town.
2. Greenmarket Square Burg Street, Mon-Fri 09h00-16h30, Sat 09h00-15h30. The African pulse of Cape Town - a fleamarket of diverse cultures. For around 300 years this is where Africa, Europe and Asia have come together to trade, gossip and barter.
3. Castle of Good Hope www.castleofgoodhope.co.za, Daily 09h00-16h00.Completed in 1679, South Africa's oldest building and for 150 years the centre of Cape Town's colonial administrative, social and commercial life.
4. District Six Museum 25A Buitenkant Street, Mon 09h00-15h00, Tue-Sat 09h00-16h00, Closed: Christmas Day, New Year, Good Friday. Visit this memorial to the triumph of the human spirit over extreme adversity. The Footsteps to Freedom city walk incorporates a visit to this museum.
5. Gold of Africa Museum Martin Melck House, 96 Strand Street, museum@goldofafrica.com /www.goldofafrica.com. A living museum complex displaying magnificent artefacts from the gold-rich kingdoms of Africa. Goldsmiths' workshop, museum shop, wine cellar and coffe shop.
