Wine Country-Cape Town, South Africa

March 2020- Being a wine lover, I had been looking forward to this part of our South Africa trip for quite a while. As we cleared the mountains, the sky literally opened up and Franschhoek was in sight!

A friend suggested we stay at Akademie Street and I owe him a case of La Motte wine for the recommendation! No matter where we travel, I’m typically the one a bit more obsessed with our accommodations. Akademie was the one exception. I’ve never heard Adam rave more about a hotel. While we were waiting to check in, I noticed hilarious, yet regal dog portraits along the wall when low and behold I spotted the bulldog. Obviously, Mabel would agree this was the hotel for us.

Checking into our room I began an instant Pinterest board in my head for design elements I want in our next master; bed frame check, soaking tub check, dutch door, yes please!

Declan and his staff made us feel instantly at home. We could sit by the secluded pool, grab a cocktail at happy hour or enjoy any of the other amenities of the property without a care in the world. And just beyond the doors, we were a quick walk to the center of town. We honestly can’t recommend Akademie Street enough. When we make it back, our only change will be to extend our stay!

Franschhoek is a wine lover/foodie dream! We bounced around town to do a few tastings and I managed to sneak in some shopping. One of our stops was Bovine, where we did an urban tasting from Woodstock Brewery and Black Elephant Vinters. Black Elephant has an event in their tasting room where they pair music with wines via a silent disco. You can see pictures of it on their Instagram account and it looks like it would be so fun to attend! But they are only open on the weekend so this was our next best option. And the fact, that Adam could do a beer tasting was an added bonus.

We spent some time enjoying the cozy happy hour back at Akademie Street before settling in for dinner at Le Bon Vivant. The tasting menu was delicious and at the end of dinner, you have an opportunity to donate to the local animal shelter! If this was an option in the US, I would do it every time.

The following day was a beautiful day for wine tasting; Ok, who I am kidding, I can turn any day into a good day for wine tasting but the beautiful weather was a welcome addition. We started the day at Haute Cabriere where we took in the views and grabbed a bottle of Rosé to enjoy in Cape Town.

We then headed to La Motte; this was definitely my favorite of all our tastings. We enjoyed it so much, we had a case shipped home! The grounds are worth exploring and although we did not eat there, we’ve heard the restaurant is also worth a trip.

Our next stop was Bablystoren. I’ll admit I didn’t know as much about their wines but I did have a slight obsession with their Instagram account. In addition to being a winery, it is a working farm with a boutique hotel and top rated restaurant, Babel. We enjoyed walking the grounds and grabbing a bite to eat while sharing a bottle of wine at their outdoor space, the Greenhouse.

On our way back into town, we stopped at the Franschhoek Beer Company which was just a pretty as all the wineries it was situated between.

That evening we enjoyed dinner at Protege which was conveniently located a few blocks from our hotel. This was one of my favorite meals of the trip. I loved the decor and open atmosphere of the restaurant almost as much as I loved the food!

We were excited to come back that evening and find we had the pool to ourselves! The next morning we said goodbye to our new friends at Akademie Street and drove to Cape Town.

When trying to plan so much into two weeks it became challenging to spend as much time as we wanted in all locations. We had two full days in Cape Town but I would loved to have had an extra day or two to hit all the sights we had on our list.

In terms of our stay, we went the practical route and used some Marriott points to book 15 on Orange which is located in the center of town. Naturally the first thing I did in our room was sneak a peak at the view of Table and Lion’s Head Mountain.

It was important to me that we visited the District Six Museum. It honors a Cape Town neighborhood that was destroyed during Apartheid. It was a somber reminder of the not so distant past. South Africa is a beautiful country but it has a very complicated history (much like other countries including my own) when it comes to the race equality. There is still much financial inequality that is present throughout the country. Personally, I did not feel it was appropriate for me to take pictures or tour a township, but I would suggest anyone who plans to visit South Africa to do their own research.

We spent the afternoon in the V&A Waterfront. I went in thinking I would find it too touristy but ended up really enjoying the area. One of my favorite stops was Watershed. While yes, I love to shop, what I really loved about Watershed was that all the vendors were local artist. On my own, I could have easily spent hours going from stall to stall but since Adam was with me I tried to make it through as efficiently as I could. (He would likely tell you, it still felt like I was there for hours!)

We ventured along the Waterfront so I could get a peak a the Silo Hotel; one of the newer hotels in Cape Town featuring the Zeitz MOCCA Museum. The building is pretty incredible but the rooms are definitely not cheap. Next visit, I need to figure out a way to take in the view from their rooftop pool.

That evening, we had reservations at FYN and we arrived just in time to take in a beautiful sunset before turning our attention to our tasting menu.

Dinner at FYN was delicious, super creative in terms of presentation and just fun! Sometimes, a “foodie” type meal can feel a little stuffy to me but FYN was the exact opposite of that atmosphere. We loved sitting at the counter and watching all the course presentations being created in real time. Adam and I both would absolutely recommend it! After dinner, we ended the evening with one final stop to the Gorgeous George rooftop.

The next morning, I had a detailed itinerary that started with a hike up Lion’s Head. Instead we woke up to a very low cloud layer. I had heard this was quite common but thought, “How bad could it be?”. Well, as it turns out, it can be pretty bad. Looking out the same window I had the day before, I couldn’t even see a hill let alone a mountain. So we changed plans and headed over to another item on our list, the neighborhood of Woodstock. We stopped by the Old Biscuit Mill for brunch and checked out a few of the local breweries in the neighborhood.

While enjoying a beverage we looked outside to see the clouds had all but disappeared. We didn’t have time to hike Lion’s Head, but we did have time to take the cableway to the top of Table Mountain. The views from the top were really astounding. Adam was a bit more daring in his picture posing but I definitely enjoyed all the sights from a safe distance.

We head back to Woodstock for our dinner at Potluck Club. Potluck is the sister restaurant to Test Kitchen which is also located in the Old Biscuit Mill. Test Kitchen is often named one of the top restaurants in the world and not an easy reservation to get. We knew we had to be up extremely early the next morning for our safari flight so we opted for an early reservation at Potluck Club instead. (While, an easier reservation to get, I would still recommended booking far in advance if possible.) Every dish as Potluck Club was quite tasty and I instantly became a fan of their specialty cocktails.