4 Best Sights in The Western Cape and Winelands, South Africa

This large producer makes wines under a number of labels. Look out for the Premium range as well as the award-winning Darling Cellars Blanc de Blanc sparkling wine. Other suggestions include the Reserve Bush Vine Sauvignon Blanc, with notes of cut grass, passion fruit, green figs, traces of guava on the nose, and a zingy aftertaste. Don't miss out on the Sweet Darling range, a selection of white, red, and rosé wines made from local grapes. It's all good, drinkable stuff at very affordable prices.

Former dairy farmer Peter Pentz had enough of getting up at 4 am to milk his cows, so together with his son, Nick, he turned instead to grapes at Groote Post Vineyard. The large, environmentally sensitive winery got off to a fantastic start when its maiden 1999 Sauvignon Blanc was judged one of the best in the Cape, and Groote Post has been winning awards ever since. Try the Groote Post Kapokberg Sauvignon Blanc, packed with flavors of granadilla, green fig, and green pepper. The restaurant, Hilda's Kitchen, is an excellent choice for lunch and makes scrumptious picnic baskets teeming with local cheeses and cured meats, quiches, and chocolate brownies (order these in advance). Game drives through the unique renosterveld ("rhino vegetation" in Afrikaans) are offered during the summer; advanced bookings are essential.

As you head out of Cape Town on the N1 or R27 on your way up the coast, it's easy to whiz past the tiny whitewashed settlement of Mamre on the R304. But it's worth turning off here to check out the old thatch buildings that made up the Moravian Mission Station, founded in 1808. The church here is almost always open, but phone ahead to make sure. All the buildings dating from this period have been restored and declared national monuments. It is signposted in Afrikaans: Morawiese Kerk. Unfortunately, the rest of the town is unlovely and crippled with the usual ills of unemployment and poverty.

From August to early October, the wonderful Tienie Versfeld Wildflower Reserve is an unpretentious, uncommercial little gem showing off a range of South African veld plants. Look out for the geophytes—plants uniquely adapted for this type of environment—which come in a striking array of sizes and colors.