Popular activities for kids in the Winelands are strawberry picking and grape juice tastings. However, these are just a few examples of what children can do in this stunning region. Who knew that there are plenty of activities and fun places to visit for the whole family?
I want to bring my kids in the Cape Winelands, what could we get up to?F
Although not in the Winelands, you can certainly start our day at the Two Oceans Aquarium before proceeding to the Winelands, where you can explore the wildlife of the Indian and Atlantic Ocean. Then, you can head to the Giraffe House, a wildlife awareness centre that hosts not just giraffes, but a lot of other animal species such as Vervet Monkeys, Meerkat, Crocodiles, Ostriches, parrots, Jackals and many more.
You should also definitely check out the farm of Fairview. This wine estate founded in 1693 organises wine tastings for the parents whilst the children can taste juice and visit the Goat Tower. Make sure to also visit their bakery and try their hand made pastries, baguettes and cakes.
From Fairview website
How can I raise awareness amongst my kids about South African wildlife while exploring the Cape Winelands?
Take one of the guided tours at the Cheetah Outreach, an education and community-based programme created to raise awareness of the plight of the cheetah and to campaign for its survival. You could also visit Drakenstein Lion Park, a lion rescue centre which is also home to the new Chimp Haven. This facility has been built to house the chimps that have been displaced by the closure of Tygerberg Zoo. If you want to see all the big cats at the same time, visit the BigCats Park at Vredenheim, that hosts brown and white lions, leopards and Bengal tigers.
Where could my kids discover reptiles and smaller animals in the Winelands?
We also recommend visiting Eagle Encounters, a wildlife rehabilitation, conservation, education and eco-tourism centre. Also make sure you visit Le Bonheur Crocodile Farm, a kid-friendly destination near Cape Town offering prime viewing of crocodiles. Take one of the guided tours that depart every 45 minutes. The crocodile farm is home to over a 1000 crocodiles and is opened 9 til 5, 7 days a week. Visit the Butterfly World to find a magical world of tropical butterflies. You will soon realise that this is not just a butterfly park, but that that it’s a sanctuary for exotic animals. They have reptiles, exotic birds and other small animals.
Is there any other hidden gems for kids in the Cape Winelands?
We can visit Vergenoegd Wine Estate to watch the morning “duck parade”. During this parade, the Vergenoegd farm utilises 1070 running ducks to assist in the control of the snail and pest population in the vineyards. They have a basic research and breeding programme to keep the ducks productive, healthy and happy. Take a tour of the duck pens and the breeding room with one of their friendly duck herders. Enjoy the parade with a glass of Runner Duck wine from 09:00-10:00am on week days to see how they perform their eco-friendly duties of chemical-free pest control.
Any good markets my kids could enjoy?
Also visit a choice of Saturday and/or Sunday farmers markets in Stellenbosch. The Slowfood market takes its inspiration from the Slow food Movement. Their aim is to bring all food sourced, grown, raised, harvested, caught and preserved by the producers themselves. Root 44 market is, as the name suggests, situated on the Route 44 between Stellenbosch and Somerset. This market has many food stands and is all about family fun. Furthermore, the market offers funky live entertainment, craft and homeware stalls. The Blaauwklippen Family Market is one of South Africa’s oldest markets, dating back to 1682. The market is situated on the slopes of Stellenbosch mountain, surrounded by vineyards. This market offers plenty of activities for children, including a bouncing castle, pony rides, trampolines and more.
Finally, how can I end a beautiful day in the Winelands with my kids ?
Another must-visit with your children is the DelVera agri-village, a true paradise where children can play on the lawns and run around, they can feed and pet the donkeys, ride a go-kart, ride a bike on the kids bicycle trail and horseback riding. Visit one of the boutique shops with arts & crafts, restaurants and cafés. From DelVera, you can also go for a hike in the stunning surrounding area. Every month (September – April), the Dirtopia team organises a full-moon hike. On top of the Klapmutskop, enjoy a picnic while watching the sunset and then see the full moon rise.
From Delvera Agri-village website
Now that you know more about places and activities for kids in the Cape Winelands, click here for our Private Cape Town tours.
Some of our Reviews
Excellent outing – highly recommended
Reviewed April 22, 2014
5 of 5 stars
“On a recent trip to South Africa we had the good fortune of booking a day trip with David. He was polite, knowledgeable and contributed a wealth of knowledge about the destinations we visited. In fact we had such a great day out with him that we booked surfing lessons with him the next day, and he managed to get the whole lot of us to stand up on the board (not an easy task).
He was excellent company – a sentiment shared by our entire group, in fact each of the children enjoyed his company so much that they all wrote in their travel diary about “how much fun they had with David” and how nice he is.
Absolutely 5+++++ stars. Wish him the very best, and if we ever have the good fortune to go back we’ll hope to tour with him again! Cheers!”
Caroline, Toronto, Canada
Simply amazing tour company with fantastic customer service!
Reviewed February 13, 2018
5 of 5 stars
“My family and I (husband plus two kids) had a fantastic experience with David and his team at African Blue Tours. We booked several day trips with them and each one was better than the next. Our tour guide Duncan was great, very knowledgeable, patient with us and with our young girls and attentive. Duncan answered all our questions on South Africa, on its history and everything in-between. When it came time to taste wines during our wine tours, he took the girls outside to feed the goats while my husband and I enjoyed just a little bit of the wine tasting g uninterrupted. All this to say, very attentive, and customer oriented.
Last but certainly not least, the booking was easy and David was very responsive. It was easy to communicate and to get suggestions on different activities to better plan and maximize our time in Capetown. A wonderful and memorable visit. Thank you David and Duncan.”
Robben Island has implemented new requirements for those wishing to visit the island, this comes on the back of a near tragedy with ferry Thandi a few months ago in rough seas.
All clients must now provide relevant identification when purchasing a ticket according to the Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (SATSA). This could be a passport, identity document (ID), birth certificate, or driver’s licence.
Robben Island Museum said the move was part of an ongoing effort to provide guests with the best possible service, says SATSA.
Those visiting the island must ensure that they also have their tickets and identification at hand, at all times to be checked before and after boarding the ferry.
SATSA understands that this is a newly implemented process (without any prior warning), and is both time consuming for operators and difficult to manage with the upcoming high season. SATSA will be looking for ways to engage with the museum to find a workable solution for all those affected.
With Cape Town offering so much variety to be experienced on any visit, we have compiled a few reasons why we feel you should consider booking multiple day tours with African Blue Tours.
In Cape Town, it’s not uncommon to experience 4 seasons in a day and even up to 8 seasons on certain moodier days! At African Blue Tours, we pride ourselves in having a deeper understanding than most when it comes to our city’s ever changing weather and are thus in a good position to be able to manage the order of your tours and their daily itineraries, to enable our clients to experience the best possible time in the Mother City.
Our years of experience, allow African Blue Tours to offer the following differentiating factors:
Comfort & flexibility: We will provide a relaxed and comfortable environment for you to fully immerse yourself in your bespoke touring experience, always remaining flexible to your needs and wishes.
Cape Town weather: Whilst we do not control the weather, we have the local knowledge to minimize its effect on your holiday plans as we are always watching the charts. Where necessary, we will swop your tour days around and even mix up the daily itinerary to maximise our clients touring experience.
Real local knowledge: We can offer various “off the beaten track” local secrets and adventures, sometimes traveling in the opposite direction to most, to avoid wasting valuable time in traffic and long queues. Let us take away the guesswork and headache of trying to figure out which tour is best on which day, in addition to suggesting any last minute changes to take advantage of the predicted weather.
Customised & personalized itineraries: As our guides get to learn of your preferences and character, they can start suggesting additional places, activities, restaurants and even secluded beaches that will enhance your Cape Town experience, all the while trying their best to cover all of your requests over the time spent with them on tour.
Professionalism: If you wish, our guides can talk all day long however they also know how to quickly find the right balance for each client. We actually prefer to let our 300+ Tripadvisor reviews and “Certificate of Excellence” awards for the past 5 years do the talking for us, please take a look here.
Provide preparation and prevent repetition: By using our guides on multiple tours, they will be able to further prepare your remaining days spent with them to suit your preferences and special requests. You will also avoid having to start all over again with a new guide and the inherent small talk with repetitive commentary that comes with this change.
Obviously we can’t offer all the tours and activities ourselves, the above facts are just to point out why you should consider using our services for multiple day tours during your stay in our beautiful city. To view these itineraries, please visit our website here.
Let us take care of the details and you sit back and enjoy your holiday.
What Clients’ Say
Below are a few relevant Tripadvisor reviews that expand on our post above …
Amazing Tour around Cape Town
5 of 5 stars Reviewed: 16 September 2016
“We booked 3 days personalized trips around Cape Town with African Blue Tours. Our guide, Duncan, made the trip simply marvelous. Our original 3 day itinerary was changed a little bit to suit the weather conditions which worked completely to our favour. Duncan was very knowledgeable, readily answered all our questions and enriched us with his valuable insights of the neighbourhood. He ensured we were comfortable and planned the trip to our pace and likes. He also put in some extra effort to ensure we experienced the most beautiful sunset along False Bay.
Highly recommended by us !”
Sushant_15, Pune, India
Excelent 2 days with Duncan
5 of 5 stars Reviewed: 16 September 2016
“Perfect way to enjoy Cape Town and outstanding customer service. We booked a private Cape Peninsula tour and private transport to the Aquila safari. Based on the weather David switched the tours so we would have the best possible weather on the Cape tour – turned out perfectly. Duncan was an excellent guide – friendly and informative yet didn’t feel the need to talk the whole time which I appreciated. He offered suggestions along the way that we could decide what to do: extra wine tour stop on the way back from the Safari, making lunch reservations for us at Cape Point. Highly recommend this company!”
Wessbkl, Illinios, USA
Cape Point 1 day tour
5 of 5 stars Reviewed: 16 July 2017
“Matthew contacted me at our hotel the day before our planned trip to say the weather forecast for the following day was not very good and did we want to leave the tour till the day after? This proved to be a good plan as the weather the day after was great. African Blue Tours did not have to do this. It just shows that they want to give the customer the best experience possible, and if that means putting a trip off till a better day then so be it.
We had a very enjoyable day with Matthew and the good weather compared with the day before made a big difference. He was able to adapt the tour to our requirements, to fit in places we wanted to see and leave out places that we had already seen. He had a good depth of knowledge and was able to answer most questions put to him along the way. If you do book a tour with African Blue (and I would certainly recommend you do) and are lucky enough to get Matthew as your guide, just ask him how far south of Cape Point does the Southern Ocean start? Lets see if he has googled it yet.”
Waveydavey1959, London, UK
Enjoyable
5 of 5 stars Reviewed: 30 May 2016
“I have to commend this company for their flexibility and professionalism.
Duncan was our guide and he was most knowledgeable (facts and figures on the ready); friendly and quite frankly saved us a lot of time and hassle. We were booked to go to Table Mountain the next day and if it weren’t for Duncan we would never have gone, as the weather changed the next day and the mountain cable way closed. He was kind enough to double check for us and organised for us to go that very day… I would recommend this company to anyone going to Cape Town as they will give you the full experience of the city and its sights but with none of the hassle. We where picked up and dropped off on time as well.”
Anamika101, Durban, South Africa
Always one step a head of our needs and wants (Best Trip & Experiences)
5 of 5 stars Reviewed: 13 March 2017
“From the beginning of our communication with African Blue Tours David was extremely helpful. He assisted with knowledge of what can and cannot work, but also responded quickly to all of my questions (and I asked a million questions). Communicating with David made it easy to complete our itinerary and also at a great price compared to other tour companies. I truly thought this was a major company with tons of workers based on the website setup, prompt responses, professionalism etc. When I learned it was a smaller company it made me even happier to work with them.
What was amazing to me was how quickly they worked to make every unexpected change work out for us. David and our guide Duncan, were always one step a head. They were always on time, prompt, and friendly. We had a blast with Duncan, picking his brain about the history of what we were seeing, and it was a great time. Rather than feeling like we had a tour guide with us, it truly just felt like we had a group of friends going about Cape Town.
When we made changes (sometimes last minute to the itinerary) they worked with us. We added a friend to the tour, we asked to change around dates to accompany a proposal.. but through it all Duncan was already making calls, making adjustments. One of these adjustments including us wanting to do a township tour. On the way back from one of our tours, and some how they made it work for us the very next day.
I have truly never seen a more organized, fun, and informational tour as this. I would definitely recommend it to everyone if they go to Cape Town (They can also organize pick ups in Johannesburg as well they did that for us.)
Overall we did Shark Cage Diving, Township Tour, Cape Town Peninsula, Cape Town City Tour.
Thank you so much Duncan and David for making our trip to South Africa one we will truly never forget. And thanks for putting up with all of our craziness in the car rides.”
For those that will be visiting the lovely Mother City in July this year, its good to know that the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company has announced it will be closing once again for its annual maintenance period.
The cableway will undergo it’s annual maintenance (this is a good thing) from the 7th – 27th July 2020 and (notwithstanding any issues) will reopen on Tuesday, 28th July 2020. This certainly does not mean the mountain is off limits so the more adventurous can still enjoy using any of the beautiful trails to hike up, down or around our natural wonder of the world
It’s happening! After all this time you will finally go on a Safari: Game Drives, the Big Five and maybe even a Safari Walk are on the top of your list, but … what do you bring?
There are multiple things that are super convenient and that really contribute to the most amazing safari experience you can get. The following list provides you with the most important stuff you need before you start your new adventure:
Sunscreen: easily forgotten but very important. Imagine being out in an open safari vehicle with the sun in your face and the wind blowing through your hair. Sounds amazing, but looking in the mirror afterwards might be a bit of a rude awakening. You don’t want to miss out on all the animals because they’ve already spotted your red nose before you could even come close!
Insect repellent and long clothes to protect you (in the early mornings and early evenings). Make sure you’ve got socks that cover your ankles at dusk and dawn when the mosquitos are around the most. During the day you are fine with shorts and a T-shirt.
Flashlight, binoculars and photographic equipment. Of course you have to bring some awesome photos back home with you.
Money for lunch and hydration on transfer days to your safari destination and for those long days in the national parks and private game reserves.
Closed walking shoes, sunglasses and swimming gear to cool off from the midday heat in the swimming pool, not at the many watering holes!
Casual neutral-coloured clothes by day and a pullover for the sunset drive. It can get quite cold in the evenings so make sure you have something warm and comfortable to wear for activities that take place in the evening or at night.
Pair of flip flops in case your other shoes get wet.
Last but not least: a good pair of eyes to spot the magic of all of those hidden animals! Don’t worry on your first few game drives if you struggle to spot game, your eyes will soon adjust and become bush savvy.
If you make sure you have the above things with you on your trip, it could just give that little extra comfort to the Safari!
Malaria risk
In general, Kruger National Park and surrounding areas are low risk malaria areas. However, our rainy months from December to March bring a higher risk. Therefore, we recommend discussing preventative medication with your medical practitioner or travel clinic.
Travel insurance
We strongly recommend to all our guests that they obtain comprehensive travel insurance. Please ensure that you have adequate travel insurance to cover cancellation penalties. Special insurance may be required if you undertake any extreme or potentially dangerous activities (e.g. adrenalin or endurance sports).
Penguins are normally seen surrounded by snow, ice and cold conditions. But there is one species however, that likes the sun just as much as we do. While most penguins are huddling up to stay warm, the African Penguin waddles around in the sand and occasionally catches a wave to stay cool. The following facts will give you some more information about these true African surfer dudes:
As the name suggests, African Penguins live in Africa. They are usually seen in colonies that can be found from southern Namibia all the way around the South African coast to Port Elizabeth. But the most famous (and probably the coolest) spot to visit these tuxedoed chaps is just outside Cape Town at Boulders Beach on the Cape Peninsula.
The African Penguin is often called by it’s peculiar nickname: the Jackass Penguin. This nickname arose because of their donkey-like braying sound they use to communicate. So don’t be startled when you think you hear a donkey at the beach, it’s probably one of our little friends coming to say hi! And another name for this penguin is the black-footed penguin.
African Penguins are covered in water-proof and dense feathers. Even though temperatures in Africa are quite pleasant throughout the whole year, the water can be extremely cold. The black and white feathers keep the penguins warm when they go out for a swim or hunting. The feathers are also very convenient for camouflage. Whereas the white belly will blend with the light as predators look up from down below, the black backs blend (try saying that 6 times without failing) with darker seas when there’s predators coming from above.
African penguins have an average lifespan of 10-15 years. However, many do not reach this age and populations have been decreasing for a while. Overfishing and pollution are a great cause of this problem. Luckily the penguins are now considered endangered and many try to solve the problems so that the penguins can hopefully live a long and happy life.
The only thing cuter than the full-sized penguins are probably their chicks. African Penguins breed within their colonies, it means they don’t travel places to give birth. The Penguins create burrows which they dig out themselves and create with their own excrement, called guano. These burrows will be their nests for the coming chicks and are perfect for protecting the young ones against the sun and predators. It takes two caring parents and 2-4 years for these fluffy balls to fully mature.
