Attention wine lovers! Tantalise your taste buds and brush up on your wine knowledge on our Full Day Winelands Tour. Enjoy two wine tastings at award-winning wine farms, accompanied by a cheese assortment and cellar tour, and view the Drakenstein Prison where Nelson Mandela spent the last part of his captivity, and visit the Huguenots museum and memorial monument.
Trip Itinerary
We start the morning off in the Stellenbosch winelands, only 20 minutes outside of Cape Town, which offers majestic scenery that is entirely different from the Cape Peninsula. You will discover various grape varieties that grow in the area, including Chenin Blanc, Shiraz, and the uniquely South African Pinotage. You will also learn about the Méthode Cap Classique developed in the region, which emulates and rivals the very best French champagnes. Stellenbosch is a small yet vibrant town with a renowned university and numerous activities, including wine cellar tours and tastings, museums, galleries, and strawberry picking. You will have the opportunity to purchase wines to bring back home to enjoy the region's delightful vintages after your visit.
Franschhoek
We then head to Franschhoek—a wine lover's dream destination, also known as "the French corner," an old Huguenot village. With its numerous streets and estates with French names, the town will make you feel completely bewildered, as if you were in France in another era. You will be completely enchanted by the town's charm and its peaceful environment. You will get the chance to taste the region's delicacies, cheeses, and its best wines. You will visit the Huguenot Memorial Museum, which is the history of the Huguenots before and after their arrival at the Cape of Good Hope at the end of the seventeenth century.
Drakenstein Prison
Drakenstein, also known as Victor Verster Prison, is located between Franschhoek and Paarl. The prison is famous for being the one where Nelson Mandela spent the last fourteen months of his imprisonment for campaigning against apartheid, thereafter leaving as a free man in February 1990. Here you will get to see a recently unveiled, larger-than-life-size statue of Nelson Mandela raising his fist, not in anger, but as a well-known gesture of defiance, usually accompanied by the freedom slogan 'Amandla awethu' in isiZulu or 'power to the people' in English.
