5 GREAT day trips around Cape Town

Pick your own grapes at De Doorns House Estate
If you haven't already exper­i­enced what it is to pick your own food, then head off to De Doorns Homestead in the Hex River Valley. Not only is this one of the most gor­geous val­leys known to man, it is also very access­ible and an easy day trip from Cape Town. De Doorns lies between Worcester and Touws River on the N1, about one and a half hours' drive, nestled in amongst the Hex and Quado Mountains — snow­capped dur­ing winter, and incred­ibly lush and fer­tile dur­ing sum­mer. Harvest sea­son is typ­ic­ally between January and May, and you can pick your own grapes from the vine­yards of this typ­ical Cape Dutch homestead that is not only a work­ing table grape farm but a national monu­ment too – cer­tainly the centre gable has been around since 1769 ...

The farm offers beau­ti­ful views of the sur­round­ing area and a chance to walk in amongst vine­yards – an exper­i­ence that could eas­ily serve as the only real way to exper­i­ence the Cape. The farm doesn't have its own res­taur­ant, but join the R46  and then the R303 from here for a scenic drive through Ceres, and on to Wellington and Paarl, before head­ing home. There should be any num­ber of oppor­tun­it­ies for sampling tra­di­tional Cape fare. Or head back into Worcester and do the Worcester Wine Route, which includes the labels Aan-de-Doorns, Hex River Valley, Nuy and Scherpenheuwel. Besides, with your boot full of table grapes, there may be little need to ruin your pal­ate with food! Contact De Doorns House Estate: +27 (0)23 356‑2221

Wining & din­ing in Durbanville
It's hard to believe that just 20 minutes' drive from Cape Town brings you to a val­ley lit­er­ally on the edge of the north­ern sub­urbs, where gor­geous views and excel­lent wine farms tumble over one another to vie for atten­tion. And yet these are so often over­looked for the wine routes of Stellenbosch, Franschhoek and beyond.

Wine labels include Meerendal, De Grendel, Bloemendal, Altydgedacht, Diemersdal, D'Aria, Hillcrest and Nitida, many of which have res­taur­ants worth sampling. We've vis­ited Nitida wines for their farm­ers' mar­ket, which takes place on the last Saturday of every month, has been run­ning since June 2007. It is well worth attend­ing, not just because the views and the set­ting out here are simply beau­ti­ful, but because of the sense of com­munity the farm­ers' mar­ket exudes as you sup­port local grow­ers and pro­du­cers, and tuck into scrummy food. It's called the 'Degustazione' Farmers' Market, and the next one is Friday, 26 February from 5pm to 9.30pm, and Saturday, 27 February 7.30am to 12 noon.

D'aria and Hillcrest wine estates both have res­taur­ants, as does almost 300 year-old Bloemendal. Altydgedacht holds pic­nics on selec­ted Sundays from lunch time. Whilst par­ents get to sit in the shade on beau­ti­ful lawns, there are fun things for kids to do like tractor rides and mak­ing their own cup­cakes. Look out for har­vest fest­ivals at this time of year as many wine farms make use of them to draw vis­it­ors and they're a great time to visit.

Cut your own roses and have tea at Chart Farm
Often over­looked and hid­den in amongst the Constantia wine farms, Chart Farm in Wynberg over­looks the Constantia Valley with to-die-for views, really reas­on­ably priced pots of tea, deli­cious cake, and a selec­tion of roses that imme­di­ately trans­ports you into another world. A couple of hours spent strolling and pick­ing here, and you'll won­der at the end of it where your long, sweep­ing skirts and bon­net are.

Picking roses at Chart farm is inex­pens­ive, and your bunch of roses holds an extra appeal simply because you picked it your­self, and you get to feel particlarly self-righteous when you con­sider that the dis­tance roses have to travel from garden to table is just about noth­ing. It might be my ima­gin­a­tion, but they seem to smell that much more potent when they've not spent time in a fridge whilst en route to a super­mar­ket! The cof­fee shop is fairly pop­u­lar over a week­end, so get here early or out­side of the lunch and tea rush. The views are worth it!

Don't for­get: take your own secateurs, gloves (those thorns!), and bucket with water for hot days, as the roses can wilt en route home.

Take the R44, scenic drive to Betty's Bay
Route 44 begins only 100 kilo­metres from Cape Town and lies between Gordon's bay and Betty's Bay, one of the most scenic and peace­ful drives (when it isn't a hec­tic week­end) in the Cape, and a beau­ti­ful altern­at­ive to the N2, if you have time on your side. Its other name is Clarence Drive. Actually it is more cor­rect to call it the Faure Marine Drive, as it only becomes Clarence Drive at Rooiels, where it heads inland slightly and cuts around the back of Pringle Bay to Betty's Bay.

Betty's Bay is a gor­geous, no longer quite so small, town (as many Capetonians now use this as their week­end haunt, or have houses here and com­mute) in the heart of a pro­tec­ted Biosphere just bey­ond Cape Hangklip. It for­tu­nately is not yet on the beaten track for most vis­it­ors and has man­aged to retain its rus­tic, sea­side tran­quil­lityy, and its prized black oyster catch­ers. The beach is often as not windswept, but incred­ibly wild and beau­ti­ful, and a day spent here, fol­lowed by a trip to visit the pen­guins at Stony Point, or a trip to the Harold Porter Botanical garden, is a lovely outing.

World of Birds – Hout Bay
Nestled in amongst the trees in Hout Bay, the World of Birds is a bird and wild­life sanc­tu­ary where you can get close-up and per­sonal with typ­ic­ally South African birds and beasts, like guineafowl, cranes, meerkats and pen­guins. It's the largest bird park in Africa yet man­ages to retain the feel of a large trop­ical garden, against the back­drop of awe­some mountains.

Great horned owls, peafowls, mute swans, jungle fowl, horn­bills, para­keets, thrushes, tur­keys, vul­tures and flamin­gos are just a few of the over 3 000 birds, whilst small anim­als include squir­rel mon­keys, por­cu­pines, hedge­hogs, guinea pigs, racoons and squir­rels. Particularly for vis­it­ors and chil­dren, the World of Birds is a fairly bet­witch­ing chance to exper­i­ence an amaz­ing array of beasts and birds. You can also bring your own pic­nic to enjoy on the Flamingo Terrace.

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