I ♥ Robertson because ...

Hi, I'm Balbina Hürttlen, owner and man­ager from GUBAS DE HOEK ****meet, eat, sleep
in Robertson in the Breede River Valley. I ♥ Robertson because it’s a safe SMALL TOWN with a BIG HEART!

ROBERTSON IS BEST KNOWN FOR ... in The Heart of Western Cape and Route 62, with 150 years of his­tory, Robertson has grown into one of the most attract­ive Cape Winelands towns and is best known for the Victorian build­ings, Jacaranda-lined streets, beau­ti­ful gar­dens and cer­tainly their wines, fruits, olives, cheese and horses. With 355 days of sun shine and together with Ashton, Bonnievale, McGregor, Montagu, the Robertson Wine Valley offers a wide range of ‘Big Five’ activities ...

BEST PHOTOGRAPHS: Take your time and get your pic­tures by watch­ing the people, whether they’re work­ing in the orch­ards, mak­ing arts and crafts, selling products at the mar­kets or in one of the vari­ous little shops. For a land­scape pic­ture, travel the flower fringed Route 317 from Robertson to Bonnievale, which is men­tioned to be the most beau­ti­ful flower wine route in the world. Thank you from my side to all the people, who are tak­ing care of that beauty! In November, when the Jacaranda’s are in blos­som, you can just stop and take pho­tos of this pretty sight.

WHEN THE WEATHER'S GOOD, which you can say it is 355 days a year, the val­ley offers a huge vari­ety and it just depends on my mood, which option I prefer to visit:
Nature & Scenic: Scenic drives, game drives, nature reserves, botan­ical gar­dens and mazes, bird and wine routes, his­tor­ical towns and walks, horse car­riage and river cruises.
Adventure & Sport: Mountain bik­ing, cyc­ling, hik­ing, kloof­ing, horse rid­ing, river raft­ing, tractor trips and there’s even  18 holes Silwerstrand golf course nearby. Nordic walk­ing in Robertson (and people are still look­ing at me!!).
Wine & Dine: Wine and Brandy-tasting, often with the wine makers, in more than 50 wine estates. I’ve lived here since 2005 and still haven’t man­aged to visit all of them. I also get my hus­band to spoil me with fine din­ing at GUBAS DE HOEK or we visit the vari­ous res­taur­ants, wine estates, café’s and mar­kets in the town.
Culture & Heritage: Various gal­ler­ies, arts and crafts, museums, his­tor­ical walk about, antique shops, great coun­try hos­pit­al­ity, meet the people ...
Entertainment & Leisure: Four amaz­ing fest­ivals (see below), Biodiversity pro­jects, Oldtimer tours.

WHEN THE WEATHER'S BAD, I LIKE TO read a nice book in our lounge with a burn­ing fire in the open fire place or I visit a museum, or one of the vari­ous little shops and have a  cup of cof­fee. By the way, a German say­ing is ‘There is no bad weather, just bad clothes’!

I THINK THE BEST TIME OF YEAR TO VISIT the Robertson Wine Valley is through­out the year, because in early spring, the flowers from the Fynbos and the first fruit orch­ards are in blos­som and the vines are start­ing to sprout — and in November when the Jacarandas are in full purple bloom, Robertson is just beau­ti­ful. In sum­mer it can get very hot and it is the busy sea­son, but, the Festive Season in Robertson is for all people, who want to avoid the hustle and bustle. It’s won­der­ful — nice and quite, because every­body goes to the sea and our German / South African Christmas at GUBAS DE HOEK is becom­ing quite famous!

The red can­nas and the whole flower and wine route are in full blos­som now. Soon after that, it’s har­vest­ing time, every­body is busy, you’ll see the people work­ing in the vines and you’re look­ing for­ward to the first new wines. It won’t take long and you’re in autumn, when the leaves are chan­ging col­our slowly and a cyc­ling tour through the val­ley is just beau­ti­ful. Winter is the time where you’re enjoy­ing a cosy nice fire place and soon you’ll real­ize, the Karoo is in blos­som again.  All activ­it­ies are avail­able through­out the whole year and it’s in everybody’s decision what tem­per­at­ure he / she prefers. The golfer’s, for instance, appre­ci­ate the agree­able weather from March to October, because there’s hardly any wind.

MY FAVOURITE BREAKFAST SPOT IS cer­tainly the garden of our guest house, but in town, Grand Café is always well worth a visit.
FOR LUNCH I sug­gest one of the vari­ous wine estates along the route 317, for example Bon Courage, or a cruise with a pick-nick or a cheese plat­ter tast­ing.
MY FAVOURITE EATING PLACE IS Günther’s cuisine in our lounge or in the garden, or for those who are pas­sion­ate about cook­ing, they can stay in our kit­chen and have a look in the pots and pans! If I want a real wine­land exper­i­ence then Fraai Uitzicht is always a good choice, the food and ser­vice is very good and the views from the ter­race are stun­ning. In town, for those who like it upmar­ket, Reubens res­taur­ant is also a good choice. For fam­il­ies with chil­dren, Dros might be a good choice.

MY FAVOURITE SPORT IS an early morn­ing hike with the Nordic walk­ing sticks along the streets in Robertson and sud­denly it can hap­pen that some­body sees you and invites you just for a cup of early morn­ing cof­fee ...
FOR A NIGHT OUT ON THE TOWN always ask your hosts for the latest local events, where to go, oth­er­wise in the coun­tryside, people enjoy their gar­dens and their braai’s.

ROBERTSON'S BEST KEPT SECRET IS ... a Secret!

MY FAVOURITE THING TO DO WITH FRIENDS IS sit­ting in the garden, hav­ing a chat, good food and a nice glass of wine. The local art soci­ety offers through­out the whole year a pro­gram which is often taken place in one of the wine estates.
TO RELAX AND RESTORE MY SOUL, I LIKE TO take a drive along the Route 317 to Bonnievale or to Mc Gregor and pop in at one of the wine estates. The stun­ning beauty of the land­scape does this for free and no need for an expens­ive Spa treat­ment!
IF YOU'RE FEELING ADVENTUROUS, let us go for a won­der­ful hike to the water­fall, for an out rid­ing with horses, enjoy a game drive with André or paddle on the river with a canoe.
MY FAVOURITE HIKES ARE ... that depends on the time and on the weather. Kleinberg Trail or Vrolijkheid in McGregor, Fish Eagle Trail at Van Loveren or the 2 days Arangieskoop Trail all are beau­ti­ful. In fact, there are so many hik­ing trails, that you can eas­ily spend two to three weeks without going on a trail twice.

MY FAVOURITE SHOP IS AH Marais — there you’ll meet won­der­ful people and you’ll get any­thing for build­ing. The Robertson Garden Centre, Spar or Pick’n Pay and beside that, stroll along Robertson, Bonnievale, or Mc Gregor — there are  so many little shops, spe­cially for antique fans, which are worth­while to pop in and to meet the won­der­ful people.
MY FAVOURITE BUILDINGS ARE the Victorian Beauty in Van Reenen Street and next to it the Cape Dutch House, the eleg­ant De Wetshof Estate build­ing with the won­der­ful tree-lined street, the mod­ern Graham Beck wine estate, because it com­bines nature with archi­tec­ture. From the tast­ing room in the first floor you have a stun­ning few.

TRAVELLING WITH CHILDREN? Then cer­tainly Birds Paradise is a must and you’ll enjoy how easy chil­dren can play together, the don­key sanc­tu­ary on the way to Mc Gregor, Bon Courage and Ashton Cellar are offer­ing play grounds or join a river rafting.

IF YOU ARE HERE IN ... The Robertson Wine Valley is proud of their fest­ivals and was judged Best Innovative Wine Tourism Experience by Global Wine Tourism Experts. Robertson is the First South African Wine Route Organisation to receive this sig­ni­fic­ant award from the Great Wine Capitals Global Network, of which Cape Town is one of eight mem­ber Capitals. RWV received this award at a gala din­ner awards cere­mony held in late November 2009 in Bordeaux. The event was atten­ded by tour­ism spe­cial­ists, dig­nit­ar­ies and pro­du­cers from wine-growing regions in Europe, North America, Latin America, South Africa and New Zealand.

The four wine events, in date order, are:
Hands-On Harvest in February is a boutique event which offers wine afi­cion­ados and bud­ding vintners the oppor­tun­ity to exper­i­ence the ‘magic of har­vest’ for a day and vis­it­ors are able to make their own bar­rel of wine.
Wacky Wine Weekend in June is an event where all mem­ber farms open up their doors for a vari­ety of fun activ­it­ies.
Robertson Slow in August is a more sed­ate and leis­urely col­lec­tion of activ­it­ies at wine farms across the Valley and seeks vis­it­ors who want to exper­i­ence the tra­di­tional way of farm­ing life in intim­ate and per­sonal set­tings and it ends with a won­der­ful farm­ers mar­ket.
Robertson Wine on the River is a vibrant annual river­side fest­ival to instant pop­ular­ity and acclaim. More than 200 wines from over 40 winer­ies are on show for tast­ing and sale.
Every first Saturday of the month the museum invites for a morn­ing mar­ket. Art and crafts is a big theme here and a lot of gal­ler­ies are expos­ing local artists and you can meet them by appointment.

BEST CHEAP AND CHEERFUL OUTING IS a nice hike or visit the vari­ous winer­ies for a free wine tast­ing and find your favour­ite wine. The ladies will then gladly assist you with your order. My guests and I also love to visit a church ser­vice in Paddy Street and listen to the won­der­ful sing­ers.
WHEN MONEY'S NO OBJECT you can give it to the Children’s Home and you’ll feel great!
THE MOST UNUSUAL THING I SEE here is that people can be very happy with very little and still help each other.
MY FAVOURITE WEEKEND GETAWAY IS a daytrip to Cape Town, to Hermanus or to the West Coast and then I’m glad to come back to Robertson, the ‘Small Town with the Big Heart’.

WHEN I WANT TO GIVE BACK TO THE COMMUNITY ... I give back to the com­munity, because our team par­ti­cip­ate in our suc­cess and so we’ll keep on try­ing to start sev­eral pro­jects to sup­port the people, for example we give a choir the plat­form to sing for our guests.

I ♥ ROBERTSON BECAUSE it is our home and you have the chance to share it with us at GUBAS DE HOEK ****meet, eat, sleep.

Gubas De Hoek ****meet, eat, sleep

Today’s lux­ury, a super-long bed, is added to old-world charm. We offer excel­lent cuisine, served in the shady garden with a splash-pool, while your car is safely parked. Apart from the won­der­ful ambi­ence of this lov­ingly restored home-from-home, we offer excel­lent cuisine, under the per­sonal atten­tion of former head chef, Gunter, whose state of the art kit­chen helps him to provide gour­met meals which ...

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Desirable Digits

Gubas De Hoek ****eat, meet, sleep +27 (0)23 626‑6218
Grand Cafe +27 (0)23 626‑5783
Bon Courage +27 (0)23 626‑4178
Fraai Uitzicht +27 (0)23 626‑6156
Reubens +27 (0)23 626‑7200
Dros +27 (0)23 626‑1185
AH Marais +27 (0)23 626 –3071
Birds Paradise +27 (0)23 626‑3926

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