If you’re like me, you need a few days away every now and then to stay invigorated and sane. But what happens if the purse strings are tight? Luckily, there’s lots of budget friendly self-catering accommodation in the Western Cape where you can stay without having to hawk your house.
By Roxanne Reid
If you’re like me, you need a few days away every now and then to stay invigorated and sane. But what happens if the purse strings are tight? Luckily, there’s lots of budget friendly self-catering accommodation in the Western Cape where you can stay without having to hawk your house.
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By Roxanne Reid
Small towns are special in many ways, from lack of congestion to country cool, from old buildings full of character to friendly people with time to chat. I’ve chosen 20 of my favourite small towns for weekend getaways from Cape Town. Read on to see if I’ve included your favourite. By Roxanne Reid What I love about Cape Nature reserves are their principles of conservation and ecotourism. Conservation comes first, but they recognise that ecotourism is an excellent way to introduce visitors to the amazement of nature that deserves to be conserved, and to bring in much-needed funds. Here are some of my favourites, from Cederberg to Kogelberg and more. By Roxanne Reid It used to be a cattle farm. Then it reinvented itself as a game and fynbos reserve in 2011. I’m talking about Thali Thali Game Lodge, a West Coast getaway just off the R27 near Langebaan. About an hour’s drive from Cape Town, it’s a place to get out in the open air when the sun is shining. By Roxanne Reid The San have inhabited Africa for thousands of years but modern ‘civilisation’ hasn’t treated them kindly. Now there’s a Fair Trade Tourism project that trains them in tourism and restores their cultural heritage. Visit !Khwa ttu to learn about the San near Yzerfontein and have some fun on the West Coast, just an hour’s drive from Cape Town. By Roxanne Reid Any adventure from Cape Town to the West Coast will take you along the R27, which runs through Milnerton and Tableview before reaching open countryside on the way to coastal villages like Yzerfontein, Langebaan and Paternoster. Along the way you’ll discover a few places to stop to rest, eat or play. Here are 3 West Coast farm stalls on the R27. By Roxanne Reid Paternoster is one of the oldest fishing towns along the West Coast, a place of whitewashed houses, fishing boats, beaches and crayfish. Visitors come here for the tang of sea air, the sound of breakers, and the romance of long walks on the beach. By Roxanne Reid Just 200km from Cape Town, the Cederberg Wilderness Area is a destination to please everyone. Whether you love hiking and mountain biking or you’re a culture vulture, even if you simply like to chill with a glass of wine and watch the play of light on the mountains as the clouds whizz by, there’s something here to make your day. Here are 15 things to do there. By Roxanne Reid Untamed and craggy, the Cederberg Wilderness Area is just 200km north of Cape Town – a perfect short break that feels a million miles from city life. Here mountains dominate the horizons and you can let your imagination run riot among the jagged sandstone formations. We visited to explore and to stay in CapeNature’s new cottages at Algeria. By Roxanne Reid There’s nothing I love more than a road trip, whether it’s a weekend just 100km from home or a multi-week journey across different countries. And 2015 has been a wonderful year of roadheart – defined by author Mary Sojourner as ‘The much to be desired condition of suddenly finding everything astonishing, fascinating, and unique the second you are on a roadtrip … so that even the local gas station becomes full of characters and stories.’ Here are my 6 travel highlights of 2015. |
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AboutI'm an independent travel writer and book editor with a passion for Africa - anything from African travel, people, safari and wildlife to adventure, heritage, road-tripping and slow travel. Categories
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