The 15 Best Things to Do in South Africa

The wine that put Constantia on the map centuries ago is a sweet dessert wine, and Klein Constantia is the estate that brought it back from near-extinction. Set in the Constantia hills with Table Mountain overhead and ocean on the horizon, it's a working vineyard you can explore by bike or 4x4, taste through in a room framed by jacaranda trees, or linger over in the fine-dining bistro. Ranked sixth on the World's 50 Best Vineyards list.

A colony of African penguins has claimed this beach near Simon's Town, and they have absolutely no interest in sharing the agenda. The giant granite boulders carve the shoreline into sheltered coves where the water runs warmer than anywhere else on the Atlantic side of Cape Town, making it a rare spot where swimming is actually inviting. Named among the World's 50 Best Beaches, it draws everyone from wildlife researchers to families who just want a penguin in their holiday photos.

The children's playground at this Stellenbosch wine estate is sleek enough to pass for one of the modern sculptures dotting the grounds, which tells you a lot about the design sensibility here. Floor-to-ceiling glass frames views of the Simonsberg valley, olive groves run alongside indigenous fynbos, and the winery itself is all clean stone lines. Stop by the deli for local produce before you leave.

A wine estate in the Franschhoek Valley where the owner is a former mezzo-soprano, which explains the calendar of classical concerts as much as the plush reds do. La Motte runs an artisan bakery that opens onto the garden, a farm shop stocked with lavender lotions and ash-wood cheese boards, and enough Cape hospitality to make a half-day disappear without trying. It landed on the World's 50 Best Vineyards list, if you need a reason to prioritize.

Cool sea air off Walker Bay and clay-rich soil do most of the work at Hamilton Russell Vineyards, a wine estate tucked behind Hermanus in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley. The estate pours its focus entirely into chardonnay and pinot noir, both of which draw comparisons to Burgundy often enough that the comparison has stopped feeling like a stretch. It holds a spot on the World's 50 Best Vineyards list, which tells you roughly what kind of afternoon you're in for.

The vineyards here run almost to the lagoon's edge, with Walker Bay stretching out beyond and the Cape mountains closing the frame behind. Benguela Cove is a wine estate where the draw is the whole package: cellar-door tastings, vineyard walks, fine dining with that view, and seaside villas if you'd rather not leave. Still and sparkling wines across three ranges give you plenty of reasons to stay for another glass, and most people do.

The sweet Constantia wines here once reached Napoleon's table on St. Helena, which gives you a sense of how far this estate's reputation traveled. Groot Constantia is Cape Town's oldest wine estate, set against the eastern slopes of Table Mountain with views out toward False Bay. The self-guided visitors route takes in Cape Dutch architecture, a wine and cultural history museum, and cellars where the revived Grand Constance dessert wine is still made.

The estate has 21 Cape Dutch gables, which is apparently a record, and wine cellars that have been around forever. Spier is one of Stellenbosch's old-school heritage farms, and the family activity options are genuinely varied: Segway tours through the vines, cycling routes, and self-guided audio walks that frame the farm's history through the lives of 19th-century slaves rather than the usual triumphant founder narrative.

Twin ginkgo trees grown from seeds of a tree that survived Hiroshima anchor a sprawling wine estate in the Stellenbosch hills, and that detail alone earns a detour. Vergelegen is a grand country estate open to visitors, with seventeen themed gardens running from roses to bamboo, Nguni cattle grazing alongside antelope, and guided tours that explain the conservation work behind all of it. Dress for walking.