The 31 Best Places to Drink and 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.

A cocktail bar that earns its mystique: the address is withheld, the website offers little but a booking link, and you'll need a password before you find the place tucked inside a Victorian warehouse in central Cape Town. The bartenders dress the period, every vintage detail follows through, and the cocktail list is inventive enough to justify the ceremony. A Discovery from The 50 Bar Awards. Other so-called speakeasies are taking notes.

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 bar inside Marble, Johannesburg's wood-fired temple to South African meat, turns out to be serious about drinking. The cocktail list leans local in a low-key way, rooibos finding its way into the tequila, lemon verbena turning up where you might not expect it. A deep cellar covers both local and international wines, and the non-alcoholic options are genuinely thought through rather than an apology. Marble holds a spot on The 50 Discovery list.

The private Dali Room, with its animal-print banquettes and wall-to-wall Surrealist imagery, tells you exactly what kind of place this is before you've ordered a thing. Obscura is a cocktail bar in Rosebank with bold, maximalist design throughout and a drinks list built around complex, visually arresting cocktails. George Hunter is behind the bar program, and the menu reads like it was written to be stared at before you drink it.

Old cartoons flicker on a single TV while graffiti covers every surface, which tells you most of what you need to know about this Melville dive bar. Rum anchors the drinks list, from a broad back-bar selection to a short cocktail menu running things like a Peanut Colada or a Marsala Rum Sour. The punk and grunge decor is commitment, not concept, and the weekly specials keep the crowd honest.

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.

A three-floor cocktail bar where vintage sports memorabilia covers the walls in tribute to a former owner who ran a speakeasy in the basement and apparently collected both pills and pennants. The balcony overlooking Signal Hill earns its reputation. Classics and barrel-aged options anchor the drinks list, while the signature side leans into housemade ingredients and stranger flavor pairings for anyone who wants the bar to do the thinking.

The building was a slave prison before it became a cocktail bar, which gives Heritage Square's best-kept secret a weight that no amount of exposed brick could manufacture on its own. The Drinkery leans into the history with contemporary art on the walls, a chessboard for lingering, and a living-room vibe that makes ordering a third drink feel perfectly reasonable. The cocktail list skews adventurous, with port and absinthe sharing a glass without apology.

A gin bar tucked inside a Mediterranean-style courtyard, reached through a cafe that gives nothing away. Once inside, the theme is South African gin, with over 70 local bottles on the shelves and a signature G&T list drawn from the building's former life as a morgue, which is either a gimmick or a perfectly reasonable way to name a cocktail, depending on your disposition. No speakeasy cosplay, just a lot of very specific botanical choices.

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.