Stellenbosch

Stellenbosch (pop. about 100.000) is a city in the Western Cape of South Africa and is the heart of the Cape Winelands, South Africa's prime wine region.

Understand

Stellenbosch (founded in 1679) is about 50km east of Cape Town and is the second oldest town in South Africa. It was named (like Simonstown) after the Governer Simon van der Stel. The city is situated at the banks of the Eerste River ('First River). It's home to one of the countries most established universities with over 15.000 students and offers some fine examples of Cape-Dutch architecture. Wines from Stellenbosch are known everywhere in the world and rank among the best.

Get In

By bus

A bus service runs from hostels in Cape Town to Stellenbosch for about R120/pp. The main bus companies also go to Stellenbosch.

By train

There is a train service to Stellenbosch from Cape Town. For safety reasons, one should travel first class (which is not very expensive). Check the schedule, as trains do not run very often.

By air

Stellenbosch has its own airfield but the nearest international airport is in Cape Town.

Do

Easy Rider Tours offers daily guided tours of the wine region that depart from the Backpackers' Hostel at 10:30 and return at 17:00. The tours are R300 and include lunch and wine tasting at four wineries.

Stay

d'Ouwe Werf Country Inn in central Stellenbosch offers 31 very good rooms and has en excellent restaurant.

Contact

telephone area code: 021; Postal code: 7600

External links

Official Stellenbosch Travel/Tourism Site

The authors of this document are Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel, Felix Gottwald and the following WikiTravel users: InterLangBot, Mattmcp, Tniehoff, Yzerfontein. The original version of this article can be seen at http://wikitravel.org/en/Stellenbosch.