Make your base: Cape Town, Stellenbosch and Madikwe Game Reserve
Travel dates: October (Spring in South Africa)
Flight: United Airlines via Washington DC to Cape Town
Hotels: Relais & Chateaux properties
What I Loved
Experiencing South Africa’s urban, winemaking and safari highlights along Relais & Châteaux’s Route du Bonheur itinerary, traveling from south to north through the country in early spring, was a dream come true. Activities ranged from a helicopter flight that landed in South Africa’s oldest wine region, Constantia, for lunch to a coastal Harley-Davidson tour around Cape Town, where I rode pillion with a pro along the ultra-scenic Chapman’s Peak Drive. The days that followed included spa time, more wine tasting in the Western Cape’s Stellenbosch region and game drives to spot rhinos, cheetahs, elephants and wild dogs within the staunchly protected Madikwe Game Reserve near the Botswana border.
The entire adventure lasted just a week, but evocative stays at Relais & Châteaux properties along the way meant every stop was steeped in a deep sense of place. In Cape Town’s coveted Bantry Bay neighborhood, Ellerman House features a clifftop swimming pool overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and houses a collection of 1,000 artworks by predominantly South African artists. Perched on the slopes of the Stellenbosch Mountains, billionaire Swiss diamantaire Laurence Graff’s exquisite Delaire Graff Estate overlooks Table Mountain, with vineyards unfurling all around like emerald or golden carpets, depending on the season. I stayed in one of the property’s 16 luxury lodges and slipped into the heated plunge pool on my private patio. On safari, the five-bedroom Morukuru Farm House, ideal for families, served as my group’s private base between game drives, complete with a pool beneath blossoming trees and a boardwalk overlooking a watering hole where elephants arrived to drink and splash.
Cape Town’s culinary scene blew me away, with restaurants such as South African chef Peter Tempelhoff’s FYN, which has been recognized among the world’s 50 best restaurants. Its name references the region’s fynbos, shrublands that are home to species found nowhere else on Earth and the source of many of the menu’s seasonal heirloom vegetables and herbs.
Next time…
I’ll get over my fear of things that roar in the night. At Morukuru Family Madikwe’s private concession within the game reserve, guests can sleep beneath the vast South African sky in an open-air “sleep-out hide” built on a platform above a watering hole, watching shooting stars streak between constellations.
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