Lucy Williams

It’s been almost (emphasis on almost) twenty years since I was last in Cape Town and I was really excited to see how the cities changed since I was last there a train-track wearing gawky tweenager. I’d heard tonnes about the amazing food scene in Cape Town (make the reservations well in advance – it’s like New York in terms of getting a table at some places) and was excited for more beach time, wine and culture over our last two days

My sister, a Cape Town regular, recommended the small, surfy beach town of Kommetjie (Komm-uh-kee) about an hour outside of central Cape Town as a place to base ourselves and the beach house we ended up renting really was a dream. I found it via Perfect Hideaways, an amazing resource for renting beach houses in and around Cape Town and beyond and honestly even if you’re not in the market for a holiday to SA Kommetjie was the perfect base for us for a couple of days of getting a salty beach fix while also exploring neighbouring little towns like Kalk bay which is amazing for pottery, textiles, vintage shops and 100% make sure you have dinner at the delicious new restaurant Salt, Scarborough beach where you can get your acai bowl fix at Whole Earth cafe or a coffee and deli-style supplies at Foragers/ In Kommetjie itself, there’s little else aside from a corner shop, deli (a lovely one with lots of healthy, wholesome options), a cafe for pastries, juices and coffee, a bottle shop for booze and a pub/bar opposite all the previous.

I’ve long heard about beautiful Babylonstoren, an almost fabled oasis in South Africa that boasts not only beautiful rooms and sprawling, stunning gardens, but also one of the nicest rosés I’ve ever had (get your hands on a bottle for drinking in the sun this Spring). From the outside, the rooms look thick-walled and cosy, but inside they’re light-filled and lofty with roll-top baths, four-poster white beds and glass double doors at the back leading to a private sun trap complete with wooden hammock and loungers, begging for a glass of wine or a cup of hot rooibos tea in the morning. After clearing our heads and rehydrating after a long, horrible, dirty flight (but that’s another story), we headed to the farm’s dedicated wine-tasting bar to try the literal fruits of the farm’s labour. Full of food, a few new freckles, one new hat (some of the best I’ve found in ages and all-made locally) and taking half a bottle of rosé with us, it was time to leave after just one night but honestly, we milked as much as we could out of our 24 hours at Babylonstoren and it was definitely enough to really fall in love with the place.

Frosty mornings and multiple layers can really take their toll on your wardrobe. It can be hard not to end up melting into the sea of other people shuffling around in various shades of black, brown and bobbly scarfs