About Western Cape

The Western Cape is anchored by Table Mountain, a flat-topped sandstone massif that forms part of the Cape Floral Kingdom, the smallest and most biodiverse of the world's six floral kingdoms, home to thousands of fynbos species found nowhere else. Cape Town's harbour has served ships rounding the Cape since the Dutch East India Company built a resupply station there in 1652, and Robben Island, visible from the city's waterfront, held Nelson Mandela for 18 of his 27 years in prison. Inland, the winelands around Stellenbosch and Franschhoek trace their vines to Huguenot settlers of the 1680s and remain the country's oldest and most established wine-producing region. Along the coast, towns like Hermanus have built a tourism economy around the southern right whales that calve in the bay each winter, while the Garden Route stretches east through indigenous forest and lagoon towns toward the Eastern Cape.

Away from Cape Town and the main Winelands towns, the Western Cape's rural festival season stays busy through spring. Greyton's gardens open up for the Greyton Rose Show & Open Gardens in late October, while Touws River hosts the four-day desert gathering PANGEA 2026 - SOFT EARTH around the same week. Endurance runners can test themselves at the Cederberg Backyard Ultra 2026 near Clanwilliam in December, and Kleinmond's arts community gathers that same month-end for the Kleinmond inniebos Kunstefees (KliK). Further along the coast, Stanford keeps its ultra-running scene alive with The Stanford 100 Miler.