Itinerary

Day 1
Your guides will meet you at the Cape Town International Airport and then transfer you to your hotel situated in the beautiful Cape winelands close to the town of Stellenbosch. After settling in at the hotel, we will meet outside in the gardens where your guides will give a full trip briefing and assist you with bike set-up. Afterwards, we will enjoy a relaxing picnic lunch in the garden. After lunch we will depart the hotel and cycle to the Jonkershoek Nature Reserve. Our ride features gentle undulations past vineyards up into the Jonkershoek Valley. If you are interested, there will also be an optional 10km extra loop on gravel road  that you may choose to ride. We will return to the hotel for the evening and enjoy a relaxing dinner at the hotel.

Meals: Lunch / Dinner
Destinations visited: Stellenbosch, Jonkershoek Nature Reserve
Distance cycled: 16km (optional 10 km also available)

Day 2 – Cape Winelands
After a delicious breakfast we will cycle through Stellenbosch towards Devon Valley and the JC Le Roux Estate where we will sample some of their wines, complimented by a nougat tasting.

Unusual yet practical with its strong visual impact upon entering, the J.C. Le Roux shop reflects the features of timelessness and unconventional grace that is tangible throughout The House of J.C. Le Roux. The main tasting room has been transformed into a colourful, contemporary, vibrant, functional and fresh space. An exciting design element present in the room is a circle symbolizing the delicate bubbles in sparkling wine.

Afterwards this visitm, we will depart JC Le Roux and cycle to the Kyamandi Informal settlement for a truly South African cuisine and cooking experience. The African Cooking Safari is a unique opportunity to get in touch with locals of the friendly Kayamandi Township. Explore African food and beverages on our hands-on cooking experience and discover the hues of South Africa’s cultural diversity. The tour starts with a 1.5-2 hour guided cycling tour through Kayamandi focussing on food and food-related traditions as well as general cultural aspects. Whenever there is an opportunity your local guides will introduce you to private homes and kitchens discovering the intimate secrets of Black African Cuisine. On the way we will buy ingredients from local greengrocers and "Spaza shops" . In the spacious kitchen of the community centre professional cook Loyiso will demonstrate the art of delicious African cuisine and invite visitors to participate in preparing the meal. The afternoon is rounded off by a shared lunch with the opportunity for interesting talk and interaction.

Now can now choose whether you want to cycle back to the hotel or be transferred by vehicle. Once back at the hotel, you will have the opportunity to explore the town of Stellenbosch prior to dinner. With its majestic old oak trees, thriving wine industry and the longest row of conserved historic buildings in the country, Stellenbosch is undoubtedly among the finest cultural jewels of the Cape, if not South Africa. Dating back to 1679 and the second oldest town in the country, it boasts many fine examples of Cape Dutch, neoGothic, Georgian, Art Deco and Victorian architecture.

Tonight we will be transfered to De Volkskombuis restaurant in Stellenbosch for a relaxing and intimate dinner. De Volkskombuis Restaurant in Stellenbosch, specialises in traditional Cape cuisine, in authentic Cape Dutch surroundings. Established in 1977, this restaurant became well known for their excellent cuisine with a comprehensive selection of fine wines from an award-winning winelist. Your hosts, Dawid and Christelle Kriel, are the new generation of this family business. They manage the restaurant with meticulous attention to detail and real Cape hospitality. Relax and enjoy the abundant variety and tastes the Cape’s table has to offer.

Meals: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner
Destinations visited: JC Le Roux Wine, Kayamandi Cooking Safari
Distance cycled: 30 km (Optional 10 km back to the hotel)

Day 3 – Cape Winelands
After breakfast this morning, we will hop in the van for our transfer to Paarl where will begin our day of cycling. At Fairview Estate, situated in Paarl, a true winelands experience awaits. The farm is oriented around the enjoyment of excellent quality products in the company of friendly and well informed hosts.  In the wine and cheese tasting room, your hosts will guide you through a relaxed tasting of the products made right here on the farm.

The story of Fairview cheeses started three decades ago, when Cyril Back purchased his first Saanen dairy goats, setting Fairview on the path to becoming one of South Africa’s leading artisanal cheese producers.  Cyril and his wife Beryl had been on a trip to France and fell in love with the richly flavoured goats’ milk cheeses produced on a number of the wine farms that they visited. Upon returning to Paarl, they began investigating the possibility of starting South Africa’s first goats’ milk cheesery.

After much investigation and a few fortunate coincidences, the first Saanen goats arrived at the farm in 1980.  In 1995 the Vineyard Cheesery took a significant step forward thanks to two key events. Louis Lourens joined Fairview as head cheesemaker and Jersey cows’ milk cheese production was introduced.

The tasting room comprises a number of tasting pods. This unique pod concept was implemented in 2009 and was aimed at creating a more welcoming and less rigid environment. The tasting pods offer tastings of 6 different wines with dedicated hosts. There is a wide range of wines available to taste, including a selection from the single vineyard range. Your tasting includes a selection of 6 to 8 of Fairview’s Jersey milk and goats’ milk cheeses. These are tasted at a separate pod, allowing tasters to enjoy their wine selection and then move across to the cheeses as they seek out good pairings or their particular favourites.

After our tasting,lunch will be enjoyed at the Goatshed Restaurant on the estate.

Upon finishing lunch, we will continue our cycling for the day. This will include cycling around the famous Paarl Rock and also stopping at the Taal Monument. This district is particularly well known for its Pearl Mountain or "Paarl Rock". This huge granite rock is formed by three rounded outcrops that make up Paarl Mountain and has been compared in majesty to Uluru (formerly known as Ayers Rock) in Australia. (However, they are not geologically similar. Paarl Rock consists of intrusive igneous rock, while Uluru is a sedimentary remnant).  The area around the rock provides some excellent cycling opportunities with beautiful views over the mountains and winelands. The Taal monument, on Paarl rock, is one of the most famous Afrikaans monuments erected in South Africa and dedicated to the Afrikaans language. It was designed by the architect Jan van Wijk and inaugurated in 1975. The monument is shaped in several tall obelisks style columns erected on the granite of Paarl Rock. The monument, atop Paarl rock, is visible from a great distance as one approaches Paarl.

From here will we be transferred to our next hotel situated in Franschhoek. Situated in the heart of the Franschhoek winelands on the Fransche Hoek Wine and Olive Estate, the exclusive 5 Star L'Ermitage Franschhoek Chateau and Villas offers sanctuary for the soul. With its breathtaking view of the surrounding mountains, quaint cobbled streets, vibrant piazza and indigenous fynbos, you will experience a unique and unforgettable taste of the Franschhoek country lifestyle.  Experience pure luxury in the stately Chateau, sophisticated elegance in the self catering Villas, enjoy fine dining in the Restaurant at L'Ermitage, treat yourself to a selection of local and imported delicacies at the Epicerie Delicatessen, or relax in the tranquil Wine Spa with its wide range of indulgent treatments. Tonight we will travel to Le Quartier Francais for dinner.

Meals: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner
Destinations visited: Fairview Estate, Paarl, Taal monument
Distance cycled: 35 km

Day 4
If you are up for the challenge, you have the opportunity to cycle up the Franscchoek Pass this morning. Those who choose this options will receive an early morning wake-up call before departing for the Pass.  The pass will offer dramatic views over the Franschhoek Valley. After the ride we will return to the hotel for breakfast and to meet up with other guests.

After breakfast, we will cycle through the Franschhoek area on quiet country roads to Môreson Wine Estate for a unique Bread Baking experience.

We've all grown up believing that a person shouldn't ever play with their food. At Môreson we´d love to dispel this archaic myth once and for all.   In our Bread & Wine bread baking courses you´ll be taught how to have fun with food, making magic in any kitchen. Learn how to fill your own kitchen with that famous ´freshly baked bread smell´ and become the baker you always knew you could be.  If you´re looking for something new, exciting and a little provocative call us and book yourself into a Bread Making course.  Today's lunch will be served with your very own baked breads!

Following lunch, we will ride back through the town to the hotel. Tonight's dinner will be at the award winning Ruebens Restaurant in Franschhoek.The home of finest dining, where cuisine is not only stirred up with professionalism and care to suffice even the most expert connoisseur, but is wielded into shapes of colour-coordinated wonder. Delicately arranged into a culinary masterpiece upon the canvas-like plate and presented as an array of fine art, this divine sculpture of a meal urges the mouth to water with anticipation, the eyes to sparkle with appreciation and the inner sense of pleasure and comfort to be pampered and spoiled to a point of no return. Reuben’s Restaurant is in its essence, a console for the culinary side of the soul. Welcome to the refuge of wandering diners. The gastronomic pride of lovely Franschhoek, where the well-trained palate as well as the unaccustomed taste buds of young and old will be enthralled and sufficed with a personal decadence that is second to none, loved by all, and the key ingredient that has won this restaurant and it’s chef (Reuben himself) a number of notable awards, not to mention the awe and praise of all who have had the privilege to experience it.

Meals: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner
Destinations visited: Franscchoek Pass, Môreson Wine Estate, Franscchoek
Distance cycled: 30 km (+ optional 7 km pass ride in the morning)

Day 5 – Cape Winelands to Cape Town
Following another delicious breakfast, you will be transferred to the small town of Darling situated close to the West Coast of South Africa. Darling is the heartbeat of the West Coast region. The little village lies tucked away between hills of vineyards and golden wheat fields. Here you can still expect to see a horseman cantering through the streets on a Saturday afternoon. A gaggle of geese might waddle into a neighbour's garden to forage. You may witness a funeral procession accompanied by the consolatory gospel sounds of a traditional brass band. Lovingly restored Victorian homes and ancient trees make an idyllic setting for a getaway that promises serenity, nature, culture and much more! Darling is also home to South Africa’s first wind farm. The perfect point to start your day of cycling!
 
From Darling you will continue to Table View and cycle along the West Coast with classic views of Table Mountain in the distance. Here you will cycle along 16 km’s of dedicated cycling lanes, making this a scenic and very easy ride. You will end at Blouberg Strand from where you will be transferred to the V&A Waterfront and lunch at Quay Four in the V&A Waterfront.

Quay Four has an elegant upstairs restaurant where the emphasis is on fresh seafood. Choose between the exquisitely prepared Cape Lobster and the succulent line fish of the day, or opt for the sumptuous seafood platter and enjoy the best of both worlds. The á la carte menu also includes a great feast of irresistible meat and poultry dishes. Not only do we pride ourselves on our superior quality food, but also on the very high calibre of service that is offered by our professional waitrons.

After lunch, you have the option to cycle from the V&A Waterfront along the Atlantic Seaboard to our next hotel, the Tintswalo Atlantic.

The latest addition to the Tintswalo Collection is Tintswalo Atlantic. The magnificent lodge is situated in one of the most stunning locations in Southern Africa! Positioned at the base of Chapman’s Peak, Tintswalo Atlantic overlooks the quaint fishing village of Hout Bay.  Stylish yet understated, Tintswalo Atlantic offers home-away-from-home comforts, discreet service and mouthwatering culinary creations in the most beautiful setting. Nestled unobtrusively between the boulders of the Atlantic Ocean's water’s edge and the slopes of the Cape Mountain Fynbos Reserve, known worldwide for its extraordinary rich and diverse fauna and flora - no trees were removed and not so much as a branch was cut from the Milkwood trees that grace the shoreline - Tintswalo Atlantic offers absolute seclusion and relaxation, with the ocean literally a stone’s throw away from the pebbled beach!  Tintswalo Atlantic is the perfect destination for visitors wanting to relax right beside the ocean. we will dine tonight at the hotel.

Meals: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner
Destinations visited: Darling, V&A Waterfront, Hout Bay
Distance cycled: 30 km (+ optional 15 km Atlantic Seaboard cycling)

Day 6 – Cape Peninsula
Begin the day with breakfast at Tintswalo and then head off for a visit to Boulders Beach close to Simons Town to view the colony of African Jackass Penguins. Boulders Beach is a sheltered beach made up of inlets between granite boulders, from which the name originated. It is located in the Cape Peninsula near Simon's Town towards Cape Point near Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is also commonly known as Boulders Bay. It is a popular tourist stop because of a colony of African Penguins which settled there in 1982. Boulders Beach forms part of the Table Mountain National Park. Although set in the midst of a residential area, it is one of the few sites where this vulnerable bird can be observed at close range, wandering freely in a protected natural environment. From just two breeding pairs in 1982, the penguin colony has grown to about 3000 in recent years. This is partly due to the reduction in commercial pelagic trawling in False Bay, which has increased the supply of pilchards and anchovy, which form part of the penguins' diet.

From Boulders Beach we begin our cycling today, heading to to Cape Point via a section of the famous Cape Argus Cycle Tour route (the largest timed cycling event in the world taking place in March every year).  Depending on the wind direction, we may adjust the route and cycle from Cape Point to Kommetjie.

Here we will explore the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve, established in 1939 to protect 7750 ha of indigenous flora and fauna. The reserve comes to an end at majestic Cape Point.  Situated at the junction of two of earth's most contrasting water masses - the cold Benguela current on the West Coast and the warm Agulhas current on the East Coast, the Cape of Good Hope is popularly perceived as the meeting point of the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans.

Lunch today will be at Cape Farmhouse. Situated in a sheltered valley and surrounded by old oak trees, the 250-year-old farmhouse offers relaxing al fresco dining - or if the weather is unpleasant, indoors in the historic farm building.  Our lunchtime menu is Africa-inspired and redolent of the tastes, spices and herbs of Morocco through to the Cape itself. Breakfasts are farm-style, with home-made bread and real free-range eggs. As much of our produce as possible is gathered from our own organic vegetable gardens.

After lunch, you have the chance to participate in a optional bicycle township tour experiencing local Xhosa culture from the seat of your bike.  This tour is part of the Bicycle Empowerment Network drive to promote cycling and job creation in townships and rural areas around South Africa.

Afterwards you have another option to cycle back to the foot of Chapmans Peak via Red Hill and the coastal roads of Misty Cliffs to Kommetjie (18 km).  Those who don’t feel up to the challenge can take the van back to the lodge.

Chapman’s Peak Drive winds it way between Noordhoek and Hout Bay. Situated on the Atlantic Coast, at the south-western tip of South Africa, it is one of the most spectacular marine drives anywhere in the world. The 9km route, with its 114 curves, skirts the rocky coastline of Chapman's Peak, the 593m high southerly extension of Constantia Berg. The drive offers stunning 180° views over the ocean and mountains with Hout Bay in the distance.

Tonight we will travel to Hout Bay where they will enjoy dinner at Pure Restaurant. The signature restaurant ‘Pure’, considered as one of the finest restaurants in Cape Town, is the heart of Hout Bay Manor. Open to the public and guests, it is a culinary journey of senses, ideal for a decadent dinner.  ‘Pure’ is a temple to stylish dining, seating just 58 guests amid a tranquil palette of creams, whites and charmingly rustic driftwood dividers. We think you’ll agree it’s as beautifully thought out and presented as everything you’ll find on the ever changing menu.  This signature restaurant is a must for those wishing to indulge in an evening of gourmet delights – a celebration of the finer things of life. Our Executive Chef uses the best of local produce, organic when possible, to create dishes that live up to his personal vision - ‘a fusion of purity’.

Meals: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner
Destinations visited: Boulders Beach, the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve,Chapmans Peak, Kommetjie
Distance cycled: 42 km (+ optional 5 km township cycling and 7 km Chapman’s Peak Cycling)

Day 7 – Cape Town and departure
If you choose to ride this morning, you will receive an early morning wake-up call to cycle along the Atlantic Seaboard to Cape Town. You will then meet up with the group back at the hotel to enjoy your last breakfast at the hotel. Following breakfast, you will be transferred to Cape Town International Airport for your flight home or on to your next destination.

Meals: Breakfast
Destinations visited: Cape Town
Distance cycled: 20 km (optional)

More information from DuVine Adventures:

• View trip on provider's website
  www.duvine.com/tours/242/South-Africa-Bike-Tour…
• Company profile, experience, and history
• View all of their trips