10 Great Things To Do in Paarl

10 Great Things To Do in Paarl

One often for­gets that Paarl, in the Cape Winelands, is only about an hours drive from Cape Town. The town has a unique feel to it because it main­tains a strong coun­try feel although it is the size of a small city. The Afrikaans Language Museum plays a large part in the towns his­tory as it has brought recog­ni­tion to the Afrikaans writ­ten language.

Paarl also houses a col­lec­tion of some of the most beau­ti­fully restored build­ings in Cape Dutch, Georgian and Victorian archi­tec­ture, which includes the Strooidak Church which is the old­est Dutch Reformed Church in the coun­try. Not only is the town steeped in archi­tec­tural his­tory but it also has plenty of deli­cious wine and mag­ni­fi­cent vine­yards that you can visit, all which ensure it is a pop­u­lar stop on the Cape Winelands route. If you’re lost stop off at The Paarl Wine Route Office in Main Street because they are really help­ful and can sup­ply you with a free bro­chure and map on the area.

Please note that all information was correct at the time of publishing. Due to seasonal changes and offers, venues may make changes to their menus, events and regular scheduled activities. Please contact the venue before planning your trip. 

Picnic at Nederburg

What bet­ter way to spend a per­fect after­noon in the sun­shine than hav­ing a pic­nic? Well I’ve got one bet­ter. Why not have a pic­nic at one of the Cape Winelands most loved wine farms in the his­toric prop­erty of Nederburg? Don’t for­get to pack your big pic­nic blanket and some chairs and bring your friends and fam­ily. You can feast on the Flavours of the Cape pic­nic selec­tion which is piled full of bread that has been freshly baked, loc­ally pro­duced cheeses, cold meats, smoked Franschhoek sal­mon trout, homemade pâté, dips, salads and more the treats are end­less. There are also kid­dies and veget­arian options avail­able. The bas­kets can be accom­pan­ied by the deli­cious wine from the vine­yard so make sure you have plenty of time set aside, because you’re not going to want to leave. Baskets need to be booked at least two days in advance.

Address: Sonstraal Road, Dal Josafat, Paarl, Cape Winelands
Telephone: +27 (0)21 862‑3104
Opening hours: Red Table Restaurant open Tuesdays – Saturdays from 11am and Sundays from 12pm.

Play or Watch Polo at Val de Vie

An exhil­ar­at­ing sport to both watch or play and only 40 minutes from Cape Town. Home to the BMW International Polo Series this is the ideal polo des­tin­a­tion. If you’d rather stand on the side­lines and watch do this with a glass of the estates fine wine in your hand and when you find your­self need­ing a rest from the activ­it­ies take refuge in the Sabrage Restaurant and Bar which is both chic and relaxed. Polo is for every­one and this is cer­tainly what the estate tries to show­case and instil in their vis­it­ors. You are wel­come any­time to play or join play­ers, res­id­ents, inter­na­tional and local guests for a post-chukka drink and chat. There is also a coach avail­able who can teach you some use­ful tech­niques when you’re out on the field. Booking is essen­tial. We include sticks and hel­mets and of course the horses!

Address: Val de Vie Wine and Polo Estate, on the R301 between Paarl and Franschhoek, Paarl, Cape Winelands
Telephone: +27 (0)21 863‑6170
Opening hours: Booking is essen­tial. Tuesday to Sunday. Lessons by book­ing only.
Chukkas and matches are weather depend­ant, so it is safer to call before hand.

Red Hot Glass

Visit one of the very few Venetian-style glass blow­ing stu­dios in the coun­try. The mag­ni­fi­cent glass art is demon­strated by the mas­ter artists Liz Lacey and David Jackson who delight vis­it­ors with one of the old­est crafts on earth. Their work graces some of the top hotels and gal­ler­ies in the world and when you’ve seen it you will cer­tainly under­stand why — from gor­geous hand blown per­fume bottles, to del­ic­ate vases and abstract statues you’ll find some­thing that is both beau­ti­ful to the eye and a mar­vel in its cre­ation. You’ll leave the stu­dio know­ing that you’ve just watched some­thing magical hap­pen in the cre­ation of these gor­geous pieces.

Address: Spice Route Estate, Suider-Paarl Road, Paarl, Cape Winelands
Telephone: +27 (0)21 863‑0330
Opening hours: Open 7 days a week from 09h00 to 17h00.

Visit Butterfly World

These stun­ning creatures of flight can be vis­ited at Butterfly World. You’ll find it on Route 44, just off the N1 and with more than 24 spe­cies of exotic but­ter­flies and a large vari­ety of birds you’ll be spend­ing a good few hours mar­vel­ling at the won­der of nature. What is great about Butterfly House is that you’re allowed to take pho­to­graphs and videos of these creatures so you can go home and show friends and fam­ily these lovely beau­ties. Stay a while and enjoy some refresh­ments at the onsite res­taur­ant. Learn all about the life cycle of the but­ter­fly from the vari­ous dis­plays and if you’re lucky enough you might see a but­ter­fly emerge from its pupa!

Address: Route 44, Klapmuts (near Stellenbosch and Paarl), Cape Winelands
Telephone: +27 (0)21 875‑5628
Opening hours: Daily from 09h00 to 17h00. Closed on Christmas Day.

Visit the KWV Wine Emporium

This is one of the first places I went on a wine tast­ing and I have been back a num­ber of times since then, every time I learn some­thing new! Here you will be able to exper­i­ence per­fect South African wine at this renowned cel­lar tour that fea­tures the Cathedral Cellar which has high vaul­ted ceil­ings and some of the worlds largest vats in the worlds largest cel­lars! Now isn’t that cool? After the tour you’ll be treated to a wine tast­ing where you taste not only the award-winning wines, but brandy and for­ti­fied wine. There are daily sched­uled tours avail­able in a vari­ety of lan­guages so you won’t miss out on any of the details. The tour is approx­im­ately 75 minutes and takes you through a bar­rel mat­ur­a­tion cel­lar, the Cathedral Cellar, five big vats and con­cludes with an informal tast­ing of six products.

Address: The KWV Wine Emporium, Kohler Street, Suider Paarl, Cape Winelands.
Telephone: +27 (0)21 807‑3007 or +27 (0)21 807‑3008
Opening hours: Tour Times are Monday to Saturday 10h00 (English), 10h15 (German)
10h30 (English) and 14h15 (English). Sundays at 11h00 (English).

Visit the Drakenstein Lion Park

A visit to Paarl wouldn’t quite be complete without a visit to the The Drakenstein Lion Park. This is a Sanctuary for captive born pred­at­ors that was estab­lished in 1998 and provides lions in dis­tress a place a sanc­tu­ary. The lions live free from abuse and are treated with the com­pas­sion and respect they deserve. You’ll visit part the park which is 50 acres of sprawl­ing lion hab­itat. The park isn’t involved in any com­mer­cial breed­ing or trad­ing and it offers life­time care for all of it’s anim­als, so when a lion is brought into the park it will be allowed to live out its nat­ural life in this safe envir­on­ment because all of the anim­als brought into the park are cap­tive bred / hand reared and are there­fore not able to be rehab­il­it­ated into the wild.

Address: Drakenstein Lion Park, Old Paarl Road (5km off the R44 on the way to Stellenbosch), Cape Winelands.
Telephone: +27 (0)21 863‑3290
Opening hours: The Park is open daily from 09h30 to 17h00. We are closed on Christmas Day.
Feeding Times are on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 16h00.

Balloon Ride Over the Vineyards

If you enjoy the free­dom of fly­ing then make sure you book your­self a hot air bal­loon tour of the Cape Winelands, because there is no bet­ter way than see­ing these mag­ni­fi­cent vine­yards from high up above. The tall Drakenstein Mountains will stand taller when you breeze past, while the Hottentots Holland Mountain Range pays respect at your feet. Take in a new per­spect­ive of this beau­ti­ful coun­try because if you thought it was stun­ning on the ground wait until you see it from high up above. After an hour of bal­loon­ing you’ll be lowered to the ground and be col­lec­ted and taken back to your vehicle at the Grande Roche Hotel where you’ll enjoy a scrumptious break­fast spread before you depart. (Wineland Ballooning is a South African registered non-schedule air­line oper­at­ing since 1990. Licensed and check by the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) with a repu­ta­tion of over 1600 records of safe flights).

Address: Wineland Ballooning, Main Street, Paarl, Cape Winelands.
Telephone: +27 (0)21 863‑3192
Opening hours: Daily November to April. Booking essential.

Dine at Bosman’s Restaurant

Everyone needs to eat so why not do it in style at the only res­taur­ant in South Africa to once again earn the “Best of Award of Excellence” awar­ded by the American Magazine, Wine Spectator. This is the highest award received by a South African res­taur­ant for its wine list. The res­taur­ant is house in the manor house at Grande Roche and is the heart of the hotel. Here fusion food meets strong tra­di­tions and the food will excite the most dis­cern­ing of pal­ates. When the weather is great you can dine on the ter­race or patio and enjoy all that the Cape Winelands has to offer. If you’re a group of eight or more per­sons the ban­quet­ing depart­ment will help you choose a menu to suit both the guests and occa­sion. This is not a place to rock up in your jeans and slip slops as the dress code is smart — how­ever no “Jacket and Tie” requirement.

Address: Grande Roche Hotel, 1 Plantasie Steet, Paarl, 7646, Cape Winelands
Telephone: +27 (0)41 407‑1000
Opening hours: Booking is essential.

Hout Street Gallery

Experience a bit of cul­ture at this art gal­lery that was estab­lished in 1975. Although it doesn’t have a very long his­tory, in terms of the town’s his­tory, it star­ted with humble begin­nings and has grown to be the fore­most of its kind in the Western Cape. Showcasing works from both estab­lished and new South African artists the gal­lery is unique and spe­cial. The shop front is also some­thing to visit purely because it is the old­est orginal shop front in Paarl. There are four large exhib­i­tion rooms as well as a gift shop which offers a vari­ety of crafts, ceram­ics, hand blown glass and bronzes.

Address: 270 Hout Street (Corner of Main and Hout), Paarl, Cape Winelands.
Telephone: +27 (0)21 872‑5030
Opening hours: Monday to Saturday from 08h00 to 17h30
Sunday from 10h00 to 17h00.

Carriage Ride Round Rhebokskloof Estate

Who can say they wouldn’t enjoy a car­riage ride? Take a step back into the old days and enjoy a slower pace in life … Here you can take one of the many dif­fer­ent trails that last any­thing from an hour or two to a half day tour with wine tast­ing and lunches in the gor­geous coun­tryside. If you’re strapped for time you can take a quick 15 minute drive around the estate. If you’re in the mood for a lovely break­fast idea why not enjoy the Champagne break­fast trail which is approx­im­ately an hour and a half, the half day trail includes three wine tast­ings on dif­fer­ent estates. Other options include a full day trail with four tast­ings or a sun­down­ers and snacks trail with a tast­ing and snacks after the car­riage drive. This all sounds simply mar­velous, so it’ll be dif­fi­cult to choose …

Address: Rhebokskloof Wine Estate, Wine Route No. 8, Agter Paarl, Cape Winelands.
Telephone: +27 (0)21 869‑8687 or +27 (0)83 226‑8735
Opening hours: Bookings essen­tial. Please con­tact us to book.

With so much to do in Paarl, you’re a little bit spoilt for choice. But life is about ingul­ging every now and then! Let us know your Paarl favour­ites in the com­ment sec­tion below.