South Africa is really a great country to start your
bucket list travel destinations. If you are a traveller from other country and just
starting to explore Western Cape, then you might want to put Tulbagh as one of
your lists. Here is how you start:
1. Transportation
One thing that I think this country needs to improve
is transportation system. As a student here in South Africa, I mostly rely on
Uber to go anywhere, which is not cheap. Decent transportation is not easy to
find if you don’t have a car. A car is essential to travel to Tulbagh. Firefly,
which collaborated with Hertz, is one option you can consider renting a car
where you can find all information on their website. However, maximum distance is
only 100km/day or you will be charged R1.8/km for extra distance.
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| The cheapest car in Hertz |
2. Accommodation (Tulbagh accommodation)
After doing research where to stay in Tulbagh, I can
say that Tulbagh Hotel (or it will appear as The Tulbagh Boutique Heritage
Hotel in any booking website) is the best hotel in town. The parking lot is
totally safe, you can park your car inside the parking area or along the
street, the security guard will look after your car for 24-hour. The room is
very nice, the combination between modern and traditional design makes it even
better. There will be two buildings in Tulbagh Hotel: the main building which
is the area for restaurant, spa, and front office, and the second building,
just across the road, which is for room, swimming pool, and restaurant.
Loadshedding is very nuisance, it is very important to ask the receptionist
about the loadshedding schedule and plan your day. However, apart from
loadshedding, I really enjoyed my stay in Tulbagh Hotel, very comfortable.
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| Inside the hotel |
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| Tulbagh hotel room |
3. Restaurant
The Tulbagh hotel itself has the best restaurant in town,
The Olive Terrace. We came here during summer, so the weather was very nice!
The variety of wines are also impressive as well as the food. I honestly didn’t
expect to have such a nice Asian food in such a small village, but they have
Beef Chow Mein and that was excellent. For the dessert, located exactly beside
the hotel, Cole & Deeg café has an excellent quality food and service. Find
their menu on google and try their coffee! The other restaurant that you might
have to visit, close to Tulbagh Hotel, is Readers Restaurant, Paddagang Eethui
& Fijne Wijne (too bad this restaurant doesn’t do wine testing anymore).
There is also Rijk’s Restaurant where you can do wine testing and lunch at the
same time. I recommend you to try their mussel menu, which is very nice
combined with wine testing!
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| Mussel Pot |
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| Beef chow mein |
From those restaurants, I personally like The Olive
Terrace Hotel for lunch and dinner, not because it is the place we stayed but
because the variety of the food is surprisingly extraordinary in a place like
Tulbagh. For breakfast and dessert, I recommend you to go to Cole & Deeg
café, they have an impressive menu.
4. Wine Farm
There are number of wine farms that I would recommend
you to visit. Each wine farms have different character and scenery. Here are
the lists that I have visited and enjoyed so far:
Montpellier Tulbagh
This place is an accommodation as well as a wine farm
that has a very unique concept. Although I visited Montpellier only for wine
testing, I can say the concept of the forest and gardens they provide to
visitors is magnificent. For wine testing, you will feel the peace of tall
trees, chirping birds, and beautiful music. I really like the way they take
visitors on a tour of the wine testing: follow the music! However, since I'm
not a fan of sparkling wine, which is their unit selling point, I prefer red
wine over their sparkling wine. But if you are a big fan of sparkling wine, I'm
sure you would enjoy the beautiful nature around combined with old colonial
buildings. Very unique!
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| Montpellier Tulbagh |
Saronsberg
To satisfy your needs of art and wine at the same
time, Saronsberg is the right place for you. On the second floor, you will find
the art gallery which is very beautiful and artistic. The wines selection is
also nice, their red wines are selected as one of the best wine competitions in
South Africa and somewhere in Europe. Please be aware of the busy day on the
weekend and please come before 4. I would say the service was not really nice
because we went there almost closing time, but the stunning modern and artistic
wine cellar with a spectacular view is worth trying. You only need to pay R100
for 7 different wine testing! Fantastic.
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| One of the art |
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| Saronsberg Tulbagh |
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| The view from the main building |
Manley
We were very lucky to have the owner of Manley as our sommelier.
With the new owner of Manley from Germany, Markus Ehehalt, he brings new
concept of Manley to the people. So far, Manley is one of my favourite wine
cellars in Tulbagh. I honestly forgot how much it was exactly for wine testing,
but it was less than R100 and FREE wine testing if you buy a bottle of wine. Their
Shiraz is a must try here! We didn’t have a chance to try their food because we
came soon after late breakfast as they didn’t serve food that early. However, I
believe you would enjoy your stay with Manley because the surrounding area is fabulous.
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| New Owners |
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| The view |
Rijk’s Wine estate
The first time I set foot in this place I felt nothing
special. Maybe it will be different if you stay here, because they have a wine
and hotel club concept. Once inside, you will be provided with an attractive
mountain view. For me, there is nothing special about this place other than the
food. The wine testing we did wasn't too bad but none of the points made us
happy. However, the food we ordered was Mussel Pot (R85) and it tasted really
good! Wine testing becomes valuable with the Mussel Pot. Try it!
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| Rijk's Restaurant |
Lemberg Wine estate
Lemberg is a dark and mysterious place. For me, there
is nothing I can enjoy here. If you are only visiting this place for wine
testing, I don't think it's a very good place. But you can still enjoy the
beautiful view because basically all wineries in Tulbagh are surrounded by
amazing mountains. I personally didn't try to do wine testing as this was the
fourth place we visited and I didn't feel good doing wine testing anymore.
However, we bought red wine at a special price. They have several bottles of
wine that are not worth selling due to packaging errors, but still have the
same quality. For half the price we bought 2 bottles of shiraz and took them
home. Such a great deal!
Ultimately, for me, visiting
Tulbagh is all about the wine, scenery, old building and food. Whether you stay
in a hotel with breakfast or in a self-catering accommodation, I believe you will be in love with what this place can offer you. However, as I always do,
please lower your expectation when you’re travelling anywhere because when you
put it high, you won’t enjoy Tulbagh as much. But personally, Tulbagh is beyond
my expectation. Cheers!
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| Tulbagh Hotel |
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