

The pictured rocks is a great destination for anyone wanting to be outside and enjoy the beautiful Lake Superior lakeshore. It is a great place for an active summer vacation! A must see for anyone coming to Michigan.
-TFWYs
Eat, drink, and flow around the world
The pictured rocks is a great destination for anyone wanting to be outside and enjoy the beautiful Lake Superior lakeshore. It is a great place for an active summer vacation! A must see for anyone coming to Michigan.
-TFWYs
This is the second part of our sailing trip with Bearing true south. In part one we were sailing the Cyclades, here is the link to that post- https://thefoodiewinoyogis.com/2019/01/29/sailing-the-cyclades-with-bearing-true-south-part-one/
After Kythnos and Serifos we crossed the Aegean and went on to the Saronic Gulf Islands. This was not our original plan but with high winds and a storm heading towards the Cyclades we changed course to stay in calmer seas as we sailed. The crossing took about 7-8 hours of sailing. After that we spent time on Ydra (Hydra is the English spelling and pronunciation), Ermioni peninsula, Poros and a few small uninhabited islands on the way back to Athens.
Ydra Island:
The port town on Ydra was more crowded than the other islands we visited but don’t let that deter you. It has a lot to offer and was one of our favorite spots. The street facing the water is lined with tourist shops and restaurants but if you walk further back into town you can find some really amazing and authentic food. There are no cars on the island so the streets are lined with donkeys to carry supplies. This island is also the one with by far the most cats we saw on this trip!
Ydra is one of the wealthiest islands in Greece and has a long pirate history. There is a pirate mansion in the town (Lazaros Koundouriotis Historical Mansion) that is open for tours and offers great views of the water. There is a small entrance fee to tour the house. The house is beautifully restored and decorated. You can take pictures of everything you see inside. It takes about 45 minutes to walk through. We would highly recommend seeing this place!
There is also a small museum in town, The Historical Archive. The museum focuses on Ydra’s cultural history, it took us about an hour to wander through. It is full of paintings and different artifacts relating to the island. There is a small entrance fee. Next to the museum is the old fort which you can walk up to and take photos of the water and the port town itself.
After exploring the pirate mansion and the museum we headed to lunch at Xeri Elia. This is a small family run restaurant a few blocks back away from the water and the tourists. We have traditional stuffed tomatoes and soutzoukakia or traditional Greek meatballs in a tomato sauce with greens locally grown on the island.
After we toured the museum and the mansion and stopped for some lunch we were ready for a swim! We walked along the road near the water until we came to Spilia. This is a small café with tables offering water views and steps down to the water so you can swim, snorkel or just lay in the sun and relax. It was a bit wavy the day we were there but that didn’t stop us from snorkeling and enjoying the water. This was actually one of our favorite snorkeling spots on this trip. We saw the most variety of colorful fish in the spot. You can get to the water from the cafe, but there is also a public beach just past it. The cafe had changing rooms you can use and great coffee!
Ermioni
The marina at the port of Ydra was actually full when we went by so we ended up staying on Ermioni and taking the Ferry to Ydra for a day. We stayed on the south side of the Ermioni peninsula. The ferry leaves from the marina on the north side. It is just a short 5-10 minute walk through town from one side to the other. The ferry ride is only about 15-20 minutes and we were able to leave in the morning and take the last ferry back in the evening so we still enjoyed a full day of Ydra.
Ermioni itself is a really nice area. There is a small park on the far end of the peninsula. The landscape here is more forested, it reminded us of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with its pine trees along the cost. There is a path which goes along the park in the forested area which only takes about 30-40 minutes to walk through. Along the way there are a few areas with steps down to the water if you wanted to swim.
We stayed in Ermioni for two nights. The night after we sailed across the Aegean and the night after we had spent the day on Ydra. The first night we ate dinner at a restaurant right on the water called Tzieris. This place offered authentic Greek food and awesome views with tables right on the water! We did not take as many pictures of all the food here but everything we had was great. Here we tried several appetizers including tzatziki, a fava bean dip, saganaki (Greek fried cheese), we also had grilled octopus and muscles in a tomato and feta sauce- which we did take a picture of.
The second night we had a lighter and more casual dinner on the boat. We happened to be anchored right across from a restaurant called Souvlaki Bar. They had some tables outside on the side walk but we just did take away and ate on the boat.
Another food recommendation on Ermioni is the Drougas Bakery. This is on the north side near where the ferry leaves. They have amazing coffee, breads, pastries and desserts. They also sell wine, olive oils, and jams that you can buy to take back home.
Poros Island: From Ermioni we did a short sail to Poros.
The clock tower on Poros is an iconic landmark on the island and a must do! The clock tower is located on the highest point of the island so it is a bit of a walk up to see it. From this area you will get amazing panoramic views of the water, the view cannot be beat!
The Archaeological Museum of Poros is a museum located on Koryzis Square in Poros, Greece. The displays of the museum date from the Mycenaean era to Roman times. There was also a small modern art exhibit there they day we went through. The museum is very small and only took us about 30 minutes to go through. There is a small entrance fee to walk though. You can take photos but are not allowed to use a flash went photographing inside the museum.
After walking up to the clock town and through the museum we had some time to kill in the afternoon. We walked from the marina to Mikro Neorio Bay Beach Bar. This place is located on a small, quite beach. They offer lounge chairs with umbrellas at no cost as long as you purchase something from the bar. We enjoyed relaxing, taking in the views and doing some swimming.
We headed into town for dinner at Platanos Taverna. This may have been the best meal we had the entire trip! We ate really well the whole time so that is really saying something. We loved this place, we ate outside and had great views of the water and the boats at night. The restaurant is up high on a hill in the town just a short walk from the marina. We had zucchini ball appetizers which were awesome and highly recommended by our guide. He talked them up all week and they lived up to expectations. We had roasted lamb and veal in a tomato sauce with sweet onion for our main courses. Both dishes were excellent. If you are on Poros you have to eat at this place!
Our last day we left from Poros and stopped at a few very small uninhabited islands for more swimming, snorkeling and relaxing on the boat before heading back to Athens. We ended back in Athens in the evening after our day in the sun. We spent one last night on the boat in the Athens marina. Once we got back to the marina our skipper left us for the night. Our guide went to dinner with us one last time in Athens before also leaving us for the night. The next morning our skipper came back to help get us all checked out and on our way. Again we would highly recommend Bearing True South, they were awesome! Here is the link to their website again- http://www.bearingtruesouth.com. They also offer hiking, biking and other adventure travel in Northern Greece if sailing isn’t your thing.
-TFWYs
Kythnos Main Town – Chora
After spending the afternoon in the port town we took a cab up to the main town of Chora. This small village is up on the top of a hill. It is full of small winding roads, white buildings with royal blue accents, it has all the beautfiul things you always seen in photos of the Cyclades but without all the tourists. As we wandered the streets exploring we didn’t see any other tourists. People are very proud of their homes in this village so we saw many people out painting their houses or tending to their gardens. Many people were growing fresh herbs in their small gardens so you can smell basil and oregano in the air as you walk by. We intended to eat dinner up here at another restaurant recommended by our guide but the restaurant was closed because the owner’s daughter had gotten married that weekend. Our guide also recommended we try some traditional greek desserts from the Chora Pastry Shop. Everything we tried here was wonderful- we would recommend the baklava and the cream filled pastry but try whatever looks good to you, it was all delicious! The owners were very friendly and explained to us what everything was. They were also willing to pack stuff up and hold it for us until we had finished our walk through the village.
Serifos Island
From Kythnos we sailed to Serifos. We arrived there in the afternoon after roughly 3-4 hours of sailing. We sailed along the Eastern coast of Kythnos and passed Little Pepper Island, then continued down to the Southeastern corner of Serifos where the main town is. On our way in, we stopped at a bay for a swim and saw a ton of fish and urchins.
Serifos Port Town – Livadi Livadi is the port town on Serifos where we stayed. After we arrived we spent the afternoon wandering around this small town for the afternoon before heading up to the main town in the evening. Livadi is full of small shops and restaurants along the beach and a few narrow streets with some houses. There is not a lot there but it is a nice place to relax. After heading up the the main town to explore we came back to Livadi and had dinner on the beach at restaurant TAKIS. Our guide knew the owner of this restaurant as well so he graciously took us to the back of the restaurant to show us all of the fresh seafood available as well as the kitchen and the wine selection. We took his recommendation for a white wine made locally on the island. Our table was right on the water and the beach happened to be full of cats and a few small kittens all walking the beach and trying to catch the minnows swimming in the shallow water along the beach. They didn’t catch any fish while we watched but it did add entertainment to our dinner!
After dinner we walked down the beach to a small cafe for ice cream. We tried Mastiha flavored ice cream (the liqueur we had tried on Kythnos). You can find all kinds of products made from the Mastiha tree in Greece. Although it wasn’t our favorite ice cream flavor it was fun to try something new that you can’t find everywhere.
Serifos Main Town – Hora We took the bus from the port up to the main town, Hora. The main town is up on the top of a hill so the bus ride up is on pretty windy, narrow roads but is only about a 5-10 minute ride. There is also a path to walk up if you are looking for a workout. There are two churches in the town that offer spectacular views of the water and the town. You do have to walk up a fairly steep hill to get to the first church which sets up above the town on the hill. From this church there is another church up several steps to an even higher point on the hill. One warning, it is very windy up here. I wore a sun dress and spent the entire time up by the churches holding in in place (wear shorts and a t-shirt).
After walking up to the churches we headed back into town. We sat outside at Tavern Louis for some homemade sour cherry juice and lemonade. From this Tavern you get great views of yet another church built in the traditional Cycladic style architecture. The tavern is in a small square at the center of town, there are a few other restaurants/cafes around and a few small shops. We stopped into one of the shops nearby that was selling clothing and some souvenirs. The store owner was very nice and helpful but was not pushy like you find in some more heavily touristed areas where you feel pressured to buy something when you walk in. We purchased a small clay coin with a frog on it. The Serifos frog was printed on the first currency of the island.
You can read more about the second half of our trip here https://thefoodiewinoyogis.com/2019/01/31/sailing-the-greek-islands-with-bearing-true-south-part-two/
-TFWY
We went to Athens as the starting point of a week long sailing trip around the Western Cyclades and Saronic Gulf. We had about two days in Athens before we left the city. There is a lot to see in Athens so we did not get to everything. Here is what we did get to in our short time in the city and some recommendations for food to try.
We stayed near the Plaka district in the middle of the city. This is the oldest part of the city and very close to the Acropolis. It is a bit touristy with lots of shops and some more touristy restaurants but the neighborhood is beautiful and you can still find some good, authentic restaurants within walking distance. You will also be within walking distance to the acropolis and a lot of the ruins.
Changing of the guards: We had never seen a changing of the guards ceremony before so we decided to check it out. There is a ceremony every half hour at the Parliament building near Plaka. It does draw a lot of tourists so we did have to squeeze our way towards the front of the group of people watching in order to get a good view. The ceremony is fun to see if you haven’t seen one before however we did feel it was a bit drawn out so we did not stay for the entire ceremony. After about 10 minutes we felt we got the gist of it and went on with out busy day (we were trying to pack a lot of sight seeing into our short time in Athens).
Monastiraki Square: This is a busy area near the Acropolis hill. The square itself has some beautiful old buildings including the Pantanassas Byzantine Church which you can go inside and take photos of. There is also a large flee market full of shops selling clothing, olive oil and other greek food items and souvenirs. Souvenir tip – 98% of the shops are selling the same stuff. As a rule, we try not to buy anything on the first day of a trip when everything is new and you don’t have a point of reference. If you buy something in Plaka it will likely be a bit more expensive so shop around to find the best price before purchasing. There are several restaurants and bars in this area that offer great views of the Acropolis.
Anafiotika Neighborhood: As you wander around the acropolis hill you will stumble upon a little neighborhood full of white buildings, tiny streets, beautiful flowers and lots of cats! You get the feeling of being on one of the islands in the Cyclades without actually leaving the city. Do be mindful as you are wandering through that people do live in these houses so be respectful when photographing.
Acropolis Hill and Museum: We toured the Acropolis museum and the Acropolis hill with a guide, Eva. She was recommended to us by Bearing True South (the company we sailed around the Islands with) Here is a link to her instagram account- from there you can call or email her to set up a tour: https://www.instagram.com/evanthia_great_tours_greece/. The museum is extremely well done! It is very helpful to have someone who knows what all the ruins and artifacts are to explain in more detail to you as you walk through. As you enter, you will walk over the old ruins that the museum was built over. Since there is so much history in Athens, it is impossible to build something without hitting some sort of ruins. You will have to check your bags at the entrance, and flash photography is limited to a few areas in the museum. On the top floor you will realize that the layout is designed to represent the top of the Parthenon: the carved marble around the sides and the marble statues at either end. There are signs and explanations of each artifact in the museum so it certainly isn’t necessary to have a guide if you’d rather walk through on your own. From the museum we headed up to the top of Acropolis hill. We were up at the top at sunset and stayed to take photos until it closed. It is beautiful to be up there at sunset but it is very crowded so it is nearly impossible to get a photo of any of the ruins without other tourists in the background. I suspect it is very busy at all times of day unless you arrive right when it opens in the morning. Of course the Parthenon is the largest building at the top which most people know about. You can also see the Temple of Athena Nike, the Erechtheion and the Propylaea (the gateway or entrance to the Acropolis).
Odeon of Herodes Atticus: This stone theater is located on the slope of the Acropolis hill so you can’t miss it as you walk to the top. It is a beautiful theater and it is actually still used today. We weren’t in Athens long enough to see a performance here but there was a singer rehearsing as we walked by and stopped for photos.
Panathenaic Stadium: The stadium is the site of the first modern Olympic games. It is made entirely out of marble. You can pay a fee to go in and walk around the track and up into the seats. We did not do this as you can get a great view of the stadium from the gate.
Roman Agora: This is the ancient Roman Market Place. You will see these ruins as you walk around the Plaka neighborhood. You can pay an entrance fee to walk in and get closer to them. We did not as our time was limited and you can get a good view of the ruins from outside the gates (you can pretty much walk all the way around them).
Greek Agora: This is the ancient Greek marketplace. You can see this in the distance from the Acropolis, we did not walk over to see it close up but that is an option if you have more time.
Temple of Zeus: We only saw this on our drive out of the city on our way to the marina for our sailing trip. The temple is very impressive and if we had more time we would have loved to walk around more closely. The temple consists of large columns similar to the Parthenon. We did not get any good pictures since we only saw it as we drove by.
What and Where to Eat:
-TFWY
This is meant to be a complete guide of how we make wine without getting too deep into the chemistry and nuances of winemaking. This guide will tell you what to do at each stage of the winemaking process focusing primarily on making wine from grapes, but a frozen must would also work. Also note that this post is mostly focused on red wines because there are more steps, but we note the steps you would need to take for white and rose wines.
Note on sanitation: At every step, sanitation is incredibly important. You want to limit the amount of potential bacteria that will turn your wine to vinegar. We have a two step cleaning/sanitizing process that uses ammonia and water to clean, then a sanitizing mixture of water and potassium metabisulfite.
Bring the grapes home, you need to crush & de-stem if the vineyard did not already do that for you (ours gives us the option)
Side Note: Sugar Vs. Acid: Before we move on to testing the wine, a bit of a lesson of acidity and sugar in your wine must. Sugar is the food for your yeast. The yeast will consume the sugar and their byproduct is alcohol and Co2. The sugar in your must can be measured by the brix or the specific gravity. You can use a hydrometer to measure the specific gravity or a refractometer to measure brix. We tend to rely on the SG test since it requires more must and you get a more accurate reading. On the other hand you also need to test the acidity of your must, when grapes grow, they are basically turning sunlight into sugar through photosynthesis. As grapes ripen, the sugar increases and the the acidity decreases. There is a sweet spot the growers are looking for where these two attributes hit their prime winemaking and they decide to harvest. Depending on your region and grower, your grapes might never hit that sweet spot and you may need to make adjustments to your must.
The day you get the grapes you’ll need to check the specific gravity of the must. You are looking for a specific gravity of at LEAST 1.09 – this will get you about 12.5% finished alcohol. Any lower and you risk it not being stable for aging and is much more likely to spoil. It will also be lacking some body and will not feel as full in the mouth. If your must ends up less than a SG of 1.09, you will want to chaptalize (means to add sugar). This is a bit controversial (not allowed in France), but for us in Michigan where the season is short and we do not have control of when the farm harvests so we often have to chaptalize. You want to use just plain old refined sugar, don’t get fancy and buy turbinado sugar (like Sugar in the Raw) or unprocessed sugars since it still has the molasses that is in unrefined sugar and could give your wine some off flavors. Refined sugar is the way to go, your yeast will love it. Just add it in based on the formula below, and mix it in. You will want to allow it to dissolve and mingle for at least 12 hours before testing the SG again to make sure you hit your goal.
Finally you want to test the acidity and pH of the wine must. You will need to get an Acid Titration kit as well as some pH strips which you should be able to find at your winemaking store or Amazon. We also use a graduated beaker for the samples.
This is the last step on Day 1. Once your grapes are crushed, destemmed, tested and adjusted (chaptalized and/or TA adjustments) you need to kill the wild yeast that are naturally occurring on the grape skins. It is possible to ferment with wild yeast, and it is done in many French vineyards with hundreds of years of winemaking history. Most of the common yeast strains you buy at your winemaking store trace their origins back to France. Chances are you are not buying your grapes from one of these vineyards, so it is safest to go with a tried and true strain of yeast. If you go the wild route, there is a good chance you will have a stuck fermentation (not fully fermenting) or funky/off flavors in the finished wine. Your potassium metabisulfite container will likely tell you how much you need to add to your must, we typically buy the LD Carlson brand and it requires 1/4 tsp per 6 gallons of must. Add it, stir it around and let it sit for 24 hours.
Yesterday you did all the hard stuff. Today all you have to do is make sure your must/juice is at room temperature and add the yeast. If you did any chaptalization, you will want to retest the specific gravity. If it still hasn’t hit your target SG, you may need to add more sugar before you can add the yeast. Just sprinkle the yeast on top of your must or add directly into your juice for white or rose wines. Your yeast will start working about 24 hours after being added to the must/juice. Fermentation should happen at about room temperature, if it is too cold fermentation could stall before completely fermenting your wine.
For White/Rose Wines
Allow the juice to ferment, maybe check on it to make sure it is fermenting (check the specific gravity after a week to see where it is, you won’t want to move on until fermentation slows and you have a specific gravity of around 1.001).
For Red Wines
You will need to do what is called ‘punching down the cap’ twice per day. You will notice as soon as your fermentation starts, the Co2 will push the skins to the top forming a cap. you want your skins to be in contact with your must as much as possible. There are other ways wineries do this, such as pumping wine over the cap, but we just use a long sanitized spoon to punch it down and stir it around twice per day. At this point, the must is producing enough Co2 to protect it from oxidation. Later on you will want to be careful to limit the wine’s exposure to the air. That being said, make sure your container has a lid, it will likely be attracting fruit flies at this stage.
At about day 10, you will notice the cap isn’t as pronounced and the fermentation is starting to slow down. We typically press when the fermentation is barely showing any life and 14 days is usually around the sweet spot. At 14 days we will press the wine off the skins. I made a simple wine press LINK HERE that we use a sanitized kitchen pot to transfer the wine must into.
Bottling
After multiple times racking the wine and many months of waiting, it is finally time to bottle. We typically bottle around September the year following harvest. The first thing we do (after sanitizing!) is siphon the wine from the carboys the wine was stored in to a bucket. We do this to get it off any lees that may be left in the bottom of the carboy. Once in the bucket you can attach the bottling wand to your siphon setup and start bottling. We will typically set the first bottle aside since it risked getting a bit aerated when you start the siphon. Fill the bottles as much as possible and move along. Usually at the end will be a partial bottle, which we will also set aside and drink that night.
Tools, Equipment, and Other Things You Will Need
Stellenbosch gets most of the attention for wine regions in South Africa, known especially for their Pinotage wines. There is a lesser known region just a half hour away from Stellenbosch called Franschoek (French Corner). We set out from Cape Town for a weekend of wine tasting in Franschhoek with friends. Along the way we stopped in Stellenbosch at the Stellenbosch Slow Market which is open on Saturday mornings. This market is full of venders selling coffee, beer, baked goods, all kinds of different food, as well as crafts and some really wonderful art. There are picnic style tables in the center so you can eat whatever you decide on. We picked up some biltong and droëwors to snack (inspired this recipe!) on during the day and ate at a Turkish food stall for breakfast/lunch before heading out.
Wine Tram in Franschhoek:
In Franschhoek there is a wine tram which you can purchase tickets and take for the day. The tram has several lines so you can choose which line you want and that will determine which wineries you can stop at. You can hop on and off the tram depending on which wineries you want to go to. The mountains around the wineries are beautiful and the tram has an open air area which was great for taking pictures along the way. One thing to be mindful of is that the tram is on a schedule so it drops you off and comes back to pick you up approximately 45 minutes later. If the winery is full or a large group gets off the tram with you if may take a while to get through your tasting. The wineries do tend to pour one wine at a time vs pouring all your tastings out for you when you arrive. It normally wouldn’t be a big deal, but for us it meant rushing the last few to make sure we didn’t miss the tram. The tasting portions were generous at all the stops we made. There are eight hop on, hop off lines you can chose from. Here is the link for the website for more information: https://winetram.co.za/tours/
We chose the orange line and stopped at the following wineries:
Noble Hill: This was our first stop of the day. We were one of the only small groups there during our tasting. we sat outside on the patio for our tasting. This is a great place to relax, enjoy your tasting or a glass of wine and take in the views of the surrounding Simonsberg mountains. The winery also has two Rhodesian Ridgeback winery dogs. These dogs are very friendly but also very large. they won’t bother you if you aren’t a dog lover but if you are they are more than happy to let you pet them!
Babylonstoren: This winery is a traditional Cape Dutch farm. The winery and restaurant is a combination of Cape Dutch architecture and more contemporary features. The restaurant has large floor to ceiling glass windows all around it which show off the views of the surrounding vines and mountains. We took more time at this stop so we could have a small lunch as well as our tasting. We particularly enjoyed the Shiraz and the Viognier.
Plaisir de Merle: This wine tasting was in a beautiful old farmhouse. The wine was good, but the service wasn’t awesome – we waited a while to be served and then we were very rushed in order to make the tram. The server also didn’t give any details about the wine, just poured and left. I would go back, but it wasn’t the best one we went to.
Allee Bleue: Our last stop of the day. We particularly loved their Brut Rose and all of their reds were also very good. This was also the only winery we went to that had Pinotage believe it or not. It is apparently more of a Stellenbosch varietal. We really liked their Pinotage and actually left with a bottle.
We spent the night at a hostel in town and then in the morning we went to one more winery before heading back to Cape Town. We stopped at the Rupert & Rothschild Vignerons Winery which had wonderful reds and was fun for us since we had been to the Rothschild family owned winery in Chile so we now have a bottle from each trip in our cellar at home. We left with a bottle of Baron Edmond which is a Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot blend. The winery has nice patio area as well as a very large and beautifully decorated, modern tasting room. We also got to taste the Flechas De Los Andes Gran Corte 2011 which is a Malbec, Syrah (Shiraz if your one of THOSE people :-)), Cabernet Sauvignon blend from the Rothschild winery in Argentina. This wine was not for sale at the winery in Franschhoek but we would definitely recommend it or if you can find it for sale in the U.S.
Here are links to our other South Africa posts:
-TFWY
These places where some of our favorites during our trip to South Africa. We would highly recommend all of these stops. This part of the trip you would need a car for. We rented a car to do the Chapeman’s peak drive and kept it for the day. We had a driver through our volunteer program who drove us to Boulder’s beach and Cape Point/Cape of Good Hope. Due to our schedule we split it into two days, but you could do everything below in one full day.
Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope:
This was the highlight of the trip for both of us. We had a driver through our volunteer program that drove us and stayed while we explored, but if you have a rental car you can go at your own pace. Cell service there is not that great so having an Uber or taxi driver drop you off and then planning to get another ride back will probably not work out (it also costs money to enter the park, so taxis don’t sit around in there). As you drive through the park you can see several different types of animals. We saw baboons, bontebok and elands.
Our driver was great at pointing these animals out to us as we drove. You can also see wild ostrich in the park which we did not but our driver did drive us by an ostrich farm just outside the park so we could at least see them up close.
We walked up to the lighthouse at Cape Point where you have a great view of where the Indian and the Atlantic Ocean meet. You can see the currents in the water, as they mix it looks like a perpetual wave way out in the water. The day we visited it was sunny in Cape Town when we left but as you get closer to Cape Point the breeze off the oceans hit land and it gets cloudier and more humid.
From Cape Point you can take a path which leads you along the coast to the Cape of Good Hope. This walk was beautiful and only takes about 30-45 minutes. if you have the time we would highly recommend this trail. It is a well marked and well maintained trail the entire way. It takes you along the mountain with views of secluded beaches below and waves crashing on the rocks. You walk up a small hill to get a panoramic view of the Cape of Good Hope before finally heading down to the beach where there is a parking lot so our driver was able to pick us up from here after our walk. This is where the iconic sign marking the Southwestern most point of Africa is located so you can take your photo before heading out.
Boulders Beach:
This is where the penguin colony is and there are penguins everywhere! You do need to pay an admissions fee to enter. Once you are in there are several look out decks where you can watch the penguins swim and walk along the beach. Outside of the park there is a public beach access that you can sunbathe and swim. It is known because you can swim with the penguins (and it’s completely free. We did not swim but stood on the rocks in the water and stood in the shallow water near the shore and had penguins swim around our feet.
Chapman’s Peak drive:
This is one of the most scenic drives in the world. It is a toll road that goes between Noordhoek and Hout Bay on the Atlantic Coast. You do need to make sure the road is open as it may close due to weather conditions. Along the way there are multiple places you can pull over and stop to take in the view and take pictures. The views along the way are spectacular, we stopped at just about every place we could pull over to take pictures. Definitely worth the drive as you work your way around the peninsula.
Here are links to our other South Africa posts:
-TFWY