Franschhoek

Franschhoek is a small town at the closed end of a mountain valley about 75 km from Cape Town. Nearly 300 French Huguenot refugees settled here from 1688, in a valley then called Olifantshoek for its elephants, and the French names stuck to the streets, farms and restaurants. Today it trades on food and wine: a main street of good kitchens, estates such as Boschendal and Haute Cabrière, and a wine tram that lets you taste without driving. A night or two here is the classic Winelands treat.

Getting there

Allow about 45 minutes to an hour by car from Cape Town. Only one road, the R45, enters the valley from the Stellenbosch and Paarl side. The other way in is over the Franschhoek Pass from Villiersdorp, a proper mountain road with long views back down the valley. There is no passenger train; a 28 km branch line from Paarl was built in 1904 and now carries the wine tram. Minibus taxis run from Stellenbosch and Paarl, but almost everyone drives, books a transfer or joins a tour.

When to go

Summers are hot and dry, winters mild and wet, with around 716 mm of rain a year. Harvest is February and March. The Bastille Festival has taken over the village every July since 1994, with wine and cheese tastings, a boules tournament and a lot of red, white and blue. The Cap Classique and Champagne Festival is held at the Huguenot Monument in early December. In summer, buy tram tickets ahead; they sell out.

What to do

The Franschhoek Wine Tram is a hop-on hop-off loop that mixes a double-decker tram with open-sided tram-buses. Lines are colour coded and each visits its own set of farms; the number of lines has grown over the years, so look at the current map rather than an old blog. There are two terminals, one in town (ticket office at 32 Huguenot Road) and one at Groot Drakenstein, with a free shuttle between them. Vehicles come round roughly hourly. People who have done it say three farms in a day is plenty, and that tastings are paid separately at each estate.

The Huguenot Memorial Museum on the corner of Huguenot and Lambrecht streets explains who the settlers were (Monday to Saturday 09:00 to 17:00, Sunday 14:00 to 17:00). The Franschhoek Motor Museum at L’Ormarins opens Tuesday to Friday 10:00 to 16:00 and weekends 10:00 to 15:00. Hire a bicycle to pedal between farms on the valley floor, or walk in Mont Rochelle Nature Reserve above the pass.

Good to know

Franschhoek proper is tiny, about 1,000 people, while the wider area including the townships behind the main street is over 20,000. Restaurants on the main road book out at weekends and in December, so reserve dinner when you reserve your room. The tram ticket does not include tastings, which catches first-timers. If you are driving in over the pass, do it in daylight.

Last updated 6 October 2026. Sources: Wikivoyage, Wikipedia, Franschhoek Wine Valley, Franschhoek Wine Valley, Stingy Nomads, Franschhoek Bastille Festival.