As you know I love travel, both locally and international but time and budget constraints, usually only allow international travel once a year. We also like to venture along the coast or into the country, for weekend breaks but lately we have been doing more City Escapes. Staying closer to home and exploring more of what Cape Town has to offer!
City Escapes
When I was approached recently by City Lodge to be part of the City Escapes blogger campaign, I thought it would be an interesting way to see new places!
As part of the campaign, each blogger was allocated a hotel to use as a base and explore the city. Our City Lodge Hotel was situated at GrandWest in Cape Town. GrandWest is 20 minutes from Cape Town’s international airport, the city centre and the V&A Waterfront.
We arrived at the hotel quite late in the evening, after my hubby had finished work. Once we had checked in, we made our way up to our room.
The hotel itself is quite olde worlde, themed on the original Cape Dutch style of architecture, with dark green wall paper and floral, upholstered furniture and carpets. This style of decor is not necessarily to my taste but the hotel is neat and tidy and well presented.
After a rather long week, we decided to head down to the bar for a quick drink before showering and heading out to dinner.
There are quite a number of restaurants to choose from at GrandWest, which cater for most tastes and budgets. We decided on Beijing Orchid for dinner. One of the advantages of staying at the City Lodge Hotel GrandWest, is that everything you may need for an evening out, is walking distance from the hotel. So there is no need to take your car, a mere stroll and we were at the restaurant!
Beijing Orchid offers diners a buffet style dinner option, at R150 per person.The buffet selection ranges from really yummy sushi, to sweet and sour chicken, to hot and spicy curry.
If it is entertainment you are after, GrandWest offers a host of things to do! The hotel is part of the GrandWest Casino Resort, boasting a cinema complex, ice-rink, restaurants, bars, gaming tables, slot machines, grand arena and a kids entertainment area. My favourite activity is definitely the ten pin bowling, it reminds me of my childhood!
We also enjoyed some live music, which was happening at Jackson Hall. We then made our way back to the hotel, for a quick nightcap before bed.
We were up relatively early the next morning, as I had planned to explore a bit of the Durbanville Wine Route. After a lovely breakfast at the hotel we hit the road to do some wine tasting.
Wine tasting is one of my favourite things to do in Cape Town! There are so many amazing wine farms to choose from and it is the perfect way to spend a day exploring the beauty of Cape Town.
The Durbanville Wine Route is not one that we usually visit and I had set my sites on De Grendel, as I have heard so many good things about it!
What a beautiful setting and the perfect City Escape! We enjoyed a wonderful wine tasting, complimented by a scrumptious cheese board, from their Vine and Dine Menu.
There are a host of other wine farms in and around Cape Town, which are definitely worth exploring!
Other activities in the area would be a visit to Blouberg Beach, situated between Big Bay and Table View Beach. You will also see one of the best views of table mountain from Blouberg Beach! If you are a bit of an adventure junkie then you can even learn how to Kitesurf on Blouberg Beach!
If it is shopping you are after then you definitely need to pop into Canal Walk Shopping Centre, Africa’s leading super-regional retail mall. Canal Walk merges the world’s most desirable brands with shopping convenience and entertainment with everyday leisure, all in a majestic setting. It is located at Century City, midway between the Cape Town and Bellville CBD’s.
Venturing a bit further from GrandWest, then a visit to the V&A Waterfront is in order. The V&A has so much to offer in terms of things to do and see.
For more information on the City Lodge Hotels and to book a hotel stay please call +27 21 535 3611 or email [email protected]
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