Skip to content
Sola

Stellenbosch for women travelling alone

Stellenbosch, South Africa
Raymond Ellis / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
First solo trip
Good first trip
Wifi
Good
Places to stay
8+ read

01 of 04

The read

Women who come here alone tend to leave wishing they had stayed longer.

What holds up

  • The town centre is walkable and English-speaking, with oak-lined streets, cafes, and bookshops close together.
  • Uber and Bolt, the ride-hailing apps, both operate here, and Uber is reliably used between wine estates during the day.
  • Guided hop-on hop-off wine tours run several days a week, solving the car problem entirely for solo travellers.

What to weigh

  • The wine estates are not walkable from town. You need a car, a booked tour, or Uber to reach them, and Uber supply is thinner here than in Cape Town, so allow extra wait time, especially after dark.
  • The town quietens noticeably during university holidays. Come during term time for a livelier atmosphere on the streets and in the cafes.

Stellenbosch is a compact university town in the Cape Winelands, about 50 minutes from Cape Town. The town centre has oak-lined streets, Cape Dutch architecture, and a concentration of restaurants, cafes, and galleries that punches well above its size. The surrounding wine estates are the main draw, with over 150 wine farms within a short drive. Die Laan (Dorp Street) is the central street for food and shopping. The university campus gives the town energy and keeps it from feeling too sleepy. Most wine estates offer tastings and food pairings.

02 of 04

Common questions

What people ask about Stellenbosch, answered with specifics rather than in general terms.

Is Stellenbosch a good place to travel alone?
Stellenbosch is one of the easier places in the region to travel alone for the first time. The town centre is walkable and English-speaking, with oak-lined streets, cafes, and bookshops close together.

03 of 04

Where to stay

Each of these has been read rather than listed. The full set is on the stays page.

Every place to stay in Stellenbosch

04 of 04

Neighbourhoods

  1. 01

    Central Stellenbosch

    The historic university town centre with oak-lined streets, Cape Dutch architecture, and most restaurants

  2. 02

    Wine Route West

    Wine estates along the R44 and Helshoogte Pass, home to some of the region's most celebrated tasting rooms

  3. 03

    Wine Route East

    Eastern estates towards Somerset West, including Lourensford and Vergelegen