Cam and myself have absolutely loved living in Cape Town since 2017. We’ve made it our mission to explore as much as we can – both within the city as well as take as many short holidays and day trips as we can. The Western Cape truly has so many spectacular things to offer! Then 2020 happened.. and we also became parents as well! It’s been a hectic year to say the least – so we were honestly beyond excited to take our first family getaway to McGregor last weekend.
McGregor is nestled amongst the mountains and is a part of the wider Breede River Valley. It’s just a short 1.5 – 2 hours from Cape Town and the views for the duration of the drive were so beautiful. When you arrive it’s instantly noticeable how calm and quiet the village is – a welcome break from the sometimes draining energy one is accustomed to living in Cape Town. There are a whole host of charming, quaint villages in the Western Cape and I’d highly recommend putting together a list of these gorgeous places and tick them off your list one by one!
We stayed in a place called Plum Tree Cottage, one of the properties managed by McGregor Country Getaways. This place gives off serious “The Holiday” vibes and was absolutely perfect – it’s surrounded by beautiful rose bushes and the most stunning fruit trees.
We chose this accommodation because when Cam goes away there are two things he can’t go without: braaing and an indoor fireplace (Yip, those are his two total must haves!!) Plum Tree Cottage has an amazing open place kitchen and lounge area as you walk with a beautiful indoor fire area. We’d bought along several bags of wood but they had supplied some as well. I honestly think Cam had a fire going within thirty minutes! We really loved the thatch roof and beams styling, it really makes you feel like you’re on holiday.
There’s a double bed in the bedroom in the cottage as well as a seperate wooden house on site if you’re wanting to rent the space in a bigger group. The bedroom and lounge both have doors that open onto the patio and grass area with a beautiful braai place with the most stunning and uninterrupted view of the mountains. We basically spent most of our time chilling outside (Rio loves the grass and trees) and then relaxing near the indoor fire. It was extremely revitalising! I think if we didn’t have a small baby we would definitely have visited a wine farm or two as well as tried to go cycling as it looks like a beautiful area for cycling.
The garden was also impeccably manicured and full of fruit trees, flowers and indigenous plants. Rio is going through a stage of being nature obsessed and we took him on several walks around the garden.
I feel like a special mention needs to be had for this bottle of Robertson Winery Non-Alcoholic Dry Sparkling Wine that we enjoyed. It was hands down the best non-alcoholic sparkling wine we have had (Both Cam and I agreed!) it isn’t sweet at all and really gives off “champagne vibes”!. We both said we would definitely repurchase – so lovely for celebrating when you’re looking for a non-alcoholic alternative.
The actual town of McGregor is very quaint and rather quiet. There are several sweet coffee shops and restaurants as well as wine farms a little bit out of the town if you’re up for an adventure. We were feeling like homebodies and spent most of the weekend relaxing at home, although we did stop for a very yummy breakfast at Time Out Cafe. They are well known for their breakfast buns and for good reason – make sure to put that on your foodie list if you visit that side!! Well worth a stop and the prices are incredibly reasonable. They also do live music in the evenings as well which is something worth keeping in mind if you’re looking for activities to do!
If you’re considering McGregor for a weekend away, I’d highly recommend checking out McGregor Country Getaways – they have a whole host of accommodation offerings in McGregor to suit different budgets as well as accommodation needs – from smaller cottages like ours to larger family sized homes.
*Thank you to McGregor Country Getaways for hosting our stay
Such a lovely blog post! Looks like you had a great weekend away 🙂