Work hard, play smarter

PLANNING: DON'T WASTE TIME IN THE WINELANDS

- Jim Freeman

On the occasion of my coming of age, my late uncle sent me a card with the words "Don't go on a pub crawl on your birthday...". Open up and it continued: "...find a good one and stay there".

What a sensible sentiment, not least because there are few places these days where you can stumble from bar to bar with the exception of O'Connell Street in Dublin or the Grassmarket in Edinburgh. Catching an Über after every two drinks will cost more than a bottle of Dom Perignon in a strip club and driving yourself from one watering hole to the next is no option at all.

The same goes for exploring the Western Cape Winelands, especially Stellenbosch where there are something like 110 wine estates within reasonably close proximity.

First-time visitors make the mistake of thinking they can do a whistle-stop tour through the region, ticking eight or nine estates of their pre-determined lists in a day- and then repeating the exercise for a couple of days in succession. Forget it: you can't do more than four in a day and you need at least a day to recover between sallies into Bacchus' stronghold.

There's no reason why people who've worked hard all year need to do the same during their annual vacation.