Somerset West, an ideal holiday destination with sea and picturesque mountains and magnificent Winelands.

Somerset West, a big town situated on north side of Strand has always thrived visitors. This town is considered as a commercial town as numbers of businesses are found in this town. Mountain named Helderberg is situated at height of 1138 meter over this town. Within the drive of 10-minutes Somerset West offers number of scenic views of magnificent mountains, beaches, Nature Reserves and farm houses of Cape Dutch i.e. Vergelegen and Lourensford.

With its historical background, Somerset West is another good place to visit. Apart from, good quality of wines, you can enjoy all sports, including golf, soccer, bowls, tennis, squash, hockey, cricket, pistol shooting, etc.

The south coasts and west coast flowers can be seen at a distance of 30 minutes drive from Somerset West to Cape Town. The scenic views give a grand experience of the nature’s beauty.

Because of the scenic views of the wild life and different kinds of beautiful flowers in Helderberg Nature Reserve makes it a beautiful place to visit and spend a wonderful day with nature and its beauty. It is situated at the slopes of Helderberg Mountain, on its south east side. In 1960, Helderberg Nature Reserve was declared as protected area. In 1988, Sasol award was given to Helderberg Nature Reserve and was declared as the excellent Bird Sanctuary. Helderberg Nature Reserve has number of trails and paths that lead to the top, but in some areas it is a bit strenuous.

Lourensford is considered as the most wonderful and renowned wine estate in the world. It has great historical heritage and also uses a costly ultra-modern technology to manufacture wines. The technology used in Lourensford is unique in Southern Hemisphere. It is situated at the outer west portion of the town and people here have strong interest in wine production.

The very famous Country Craft Market is situated in the centre of Somerset West. This market is very famous among all tourists as well as local people. This market offers excellent range of house crafts and different garden ideas are found. This market is positioned just near the Somerset West Tourist Information Centre.

Number of excellent cafes and restaurants are also available in Somerset West, which lets visitors experience good seafood and juicy steaks as well. Somerset Mall also houses many restaurants and cafes.

The biggest shopping mall of South Africa is situated in Somerset West, named Somerset Mall. This mall includes number of wonderful shops that lets you buy everything that you can imagine. It includes numbers of Bowling alley, restaurants, Coffee shops, entertainment arcade and cinema.

A brief history of Somerset West In 1657, cattle traders from Cape Hope were the first Europeans to visit Somerset West. These cattle trader created a community named Chainoukwa; around 500 people belonged to this community that settled in Somerset West. After 15 years, a new community from Dutch East India occupied the land and Chainoukwa people had to leave their treasured homeland. Although, these rules were not applicable to members of the company owned land, so some of these rules were meant to be broken at times.

Farming communities finally established the village named Somerset West, in 1817 to overcome the inconvenience of going to church in Stellenbosch. So they built a church which was finished in 1820. On 13th February, Lord Charles Somerset allowed to bear his name to the center. Now, that church is an historical monument of Somerset West.