Stellenbosch (South Africa) Wellness Guide

Stellenbosch is a town 40km from Cape Town, mostly known as the epicenter of South Africa’s wine region. Although red grapes do contain the anti-oxidant Resveratrol, wine won’t be the focus of this post.

Instead, we’re gonna dive into Stellies well-being topics like fitness – gyms & yoga, healthy food, clean water, and hiking.

Stellenbosch Gyms

In 2025, Stellies fitness buffs have at least 3 gyms to choose from. Crossfit is another option.

Maties Gimnasium

This is a large modern gym with very good variety in machines. A sauna is also available in the locker rooms. Moreover, there’s an indoor heated swimming pool as well as outdoor cold pool where the Pros train. Check the pool schedules to see when lanes are open to gym members.

In addition, there’s a monthly class schedule for group workouts such as Core, Cycle, Yoga, Pilates. Some require bookings, others first come, first serve.

The location is at the Coetzenburg Sport fields. There’s plenty free parking outside. Plus, its nice to go for a daytime run in the mountains next to the gym. Enjoy the great vistas and hill workout.

Virgin Active

Virgin is located in the very central Eikestad Mall. I’ve never been inside, but it’s apparently very congested during peak hours. They don’t have reasonably priced day-passes. Thus their business model is mostly getting you to sign a contract. Paid Parking is available. It’s likely a solid option for OFF-PEAK training only.

Aspire Fitness

Located in Dorp Street, Aspire is Stellenbosch’s first 24 hour gym. Although there’s an expensive short term membership option, they mostly run on monthly contracts. Seems legit if you want an all-day all-night fitness joint where you can battle the weights instead of battling insomnia. The customer reviews are looking really good thus far.

Stellenbosch Yoga

Updated for 2025. Comment below any further suggestions.

• Hot Yoga Stellenbosch: This looks like the best yoga option. Active in 2025. Class Schedule available here. De Wet Centre, Cnr Bird & Church St, Stellenbosch. Entrance in the courtyard, next to Kauai.
• Blooming Yoga: Yoga & Pilates studio in Stellenbosch. Occasional classes – refer to website: bloomingyogi.co.za
• Gem Haywood: At the Black Horse in Dorp Street. Used to be a yoga studio, now looks like a fitness box instead. Website: gemhaywood.com
• Consider the gyms mentioned in the previous section for a few more yoga options.

Stellenbosch Wellness Spa’s

• Lanzerac Spa: They offer a large variety of spa treatments. Check on their website.
• The Hydro: Very expensive spa (by African Standards). Check on their website what they offer.
• Chi-Chi’s Wellness Retreat & Mind Spa: Here’s a list on their website.
• Coopmanhuijs: Hotel-Spa in central Stellenbosch. Sauna, Steam Room, as well as regular spa treatments (website).

Stellenbosch Healthy Restaurants

• Kauai in the De Wet centre (Bird Str) is a good choice for healthier Flexitarian food. Wraps and salads can be customized for vegans or vegetarians. Smoothies are made from frozen fruit and vegetables. Juices are made fresh. Chicken served here is free of antibiotics, growth promoters and animal by-products.
• Schechter’s Raw – They closed down in July 2022. Portions were too small and probably too expensive for Stellies.
• Eten Health Bar – very basic small health bar next to Kauai.
• La Coco C Restaurant – An independent quick-serve health restaurant and juice bar with a healthy fresh menu located in Plein street. During August 2022, they upgraded to a larger floor space 30 meters down the street. Their new location is Schechter Raw’s previous location.
• Juvenate Conscious Eatery – At 145 Dorp Street. Menu looks great. Smoothie bowls, sandwiches, health drinks and a few lunch main courses. It’s a restaurant, not only a “cafe”. Thus, it’s generally for sit-down and waiting 10 minutes or so for your meal to arrive.
• Sweetbeet – New health chain, now also open in Stellies at Plein Street. Pick your own salad ingredients with the provided sheet and pencil. Good option for lunch.

Stellenbosch Food Markets

• Blaauwklippen’s food market is still going strong in 2025 – a decent family option for Saturdays and Sundays, located on a wine farm outside town in the direction of Somerset-West. Products include natural sea salt shakers, clean sauces, fresh green juice, falafel or chicken free-range shawarma, outside pizza oven & wine, leather crafts.
• At Root44 there used to be a different market setup a few years ago. But nowadays in 2025, it’s an under-roof market with good weekend food options and regional street food from around the world. You won’t go hungry. Plus, there’s a few stalls selling art.
• In central Stellenbosch, the Market in the Garden at the Stellenbosch Botanical Gardens is a decent choice, open every Saturday. Worth checking out if you’re in the area. Stroll the gardens after checking the stalls. There’s a very small entrance fee. Sit down at the Botanical Cafe for a meal & drink.
• Dorp Street Sunday Market was an open air craft market, unfortunately forced to close by the municipality in 2024.
• The Slow Food Market shut down permanently in Stellenbosch around the time of the scamdemic. Though they’re still operating in Durbanville, as mentioned in my Cape Town Food Market guide.

To give an idea of local regional products in Stellies, I have retained below photos of the Slow Food Market:

 

Interesting Stellenbosch Shops

Mooiberge

Driving out to Somerset-West, you’ll drive past Mooiberge farmstall specializing in Strawberries. The fresh strawberries are always sweet, and the frozen ones great for smoothies.

Secondary products include:

• Rooibos tea in 1kg and 500g bulk packaging at good prices.
• Dried fruits and nuts
• canned jams
• natural bath & shower products
• a few seasonal fresh veg.

 

FRUT

They used to be Euroberry. Now seems to have rebranded as FRUT. Look up the FRUT factory shop in Somerset West’s industrial area. They supply a wide variety of frozen fruit and even veg cubes like spinach. There’s also frozen acai pulp imported from Brazil – subject to availability. Allegedly they supply to Kauai and other health restaurants.

Hillcrest Berry orchards

Situated a few kilometers outside of Stellenbosch, in the direction of Franschhoek, they have the widest variety of berries in the Western Cape. This includes blackberries, raspberries, cape gooseberries, blueberries and cherries. It’s always available in frozen form, but in the Summer you can buy fresh. However, the harvesting season is very short.

Hillcrest also sells berry plants, but it’s not as easy to grow at home without the right soil, watering and weather conditions. I’ve tried growing it on an apartment balcony and the plant died after a while.

Berries are a natural superfood, and contain plenty anti-oxidants. In frozen form, it’s great for smoothies. There’s also a restaurant attached to the berry farm shop.

 

More Stellies Interesting Products

At the various Stellenbosch markets, you’ll find fresh non-irradiated honey. As well as on the farms outside of town. According to VitaBee in Klein Nooitgedacht Farm, the foreign imported honey is irradiated, while local honey is normally not irradiated. It is similar to the nut market where foreign nuts are irradiated. This diminishes nutritional content but prolongs shelf life. It is thus smarter to buy local nuts and honey.

Three Sons Lamb sells high quality organic lamb meat from the Karoo. As well as e.g. MSG-free lamb sausage – the taste of which is slightly more bland, but still delicious. They are located at The Woodmill in Devon Valley. Stack up your freezer.

Lunar Mart Asian Supermarket is located right next to Eikestad Mall in Andringa Street @ Bergzicht Plaza. Great to have an authentic Asian Shop in Stellenbosch! The products here are as good as any other Asian Shop. Including seasonal Asian veggies, straw mushrooms, frozen dumplings, thai curry & exotic sauce.

Whalecoast in Dorp Street is the foremost seller of nuts, dried fruit, seeds and other wholefoods in Stellenbosch. If you have a better suggestion, comment below! But their value is hard to beat.

Stellenbosch Hiking

Closest to the center of town is the hike up to Stellenbosch Mountain. This hike is easily reached from behind the Coetzenburg gym. Once you’re at the top you can see the Strand ocean and the Stellenbosch town from high above.

However, the most popular Stellies hike is the Jonkershoek Waterfall Hike. It’s situated in the Jonkershoek Nature Reserve. You hike around 2.5km to the First Waterfall. Or 6km to the Second. The 5km gravel road leading up to the hike from the Entrance Gate to the nature reserve is in very bad condition. If your vehicle isn’t suited to this terrain, you’ll easily sustain an oil leak.

Stellenbosch Wholefood Shops

The indie health shops of Stellies shut down in 2022, and got converted into Dischem pharmacies. As a replacement option, try the independent Cell Nutrition health shop at 4 Florida Road in Paradyskloof neighborhood.

Otherwise, Go Natural wellness-shop in Somerset West are experts in holistic nutrition. The owner overcame Multiple Sclerosis with a natural lifestyle and diet. The focus here is on making your own flours using whole grains. Since vitamins are preserved this way, it is a healthier choice to only grind your flour right before you’re doing the baking. Other products include water distillation filters, supplements and probiotic foods such as Kimchi and Kombucha. Excellent natural health choice. Be sure to check it out when in the area.

Real Food Co in Somerset West takes the healthy cake in 2025 for their fresh products and natural health vibes. There’s also an attached small restaurant with food that feeds your soul, and not your ass.

With regards to the health-shop chains, Wellness Warehouse is a decent option at the Stellenbosch Square in Jamestown. While Faithful to Nature is located in Somerset Mall. Or check out Waterstone Health Shop (Somerset-West) for an indie option in a local shopping mall.

Stellenbosch unique water shops

Since mineral water has great potential health benefits, it’s worth carefully evaluating where you source your drinking water from.

Lack of quality tapwater, as well as the government’s choice to put Sodium-Fluoride in the water supply, is leading to water shops sprouting up like mushrooms in Stellenbosch. Municipal standards for water quality is low. It is still “drinkable”, but people are waking up. They’re distrusting the corrupt government’s water supplies more and more.

At Cape Aqua, you can buy bulk mineral water in different containers of 500ml, 1l and 5liter. In the long run, it’ll contribute to plastic pollution if you only drink this water, instead of mixing it up with e.g. Reverse osmosis purified water (for which you can buy a large refillable 25-liter container). The downside of Cape Aqua is they don’t sell mineral water in glass bottles.

Other water shops, mostly using Reverse Osmosis purification, are:

Oasis Water at Die Boord and Simonsrust, H20 at Mill Street and Agua e Vida in Paradyskloof. Agua e Vida explains that they add minerals back to the purified water. This is necessary since Reverse Osmosis removes all minerals from the water. The disadvantage of Reverse Osmosis is that it can lead to water wastage.

Although reverse osmosis isn’t great, the municipality should not be adding an industrial waste chemical, “Sodium-Fluoride”, into the drinking water. Tap water goes into your body, and is not safely, topically applied to your teeth as with toothpaste. If anything, the municipality should be handing out free toothbrushes instead. Because you can meet your fluoride needs simply by brushing your teeth.

Health Travel Junkie challenge

In Stellenbosch the challenge is to do a local hike, like Stellenbosch mountain, which wouldn’t take more than a couple of hours. Otherwise, do the Jonkershoek Waterfall hike. Warning: This is a very bad dirt road, perhaps best suited for an SUV or a truck (“bakkie”).

Health Travel Junkie Scale

Fitness activities  –   8.5

Food – 8

Cost of traveling – 8

Other Health-related activities – 8

Overall rating:  81%

Related Content

• Cape Town Wellness Guide
• Lesotho Activities
• Cape Fruit: 14 Fascinating Picks. 

How do you feel about wellness in Stellenbosch (South Africa)? Post below your own ideas, questions, comments and tips!