Stellenbosch (South Africa) Wellness Guide

Stellenbosch is a town 40km from Cape Town, mostly known as being the epicentre of South Africa’s wine region. Although red grapes (thus wine) do contain the anti-oxidant Resveratrol, this won’t be the focus of this post. As health awareness increases, demand for healthier products goes up as well. In Stellenbosch, this can be sub-divided into fitness such as gyms & yoga, healthy food, clean water, and hiking.

Stellenbosch Gyms

• SUSPI (Stellenbosch University Sport Performance Institute) is a large modern gym with good variety in machines. A sauna is also available in the locker rooms. Location is at the Coetzenburg Sport fields. Plenty of free parking outside. Plus, nice to go for a daytime run in the mountains next to the gym.
• Virgin Active in the very central Eikestad Mall is another option. I’ve never been inside, but it’s apparently very congested during peak hours. They don’t have reasonable day-passes, thus their business model is mostly getting you to sign a contract. Paid Parking is available.

Stellenbosch Yoga

Check out the below 2022 yoga options, and comment below if you’ve got more recommendations.

• YogaLab: Not much info available online, but they’re offering yoga classes in Jonkershoek.
• Blooming Yoga: Active Yoga & Pilates studio in Stellenbosch. Website: www.bloomingyogi.co.za
• Gem Haywood: At the Black Horse in Dorp Street, Stellenbosch. Daily yoga classes. Website: www.gemhaywood.com
• Yoga Barre (13 Andringa Street). This is a brand new central Stellenbosch studio that replaced the famous Hot Yoga Heated Studio.
• Sage Yoga: Infrared Heated Yoga in Technopark. Check it out if you live in that neighborhood.

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

• The Slow Food Market shut down permanently in Stellenbosch. Though they’re still operating in Durbanville, as mentioned in my Cape Town Food Market guide.
• Blaauwklippen‘s food market is still going strong in 2022 – a decent family option for Saturdays and Sundays.
• At Root44, there used to be a different market setup 2 years ago. But nowadays in 2022, it’s an under-roof market with good weekend food options and regional streetfood from around the world. Plus there’s a few stalls selling art.
• Dorp Street Sunday market is a new 2022 option, though its rather a craft market, with very little food products. Since it’s open air, there’s no market on rainy Sundays.

The Slow Food Market

This market shut down. But I keep below photos to give you an idea of local regional products.

Blaauklippen Market

Blaauwklippen Sunday market definitely has a few healthier options for food lovers. One such example is That Food’s sea salt infused with natural herbs and spices (No MSG). The sea salt is sourced from Walvis Bay in Namibia. In addition, they use Himalayan salt from Pakistan. This is a healthy option for the wholefood chef since no artificial ingredients are added.

Another interesting health-centric product is vegan bread-rolls, wraps, pretzels, and other bakery products from “We love Low-carb”. These are made from wholemeal flours such as Macadamia nut, almonds, and sunflower seeds.

Decently healthy meal options at Blaauwklippen include falafel or chicken free-range shawarma.

Other Options in This Area

Driving out to Somerset-West, you’ll drive past Mooiberge farmstall, specializing in Strawberries. But also selling Rooibos tea in 1kg and 500g bulk packaging at good prices.

In Somerset-West, Euroberry is a supplier of frozen acai pulp imported from Brazil (subject to availability), amongst other frozen fruits. They are suppliers to Kauai and other health restaurants.

At the various markets you can find fresh non-irradiated honey. As well as on the farms outside of town. According to the Cape Honey Factory 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.

Hillcrest Berry orchards, situated a few kilometers outside of Stellenbosch, has the widest variety of berries to be found in the Western Cape. This includes blackberries, raspberries, cape gooseberries, blueberries and cherries. These are available in frozen form most of the year, but in the summer it’s available fresh. However, the harvesting season is very short. Hillcrest also sells berry plants, but it is difficult to grow in the South African climate without perfect soil and weather conditions. Berries are very healthy and contain a lot of anti-oxidants. In frozen form, it’s great for smoothies.

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 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.

Stellenbosch’s 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 at Die Boord shopping center, Lower Merriman street and at Agua e Vida in Devon Place outside of town. 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 – 8.5

Other Health-related activities – 7

Overall rating:  80%

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!