You should not be scrounging around for things to do in Cape Town on weekends. There are ample restaurants for a good brunch, white-sand beaches and mountains to climb. In the same breath, you don’t have to be playing tour guide to Aunt Mildred and her book club on their annual holiday. You can easily send them on their way, and this is how:
You are going to encourage them to download this great app called Sideways and send them on their merry way for the day (or even the weekend if you desire).
What is Sideways?
It is a free app that offers a powerful, sophisticated search engine, offering the end user the perfect guide to the winelands of the Western Cape: “You can search by keywords, region and filters and whether you are looking for a wine farm with a fireplace for winter warmth or a family-friendly, award-winning restaurant in a specific area, the app will give you exactly what you need”.
Your extended family and acquaintances are going to love you for this. They are going to see the best of the Cape Winelands – and the best part is that they can personalise it with the app.
Each wine farm’s profile page in the app, brims with useful information, everything from opening times, to available wines and even GPS co-ordinates that seamlessly links to your smart phone’s own navigation software.
Sideways lets you search for things like restaurants, whether the tastings are free, if the place is pet friendly to adventure activities like running or cycling trails or the best picnic or sundowner spots.
Let’s have a look:
You can start by searching for a wine farm, or a restaurant, or if there is wheelchair access etc… I went for Haute Cabriere as it’s one of my favourites.
A descriptive front page pops up, telling you what the estate has, their contact details, and an instant link to Maps.
You can then click on either ‘View wines’ and see what wines the farm has on offer:
Or you can simply add the wine farm to your favourites. I created one called ‘Bubbles’ because I probably drink more sparkling wine and MCC than water.
That’s just the start – you can dive in deeper on your own phones.
The app is really user friendly and is cleanly and clearly laid out. There’s another added benefit for you: the Sideways rewards system, whereby you can check in with your iPhone at specific wine farms. You can then accumulate points which will unlock rewards like meal discounts, free wine tastings and more.
Whoop! Basically, this is a fucking cool app!
Download from the App Store HERE
