South Africa · Western Cape · Cape Town
Constantia, Cape Town — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Constantia is a leafy, affluent suburb spread across a broad valley in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town. It is South Africa's oldest wine district. Estates and manor houses climb the eastern slopes of the Constantiaberg, and wide plots with oak-lined lanes give the area a rural feel within the city. At its centre stands Groot Constantia Manor House, the working estate that gave the valley its name.
About Constantia
Where to stay in Constantia
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Constantia suits a particular kind of visitor. Its appeal is quiet, space, and greenery rather than nightlife or a short walk into town, so most guests arrive with a car. Lodgings run to wine-estate cottages, country hotels, and garden guesthouses among the vineyards.
Staying here puts the winelands, Table Mountain National Park trails, and Groot Constantia Manor House within easy reach. Beds are few and widely spaced. Travellers who want bars, museums, and a walkable base usually stay closer to central Cape Town instead.
About Constantia
What are the main landmarks in Constantia?
Constantia's best-known sight is Groot Constantia Manor House, the gabled Cape Dutch homestead at the core of the country's oldest wine estate. Its cellars, tasting rooms, and formal grounds sit among vines that spread across the valley floor. Higher up the slopes stands the Sayed Mahmud Kramat, a domed Muslim shrine that forms one link in the ring of holy sites around the Cape Peninsula.
Between them, the estate and the kramat mark the two ends of Constantia's long history. Vineyards dominate the rest.
What is the history of Constantia?
The valley was granted in 1685 to Simon van der Stel, then governor at the Cape, who named his farm Constantia and planted the first vines. He chose the site well. After his death the estate was split, and the ground around his homestead became Groot Constantia, whose sweet wine was later shipped to the courts of Europe.
Constantia's Muslim heritage runs just as deep, marked by the Sayed Mahmud Kramat on the slopes above the vines. Grand houses and wine farms have shaped the place ever since.
Where is Constantia?
Constantia fills a broad valley between the Constantiaberg and the slopes running down toward Wynberg. The M3 freeway forms its eastern edge, while Constantia Main Road threads through the suburb from north to south. To the south the land eases toward Tokai; westward, Constantia Nek carries the pass over the mountain to Hout Bay.
The Spaanschemat River drains the floor.
More areas in Cape Town
Updated July 2026