This Father’s Day, @Franschhoek Hotel offers a reason to take Dad out of the city altogether, an hour from Cape Town and deep into the winelands. Two winter discounted room rate offers, running until the end of August, reward an early booking or a longer stay, turning a quick visit into proper time among the vineyards and mountains. The hotel sits on the same historic ground as Hey Joe, its own Belgian-inspired brewery and taproom, so the day can run from a tour through how the beer is made to a pint in the sun, with the kids occupied in the play area outside, before settling in for the night just steps from where it was poured.
There is a story behind that beer worth knowing too. Hey Joe takes its name from a reclusive Belgian brewer who, legend has it, settled in Franschhoek decades ago and spent years honing his recipe in a forgotten cabin in the woods, before a young stranger stumbled upon him and carried it forward into a brewery named after the old recluse himself. Joe is said to still slip in to finish each batch personally, though no one has found the cabin since. It is the kind of tale that turns a beer tour into something closer to a story, which feels like the right note for a day built around Dad.
