A little over an hour from Cape Town lies a stunning part of the world: Pringle Bay. It’s an odd little town, home to more holiday homes than residents, but there are three reasons I like it so much, and I’m also so glad when we get to spend a weekend there.
- The natural beauty
Pringle Bay is (unsurprisingly, given the name) right on the coast, and it is a wild and lovely coast. You can walk along the beachfront path for ages, looking out at the windswept sea, watching the sea birds and soaking up the sea air (and sea spray, if it happens to be windy!) Inland a little, it’s all natural fynbos and scrub for miles around, making this a classically Western Cape getaway. - The architecture
Contrary to the natural beauty, Pringle Bay architecture is dreadful. So dreadful it’s entertaining. It’s as if everyone who decided to build a house there just drew their design on a napkin one night after they’d had too much to drink, and then that design came to life. Crazy shapes, crazy colours, mismatched blocks and circles and castles – it’s all right here, and it makes for a very interesting walk around the neighbourhood. - The peace
Perhaps my favourite thing about Pringle Bay is that there’s not a whole lot to do. This might not sound like a great motivator to visit a place, but I’ve found that if you go away for the weekend somewhere very beautiful and very peaceful, you’re more likely to be able to relax. If there are fifteen things to do every day, you might have a good time but you’ll return as exhausted as you left – if not more so. Which is why, in my books, if there’s not a lot to do in a holiday town, it’s the right kind of holiday town.
Have you been to Pringle Bay? What did you think?