Hermanus or Stellenbosch?

On beaches the two are close, but how you get to the sea is very different. In Hermanus you can walk to the sand: Grotto Beach stretches towards De Kelders, Voëlklip and Kammabaai are close to town, and Onrus lies just west. The catch is Walker Bay's cold water, so most swims are quick, and families head for the calmer, warmer Klein River lagoon.

Stellenbosch has no beach of its own. The sea means a half-hour drive to Strand or Gordon's Bay on False Bay, which is a little warmer and has sheltered water at Gordon's Bay. On ordinary days, swimming in Stellenbosch means a guesthouse pool.

Stellenbosch is the clear winner here, and for many visitors food and wine are the reason to go. More than a hundred and fifty wine farms pour Chenin Blanc, Pinotage and Cape blends. The best cooking is on the estates around Helshoogte, Jonkershoek and the Simonsberg. In town you can try Cape Malay and Afrikaans dishes such as bobotie and bredie.

Hermanus eats well but in a narrower way. The menus near the harbour feature line fish, mussels and farmed abalone, and there are cool-climate Pinot Noir lunches in the Hemel-en-Aarde valley. Beyond that, it has the grills and pizza of an ordinary seaside town.

Neither town is a major sightseeing destination, but Stellenbosch has far more to walk and look at. As one of South Africa's oldest European settlements, it keeps whitewashed Cape Dutch houses, gabled facades and oak avenues along Dorp Street and around the Braak. The Village Museum and the Moederkerk fill a day or two.

In Hermanus, the history is the Old Harbour set into the cliffs, its stone slipways and the Whale House Museum. Together they take a single afternoon.

Stellenbosch has a real night out, at least in term time. The streets around Bird Street and Plein Street fill with students in pubs, sports bars and a few dance venues. For older visitors, evenings are more often a long dinner and a glass on a terrace, and the town quietens in the university vacations.

Hermanus is quieter still. Evenings mean sundowners at wine bars and terraces in the village centre, and most of the town is in bed by eleven.

Both are excellent for the outdoors, but they face in different directions. Hermanus is about the sea. You can watch whales from land in a way few places allow, and dolphins and seals are found towards Gansbaai, with penguins at Stony Point. Fernkloof's fynbos trails climb straight up behind the houses.

Stellenbosch is about mountains. Jonkershoek begins at the edge of town with waterfall trails, and the valley is one of the country's main mountain-biking centres, with singletrack through wine farms and forest. Table Mountain is within about an hour.

Hermanus sits further out, and its outings lean towards quiet villages and open coast rather than towns and sights. Cape Town is about an hour and a half away and the Winelands nearly two hours, so either makes a long day. The trips that suit it best stay local: Stanford on its river twenty minutes away, or east along the coast to Cape Agulhas, the southern tip of Africa.

Stellenbosch is the better base, because the bigger outings are closer. Cape Town, with its museums and the boats to Robben Island, is under an hour away. Franschhoek is half an hour over the Helshoogte Pass and Paarl is close by, so several days of Winelands towns need no long drives. Hermanus itself makes a day out from here, about an hour and a half away on the coast, and from either town these trips need a car or a booked tour.

Neither town is built around children, and they come out about even. Hermanus suits small children better on the ground. Whales seen from the cliff path, rock pools to explore and the shallow Grotto lagoon all keep them busy, though the cold sea limits swimming.

Stellenbosch is mainly for adults who like wine. Some estates add lawns, playgrounds and farm animals, and there is a small wildlife park with giraffes just outside town. Summer heat and long car journeys are harder on younger children, and families often add Cape Town's aquarium and cable car.

You will want a car in both, but Stellenbosch is a little easier. Its historic centre is small, flat and shaded, with the museums and cafés a few blocks apart. Ride-hailing works well, and hop-on hop-off wine tours mean nobody has to drive after a tasting.

Hermanus stretches for many kilometres along the coast. The village centre and the cliff path are walkable, but the eastern beaches and the wine valley are not, and there is no public transport a visitor can rely on.

Shopping is small-scale in both, and Stellenbosch has more of it. Dorp Street and the streets around the Braak have galleries, ceramics and design shops, plus an old-fashioned general store full of preserves and curios. Estates will ship cases of wine home for you, and there are large malls on the edge of town.

Hermanus has a handful of galleries and boutiques, African craft stalls by the Old Harbour and a weekend market. The best thing to take home is a bottle bought at a Hemel-en-Aarde cellar door.

The two cost about the same, and both are good value for visitors from Europe or North America, especially for wine and meals out. They get expensive in different ways. Hermanus rooms cost more over the December and January summer vacation and in whale season, and boat trips add up. In Stellenbosch, the famous estate hotels and tasting menus charge international rates. In both towns a hire car is a steady extra.

Stellenbosch offers more to attend, thanks largely to the university. The conservatorium runs recitals and orchestral concerts in term time, a wine-estate amphitheatre holds summer evening concerts, and the long-running Afrikaans arts festival fills the town for about ten days in autumn.

In Hermanus, there is a yearly arts festival with chamber music and outdoor stages at the whale festival, and little else. For opera or larger theatre, visitors to either town drive to Cape Town.

Both are places to slow down rather than places for spa treatments, and neither has thermal baths. Stellenbosch has more pampering on offer, with proper spas and pools at several of the larger estates and country hotels. Hermanus relies on its setting: walks along the cliffs, watching the bay and a cold morning dip in the rock tidal pools.