It feels like we’ve barely got the year under way, and it’s already April, with not one single five-day working week, and school holidays to boot. Now is a perfect time to take advantage of all the leisure activities right on our door step. In the Western Cape specificallywe are spoilt for choice with the winelands less than an hour away.

If you sometimes feel this choice is a bit overwhelming, and you often end up sticking with old favourites because at least you’ll know what you are getting, help is at hand. Bottle, Plate and Pillow is an easy to use website that allows you to search for for wine tasting and sales, restaurants associated with wine farms and accommodation on wine farms on South Africa’s world-class wine routes.

You can refine your searches to choose cellars with wheel chair access, child-friendly restaurants or budget accommodation – and a host of other choices. You can even plan your trip based on which farms produce your favourite wine variety – for instance, Bordeaux blend producers in Stellenbosch.

The website is 100% dedicated to wine farm information, so users don’t need to wade through heaps of third party advertising to get the information they want. Also, users can vote for wine farms, restaurants and accommodation listed in the general directory that they would like to see more information on – simply by clicking on the listing.

As a reminder, here are the details of the upcoming holidays in South Africa this month:

Friday, 10 April – Good Friday
Monday, 13 April – Family Day
Wednesday, 22 April – 2009 Elections (go vote BEFORE you head out to
the winelands)
Monday, 27 April – Freedom Day (a nice long weekend to stay over in
the winelands)

And on your return from your day out, don’t forget to visit getclosure! to compliment good service, or if something didn’t go the way you had hoped, raise customer service issues - we’ll take your complaint directly to the supplier involved. With the 2010 World Cup just around the corner, it is up to all of us to help develop an excellent customer service ethic in South Africa.