WAKERS will be held in beautiful Stellenbosch, a university town right in the middle of the Western Cape winelands in South Africa. Stellenbosch was founded in the 17th century and is well known for its world-class university, scenic location surrounded by mountains, its excellent wines, and gourmet food. It is within 30-60 driving time from “the mother city” Cape Town with Table Mountain, Cape of Good Hope peninsula, Robben Island, hundreds of wine farms, beaches etc. etc. South Africa furthermore offers excellent opportunities to enjoy wildlife, scenery, and culture.

WAKERS will take place at the Wallenberg Conference Centre @ STIAS, the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study. STIAS offers excellent, state of the art facilities and is located close to downtown Stellenbosch (1.5 km) and the Stellenbosch University campus (1 km), where a vibrant mix of students, tourists, and academics offers a pleasant atmosphere. Downtown Stellenbosch offers many shops, restaurants, wine bars, musea, tourist information offices, a cinema, etc., while the surrounding winelands offer hundreds of wine farms, with many of them offering wine tastings, excellent lunch or dinner facilities, and beautiful views.

Getting to Stellenbosch

The closest airport to Stellenbosch is Cape Town International (CPT). It offers frequent and direct flights from and to many international destinations. Flights by British Airways, Air France, KLM, Lufthansa, Condor, Edelweiss Air, and Turkish Airlines connect Cape Town/Stellenbosch with London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Munich, Zuerich, and Istanbul directly. Note that some of these flights are seasonal and operate only during the Summer, so they might not show up yet. Emirates, Ethiopian, Kenya Airways, and Qatar Airways also offer direct flights to their respective hubs, and frequent flights to regional and domestic destinations are also available from the airport. Cape Town-Johannesburg is one of the world’s top 10 most busy airline routes, and even more direct flights to many more international (including to the Americas and Asia), regional, and domestic destinations are available via Johannesburg.
CPT is about 35km / 30-45 minutes driving from Stellenbosch; the best transfer option is to book an airport shuttle:

Note that some companies provide a direct taxi service which is more convenient but more expensive (prices for this should be around US$40-45). Please contact the companies directly.

Stellenbosch is small and easily navigable by foot, and the venue is in walking distance to most hotels and B&Bs (1-2km / 10-20 minutes). You won’t necessarily need a rental car unless you are planning to stay on a wine farm, or to go on a road-trip before or after the conference.

Visa Information

Visitors from most EU countries, US, Canada, Japan, Australia and most of South America don’t need a visa to visit South Africa. The complete (official) list is available at the Department of Home Affairs. The Department also has the details for a visa application. Please contact us if you need an invitation letter to obtain your visa, and do so well in advance of the meeting!