Fodor's Expert Review Mamre Moravian Mission Station

As you head out of Cape Town on the N1 or R27 on your way up the coast, it's easy to whiz past the tiny whitewashed settlement of Mamre on the R304. But it's worth turning off here to check out the old thatch buildings that made up the Moravian Mission Station, founded in 1808. The church here is almost always open, but phone ahead to make sure. All the buildings dating from this period have been restored and declared national monuments. It is signposted in Afrikaans: Morawiese Kerk. Unfortunately, the rest of the town is unlovely and crippled with the usual ills of unemployment and poverty.