There are school weekends and then there is Balloon Week. If you are heading to Makhanda for your first Balloon Week as a St Andrew’s College or DSG parent, you are probably concentrating on the important part: seeing your child, attending the events and being there for one of those school traditions that families remember long after the uniform has been packed away. Both schools are familiar names to families researching top boys schools in South Africa and the best girls schools in South Africa but Balloon Week introduces parents to a whole other side of school life.
Quite right. There are, however, a few other matters that experienced Balloon Week parents have quietly learnt to sort out long before they arrive. Where exactly are you sleeping? Does the guest house have backup water? Where are you eating on those free nights? What happens to the six-year-old during an event that is very definitely not designed for six-year-olds? And why, when you search for accommodation in Makhanda, does half the internet apparently think you are going to Grahamstown? Welcome to the unofficial part of Balloon Week.
For 2026, the schools' published calendar has Balloon Weekend running from Friday 2 October to Tuesday 6 October, followed immediately by half term. The schools also provide families with Balloon Week and Makhanda information through its parent resources. The schools will tell you what is happening. This is about making sure you are ready for everything happening around it.
1. First challenge: find somewhere to sleep
If there is one Balloon Week lesson worth learning before all the others, it is this: Accommodation is not something to leave until later.
Makhanda has hotels, guest houses, B&Bs and self-catering accommodation but Balloon Week brings a concentrated influx of families into a relatively small city. Some local establishments specifically classify Balloon Week as high season and impose minimum stays or special booking conditions. Mimosa Guest Cottage, for example, identifies Balloon Week as high season and only accepts full-capacity bookings over that period, while other local establishments advertise multi-night minimum stays during high season.
So if you are reading this with Balloon Week still comfortably in the future, congratulations. This is your sign to book. And when searching, use both Makhanda and Grahamstown. The city's current name is Makhanda but many accommodation, restaurant and travel listings online still appear under Grahamstown. Even major booking platforms continue to return results under both names.
One more trick from the parents who have done this before: if you find somewhere that works beautifully, ask about next year's Balloon Week before you check out. In the future you may be immensely grateful.
2. Don't just ask whether there is Wi-Fi
There is a certain list of questions we all ask when booking accommodation. Is breakfast included? Is there secure parking? How far is it from the school? Is there Wi-Fi?
For Balloon Week, add another one fairly high up the list: What is your backup water arrangement?
Makhanda continues to experience water-supply interruptions. Recent Makana Municipality notices in 2026 have reported unplanned interruptions caused by burst pipes and other supply problems and local reporting has documented periods of low pressure or no water in parts of the city.
That does not mean you shouldn't stay in town. It simply means a guest house with tanks, pumps or another reliable contingency suddenly becomes considerably more attractive. Ask about backup power too, along with secure parking, hot-water capacity and whether you can come and go easily during a busy weekend.
In other words, don't only admire bathroom photographs. Ask what happens when you turn on the tap. Luxury is lovely. Functioning plumbing at 6.30am before a school event is lovelier.
3. Makhanda is full. Now what?
Do not panic. This is when first-time parents need to widen the map.
There are accommodation options outside central Makhanda and, for families happy to drive, Kenton-on-Sea is worth knowing about. But there is an important correction to the bit of folklore that sometimes accompanies this suggestion: Kenton isn't half an hour away. It is roughly 60 kilometres from Makhanda, with driving estimates ranging from around 45 minutes under favourable conditions to approximately an hour.
That still makes it a very viable alternative - particularly if Balloon Week is becoming part school visit, part family getaway. You get the coast, beaches and considerably more scope for entertaining younger siblings between commitments. What you give up is convenience.
If your child's programme has you backwards and forwards between school commitments from early morning to evening, staying in Makhanda wins hands down. If your itinerary is lighter, or part of the family would much rather spend the gaps beside the sea than waiting around town, Kenton starts looking very appealing.
Just don't describe it as “around the corner” when somebody has to leave for an early morning event. They may never forgive you.
4. And then there is another possibility…
Parents with children in Makhanda’s boarding schools quickly discover that Balloon Week is seldom their only Eastern Cape trip. There are sports weekends. Birthdays. Half terms. Special occasions. Siblings who may follow. And, eventually, the rather startling realisation that you know the N2 considerably better than you ever intended to.
For families who already love the Eastern Cape coast and expect years of repeat visits, owning a holiday home in or around Kenton may be worth considering rather than joining the accommodation scramble every year. It is also why families who originally arrived purely for school commitments sometimes find themselves casually looking at property for sale in Kenton-on-Sea before too long.
Not because one busy weekend means everybody suddenly needs a beach house. That would be a rather extravagant solution to a booking problem. But Makhanda and the surrounding Eastern Cape have a habit of getting under your skin. Families may arrive for school commitments and find themselves falling for the character of the town, the slower pace or the fact that the coast is only about 45 minutes away. If you already know you will be returning regularly and can see yourselves using a property well beyond Balloon Week, the school years may simply provide the nudge to consider something you may find yourself hungering for.
For those families, it may eventually become more than a holiday-home conversation. A well-chosen coastal property can form part of a longer-term property investment decision as well as becoming the family base everyone actually wants to use. Hamilton’s Property Portfolio can assist buyers exploring opportunities in Kenton-on-Sea and the surrounding Eastern Cape coastal market.
And if that isn't on the cards? No problem. Book next year's room before you leave this year's. Much cheaper. Almost as satisfying.
5. Dinner is not the moment for spontaneity
There is something very optimistic about arriving in a busy town with hundreds of other visiting families at 7pm on Saturday and saying: “Where shall we eat?” Everyone else has just asked exactly the same question.
Makhanda has several established favourites. Major Fraser's is a popular central option and currently trades all week and into the evening from Monday to Saturday, while The Rat & Parrot is another long-established Makhanda favourite with published hours to 22:00.
There are cafés and other restaurants around town too, including Red Café and Revelations, among those appearing in current Makhanda restaurant listings. The clever move is not necessarily identifying the “best restaurant”. It is booking the meals that matter.
If the whole family wants dinner together on Friday or Saturday evening, make a reservation. Check Sunday trading before assuming somewhere will be open late; Major Fraser's, for example, currently publishes a Sunday closing time of 17:00.
And build in one emergency meal. You know the one. The event ran late. Nobody wants to change clothes. The youngest child has reached the point at which restaurant manners are becoming an unrealistic ambition. This is when supplies back at your accommodation become a stroke of parental genius rather than an uninspiring dinner.
5. Find the supermarket before you need the supermarket
First-time parents tend to arrive thinking about their child's programme. Experienced parents also know where to buy toothpaste. Pepper Grove Mall is one of the useful central shopping stops, with grocery and everyday retail options, including Pick n Pay among its anchor tenants.
SPAR Oak Cottage is another central grocery option.
Stock your accommodation early with water, snacks, breakfast basics and whatever keeps your particular family functioning. Especially snacks. A surprising percentage of successful family travel appears to depend on nobody becoming hungry at the wrong moment.
6. The younger-sibling question
Then there are the children who aren't at St Andrew's or DSG. They have come along for the adventure. They are delighted to see their older brother or sister. They may be somewhat less delighted by the fourth school commitment of the day.
For first-time parents, consider planning childcare before leaving home rather than assuming you will find someone trustworthy once you arrive. If you have a babysitter your family already knows and trusts and the logistics and budget allow it, consider bringing them with you. It may transform the weekend, particularly where evening or formal events are involved.
Otherwise, plan on having the younger children with you wherever appropriate. That means accepting the realities: snacks, something to keep them occupied, changes of clothes where necessary and perhaps one parent occasionally drawing the short straw - or winning it, depending on the event - and heading off with the little ones.
Where local childcare becomes necessary, ask your accommodation or the school well beforehand whether they can point you towards an established, appropriately vetted provider. What you don't want is Friday afternoon arriving with a formal event looming while you suddenly begin interviewing strangers on the internet.
Balloon Week is exciting enough without adding speed-dating for babysitters.
7. What do you do with two spare hours?
Balloon Week is not really a sightseeing holiday. Your free time tends to arrive in peculiar parcels. Forty-five minutes here. Two hours there. A gap that is definitely too long to stand around school but too short for a grand Eastern Cape expedition.
For those moments, Makhanda itself has options. The Botanical Gardens are an easy outdoor escape and local tourism information lists them as open daily. Albany Museum can also be worth a visit when the timing works, although its current published hours are Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 16:30, so don't assume weekend access.Art lovers should also keep an eye on what is happening at the Johan Carinus Art Centre in Beaufort Street. Carinus is one of Makhanda’s wonderful creative institutions, teaching visual art and design across disciplines including painting, printmaking, sculpture and multimedia. It has also long provided a home for exhibitions and arts events.
Check what is on before heading across rather than assuming there will be an exhibition running during Balloon Week.
And sometimes the correct thing to do with the gap is nothing remotely cultural. Find coffee. Go back to your room. Take younger children for a run around. Sit somewhere quietly and marvel at how your child, whom you distinctly remember taking to Grade 1 approximately last Thursday, is now doing all of this without you.
That is allowed too.
8. Leave more time than Google thinks you need
One of the advantages of Makhanda is that the schools, shops and central amenities are relatively close together. One of the disadvantages of Balloon Week is that everyone knows this.
Allow time for parking, walking, finding the correct entrance, meeting other people and your child sending a message at precisely the wrong moment saying, “Actually we're at the other field.”
Do not construct an itinerary in which one event ends at 10:00 and another begins at 10:00 because they look close on a map. This is a school weekend, not a Formula One pit stop.
And if you're commuting from Kenton, build substantially more breathing room into the plan.
Your first Balloon Week checklist
By the time you leave home, you really want only a few things settled. Accommodation booked and confirmed. Backup water arrangements checked. Important restaurant reservations made. Younger-child logistics sorted. The latest school programme downloaded. Comfortable shoes packed. A little flexibility left in the diary.
Then you can stop managing Balloon Week and actually enjoy it.
Because underneath the accommodation scramble, restaurant reservations, school schedules and disappearing parking spaces is the reason families make the journey in the first place. Your child wants you there.
There will be photographs. Friends to meet. Teachers whose names you finally put to faces. Other parents you may well be seeing at school functions for years to come and moments that make you realise just how quickly these school years are passing.
So learn the shortcuts. Ask about the water tank. Reserve the table. Bring the babysitter if that makes sense. Search Makhanda and Grahamstown. Keep Kenton-on-the-sea in your back pocket.
And somewhere between the final event and loading the car for home, remember one last thing. Make next year's accommodation.
You've officially stopped being a first-timer. 🎈
Disclaimer: Information in this article is intended as a general guide for families attending Balloon Week. Accommodation availability, restaurant trading hours, travel times and local services may change, so please confirm details directly with the relevant establishments, schools and service providers before travelling. References to businesses, accommodation and attractions are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement. Property availability and details are subject to change.
Hamilton’s Property Portfolio: Serving South Africa’s Upmarket Property Market
For over 20 years, Hamilton’s Property Portfolio has been dedicated to meeting the needs of South Africa’s upper property market. Specialising in luxury homes in prime regions such as Gauteng, the Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Garden Route and Winelands, Hamilton’s is committed to providing personalised service and expert advice. With agents who live in and know the Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) and Kenton-on-Sea area, Hamilton's is perfectly positioned to assist families who travel for K-Day and Balloon Week, ensuring that your accommodation search or property investment journey is smooth, informed and stress-free. Whether you are looking for a family home, a secure place for you and your children while they study in Makhanda or a long-term investment in one of South Africa's most culturally rich regions, Hamilton's is ready to guide you every step of the way.
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