Urban escapees who`ve settled in such hamlets asClarens and Marquard have added contemporary style and increased the number of cappuccino machines. Picturesque Ficksburg, capital of the Free State`s cherry farmlands, holds a cherry festival each year,offering tastings and sales of cherry wine.

The province`s northern reaches, known as FizileDabi, extend to the banks of Vaal River, where Parys draws visitorsto gentle river rafting, challenging golf courses and relaxing weekends away among old world antique shops and avant garde eateries. Not far upstream, the Vaal Dam is an inland sea for watersport enthusiasts.

Also a short distance away, the Vredefort Dome --- a World Heritage site --- is a gigantic scar left on the earth by a meteor (estimated at 10km in diameter) that collided with the earth about 2023 million years ago: the biggest meteorite impact geologists have yet found on earth and nearly twice as big as the impact that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.



In the south-west, Xhariep, which takes its name from the Orange, or Gariep, River that fills the enormous Gariep Dam, is home to a tiger sanctuary and the Free State`s only wine farm.

In the Goldfields, or Lejweleputswa, Welkom isthe site of the first gold mine in the Free State.

The nearby Bloemhof Dam is one of the largest in South Africa and central to a 12,000 ha conservancy in open Kalahari thornveld country, offering visitors a rare combination of game viewing on the reserve or fishing at one of the most popular angling sites in South Africa.

In the most central part of the province, Motheo, the country`s judicial capital, Bloemfontein, is a cultural destination with museums, monuments and art galleries.