Markets in South Africa, and how to pick one

South African markets fall into four rough kinds, and knowing which one you are going to is most of the battle. A farmers' market at eight in the morning and a night market at seven in the evening are not the same outing, do not sell the same things, and do not want the same amount of your afternoon.

The five checks at the end of this guide will save you the specific disappointment of driving forty minutes to a market that turned out to be eight stalls in a car park.

Plenty of markets are two of these at once — a craft market with good coffee, a food market with a row of makers along one side. The question worth asking is which half is the reason it exists, because that is the half that will be good.

Cape Town has the deepest market culture in the country and the most of them per person. The scene runs from large weekend food markets in converted industrial space to small neighbourhood craft markets, and there is usually something on within twenty minutes of wherever you are.

Johannesburg and Pretoria skew towards larger, more commercial weekend markets, often attached to a precinct or a shopping node, with strong food and a wide catchment — people drive to them rather than walk.

Durban has fewer of the curated weekend markets and more of the long-standing trading markets, which is a different and in some ways better experience if you know what you are looking for.

Smaller towns are where the genuinely good farmers' markets are, and they are almost always on a Saturday morning and over by one.

Rather than list specific markets and their times here — those change every season and a guide that is wrong about them is worse than no guide — check each market's own page for the weekend you are planning.

1. That it is actually on. Many markets are seasonal, skip long weekends, or cancel for weather. A Facebook event from March is not confirmation.
2. How many traders. Under about fifteen and it is a short visit. This is the number organisers are least likely to publish and most worth asking about.
3. Whether entry costs anything. Plenty are free; some charge, and some charge only in season. Worth knowing before you are at the gate.
4. Card or cash. Most traders take cards now, but not all, and the ones who do not are often the ones you most want to buy from. Take some cash.
5. Parking, and what time it goes. At a popular market the difference between arriving at nine and arriving at eleven is twenty minutes of circling.

Go early if you are buying and late if you are eating. The best produce and the one-off pieces go in the first hour; the food stalls are at their best once the queue has taught them their rhythm.

Talk to the person behind the table. At a market the maker is usually the seller, which is the entire point, and they will tell you things about their own product that no label ever does.

And if you find a trader you like, ask whether they sell between markets. Most do, and it is how a good market keeps paying off long after you have left it.

Markets on Noques show their dates, their stalls and their entry fee on one page, and traders who sell online have a storefront you can look at before you go — or browse them in the app.