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Sightseeing tours South Africa
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TOURIST GUIDE TO SIGHTS, TOUR ACTIVITIES, ATTRACTIONS, TRAVEL AND EXPLORATION - SOUTH AFRICA
Information for the visitor to South Africa
South Africa is one of the most diverse and enchanting countries in the world. Exotic combinations of landscapes, people, history and culture offer the traveller a unique and inspiring experience.
South Africa is located on the southern tip of the African continent, bordered by northern neighbours Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. It encompasses the independent mountain kingdoms of Lesotho and Swaziland and is flanked by the Atlantic Ocean on the west and the warm Indian Ocean on the east - giving the country its spectacular range of biodiversity.
South Africa occupies 4% of the continent's total landmass, covering an area of 1 221 040 square kilometres.
South Africa is a large, diverse and incredibly beautiful country. The size of France and Spain combined, it varies from the picturesque Garden Route towns of the Western Cape to the raw stretch of subtropical coast in northern KwaZulu-Natal. It's also one of the great cultural meeting points of the African continent, a fact obscured by years of enforced racial segregation, but now manifest in the big cities. Yet South Africa is also something of an enigma; it has the best travel facilities on the African continent, but also the most difficult surface to scratch. After so long as an international pariah, the "rainbow nation" is still struggling to find its identity.
Many visitors are pleasantly surprised by South Africa's excellent infrastructure , which draws favourable comparison with countries such as Australia or the United States. Good air links and bus networks, excellent roads and a growing number of first-class B&Bs and guesthouses make South Africa a perfect touring country and - with the dramatic slide of the rand in 2001 - a cheap one too for visitors. For those on a budget, rapidly mushrooming backpacker hostels and backpacker buses provide an efficient means of exploring.
Provinces & Major Cities
South Africa is divided into nine provinces, namely Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu- Natal, Limpopo, Mpumulanga, Northern Cape, North West and the Western Cape. Major cities include the modern economic hub of Johannesburg, coastal Cape Town picturesquely perched between mountain and sea, historic Pretoria and the 'sun and surf central' city of Durban.
CAPE TOWN is southern Africa's most beautiful, most romantic and most visited city. Indeed, few urban centres anywhere can match its setting along the mountainous Cape Peninsula spine, which slides into the Atlantic Ocean. By far the most striking - and famous - of its sights is Table Mountain, frequently shrouded by clouds, and rearing up from the middle of the city.
Best of Cape Town
The Bo-Kaap
One of Cape Town's oldest residential areas, its streets characterized by colourful nineteenth-century Cape Dutch and Georgian terraces.
Golden Lion
Highlight of the Gold of Africa Museum, a major collection of historic African works of art.
Robben Island
The infamous island prison that was Nelson Mandela's home for nearly two decades.
Rotate up Table Mountain
Take the revolving cable car to the tabletop.
Sundowners on the Atlantic seaboard
Grab a bottle of Cape bubbly and make for Clifton, Camps Bay or Llandudno.
Train to Simon's Town
The Metrorail train from Muizenberg follows the False Bay coast, just metres from the crashing surf, with stunning mountain views across the water.
Swim with penguins
Boulders Beach offers wonderful bathing and is home to a colony of protected African penguins.
Freewheel to the southern tip
Cycle to Cape Point, the dramatic rocky southernmost point on the Cape Peninsula.
Johannesburg - Once you've found a convenient way of getting around, either by car or in the company of a tour guide, the history, diversity and stimulating energy of the city can quickly become compelling. Johannesburg offers fascinating museums , most notably the Museum Africa in Newtown, as well as excellent art galleries. A number of suburbs have a thriving café culture , which by the evening transforms to a lively restaurant scene. There are shops with excellent contemporary African art and design, striking buildings, and of course the townships , most easily explored on a tour but, in some places, somewhere you can get to under your own steam. Johannesburg is also a great place to watch sport : Ellis Park was the scene of South Africa's emotional victory in the 1995 Rugby World Cup, the IAAF World Cup was held at the neighbouring athletics stadium in 1999, and the massive FNB soccer stadium on the edge of Soweto, which fills to capacity for local derbies or international fixtures, remains the principal venue for the country's most popular sport.
Best of Johannesburg
Melville
Hang out with Johannesburg's arty set, in one of the few places in the city where trendy cafés and decent restaurants line the street.
Township tour
Many tours run to Soweto, the world's most famous township, while a few go to Alexandra, offering a much richer township.
Jazz at Kippies
Jo'burg's finest jazz joint attracts mixed crowds and South Africa's top musicians.
The big match
Whether it's Chiefs v Pirates at FNB or the Springboks v All Blacks at Ellis Park, sport in Jo'burg is always big news.
Cradle of Humankind
A series of caves on the fringe of Johannesburg provides vital fossilized evidence of human ancestry.
Church Square, Pretoria
Sip an espresso at Café Riche or sit in the shade of Paul Kruger's statue and admire the grand architecture.
Voortrekker Monument
This icon of Afrikanerdom offers a fascinating insight into the people who dominated South Africa for a century.
Pretoria - The city centre is a compact grid of wide, busy streets, easily and comparatively safely explored on foot. Its central hub is Church Square , where you can see some fascinating architecture, and there are other historic buildings and museums close by around the Museum Mall. To the north lie the vast Zoological Gardens, while the Arcadia district is the site of the city's famous Union Buildings. Away from the centre, Hatfield, close to Pretoria University, is where students and yuppies throng the latest bars and restaurants, as well as being the home of Pretoria's diplomats, who live in the swankiest houses in town. On the southern fringes of the city is the remarkable Voortrekker Monument, as close as the Afrikaner race have to a sacred site. You need to travel 15km east out of town to find the sprawling township of Mamelodi; Pretoria's other major township, Atteridgeville, is equally far out of town to the west, off the N4, or R104, on the way to the Hartbeesport Dam and Sun City.
The most absorbing sight in the immediate vicinity of Pretoria is Doornkloof Farm , the former home of Prime Minister Jan Smuts. Further out, to the east of Pretoria, the mining town of Cullinan harks back to the pioneering days of diamond prospecting a century ago, while north of the city the Tswaing meteorite crater and nearby Mapoch Ndebele Village are efforts by disadvantaged communities to create a worthwhile tourist attraction in their area. To the west, on the other hand, the Hartbeesport Dam and nearby Lesedi Cultural Village have become victims of their own popularity, and most visitors happily bypass them on their way to less crowded and more genuine attractions in the provinces beyond.
South from Church Square lies a precinct of museums and open spaces that has drawn complimentary comparisons with Washington DC's Smithsonian Institute. On Jacob Maré Street between Andries and Van der Walt streets is the restful Burgers Park (daily 8am-6pm; free), named after ineffective ZAR president Thomas Burgers, who ruled between 1873 and 1877. The park has a good botanic garden, a quirkily designed curator's house and a pavilion at its centre, once the preserve of brass bands and all-white tea parties, but now multiracial and a good place to relax.
Opposite the park's southern border, Melrose House , 275 Jacob Maré St (Tues-Sun 10am-5pm; R3), is an overdecorated Victorian house with a wonderful conservatory, interesting exhibitions and a great African arts and crafts shop. The house was built in 1884 for local businessman George Heys, who made his money running mailcoach services. Lord Kitchener used the house during the second Anglo-Boer War, and the treaty of Vereeninging that ended hostilities was signed inside. Outside, a sumptuous tea garden serves cakes and scones, light meals and, on certain days, hearty South African lunches such as bobotie and savoury rice.
Head west of Burger Park along Minnaar Street, and then turn right into Paul Kruger Street and past a huge whale skeleton for the grand Transvaal Museum (Mon-Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 11am-5pm; R8), Pretoria's oldest museum and centrepiece of the Northern Flagship Institution, the collective name for Pretoria's main museums. Dedicated to natural history, the museum has plenty of stuffed animals, models of dinosaurs and wonderful fossil remains, some over one million years old. This is a good place to come if your interest in man's origins has been stirred by the discoveries of the nearby Cradle of Humankind: alongside a bronze bust of Robert Broom staring into the three-million-year-old eye sockets of Mrs Ples are an assortment of fossilized discoveries and various models and reconstructions of early hominid life. Nearby is a selection of stuffed animals, never particularly inspiring when many of the animals can be seen in real life in game reserves not too far away, though beside the paleontological displays, the various stuffed primates are particularly relevant. In the Austin Roberts Bird Hall, you'll find an informative exhibit on South Africa's many species of birds, while the Geoscience Museum highlights another Gauteng speciality, rocks and minerals.
Opposite the museum at the far end of a series of fountains and well-tended flower beds is the City Hall , with its eclectic mix of Greek and Roman architectural styles, and two rather good statues of Andries and Marthinus Pretorius immediately outside. The next large block to the west is taken up by the National Cultural History Museum (daily 8am-4pm; R5), formerly known as the African Window , accessed from Visagie Street. This large, airy exhibition space is, like many public collections, gradually feeling its way in the new South Africa. Generous room is given to temporary displays, although this tends to give the museum a rather tentative air. Meanwhile, the permanent exhibitions are interesting in themselves, but seem a bit unconnected. They include "Access to Power", which displays and explains San rock art, and "People's Choice", where groups of local people, including township women's groups and schoolchildren, have been invited to select objects from the museum's vast collection of some three million pieces. Also here is a room showing work by J.H. Pierneef (1886-1957), one of the country's most famous artists, who is known for his bushveld landscapes.
The new South Africa comes close to paradise as a travel destination. Breathtaking scenery, a near-perfect climate, superb food and wines, and exciting tours and activities compose an enticing holiday. Plus this all comes together at affordable prices.
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