Johannesburg & Pretoria city tour

Johannesburg city & Pretoria city tour : Tailored for you.

This full-day Johannesburg city & Pretoria city tour will take you from Johannesburg to Pretoria.

Johannesburg

FROM downtown Newtown to the sprawling township of Soweto, from the leafy north to the western outskirts of Roodepoort, Joburg is the province’s cultural hub, with a host of galleries, theatres and museums.

And it is the City’s directorate of arts, culture and heritage that ensures that all the communities of Joburg are provided with creative and cultural outlets.

The City boasts:

• three municipal-owned theatres
  • the Johannesburg Theatre
  • the Roodepoort Theatre
  • the Soweto Theatre
• the Johannesburg Art Gallery, which has the largest art collection in the country.
• several arts community centres in Soweto and Alexandra
• a number of cultural and heritage precincts
  • Newtown
  • Credo Mutwa Village
  • Openheimer Park
• several museums
  • Museum Africa
  • Hector Pieterson Museum
  • Bensusan Museum of Photography
  • Geology Museum
  • James Hall Transport Museum

In addition, Joburg’s diverse heritage is celebrated through programmes such as the annual City-sponsored Arts Alive festival and Johannesburg Carnival.

Arts Alive sees a host of events ranging from music performances to theatre productions, from poetry and photographic workshops to dance classes. It is a celebration of all that the city has to offer culturally. It is about expanding horizons and improving the quality of life for the residents of Johannesburg.

The annual end of year Joburg Carnival heralds in the New Year with a street parade through the inner city, with community groups building floats and designing and creating costumes. Besides being a way for Joburg residents to celebrate their city and to take ownership of the streets, the carnival also provides training opportunities for related industries in the performance art sector.

Pretoria

History and culture in Pretoria form part of the landscape of the city. Visit the Union Buildings and Freedom Park; spend time in the various museums and get to know about African and Afrikaner culture; stroll around Church Square and imbibe a sense of history.

History and culture in Pretoria reveal a lot about the character of this city. Once the capital of the old independent Transvaal boere republic, the new democratic Pretoria lies in Gauteng province, as part of the Tshwane municipality, and is the administrative and diplomatic hub of the country.

In Pretoria, history and culture is part of everyday life, and landmarks of the past are everywhere. A pleasant stroll around Church Square in the heart of town takes visitors past Die Raadsaal, the parliament buildings of the former boer republic. Visitors will also see the Palace of Justice, used as a military hospital until 1902 by the British, when the hostilities of the South African (Second Anglo-Boer) War ceased.

The imposing Union Buildings, designed by Sir Herbert Baker, are a top attraction when visiting Pretoria. The crescent-shaped complex was built in 1910 to house the administrative offices of the Union of South Africa.

Art lovers who appreciate African and southern African art should visit the Pretoria Art Museum in Arcadia. Set in beautiful grounds, it is often the chosen venue for launches and exhibitions celebrating ethnic diversity.

The University of Pretoria houses a distinguished collection of artworks. The National Cultural History Museum is rich in expressions of rock art, Ndebele murals and various historic gold and silver artefacts.

The Freedom Park is a whole new way of ‘seeing’ South African history. Intended to embody the nation’s historical consciousness, the hill-top complex in Salvokop memorialises the struggle and the liberation heroes who have shaped the modern South African nation.

Here you’ll find a memorial list of all those killed in both World War I and II, the Boer Wars and those who lost their lives during the turbulent times of apartheid; it stands as a monument to democracy. No trip to Pretoria or Tshwane is complete without a visit to Freedom Park.