Apartheid Museum

Discover the top 20 attractions in Johannesburg with a 1 or 2 day ticket for the hop-on hop-off sightseeing bus. Described as the New York of Africa, take your time exploring the exciting city. On board, you will learn about the history of Johannesburg from the prerecorded audio commentary in 15 languages. Ride the double-decker bus through the city's historic neighborhoods and fascinating attractions, many related to the struggle against apartheid. See the world's biggest man-made forest and learn about why Johannesburg should never have been built where it was. Get on and off as much as you like. Two of the 20th century’s most famous liberation heroes started their legal careers and then their political careers in Johannesburg; Mahatma Gandhi with the Passive Resistance (Satyagraha) movement, and Nelson Mandela with the Defiance Campaign. Trace some of their footsteps between Chancellor House and Gandhi Square in the city center. Join the tour at Rosebank and travel through the city's leafy suburbs to Constitution Hill. Change here to the downtown route for a first hand visit of authentic inner-city Johannesburg. All of the tour stops are safely located and staffed as necessary to ensure you will have a great time in the city.  Hop-on hop-off stops: Green Tour:  1. Rosebank  2. Zoo Lake 3. Johannesburg Zoo 4. Military Museum  5. Constitution Hill Red City Tour: 1. Constitution Hill 2. Mining District 3. Carlton Centre (for the Roof of Africa viewing deck) 4. James Hall Transport Museum  5.  Gold Reef City Casino Hotel (join the Soweto extension tour here) 6. Apartheid Museum  7. New Town 8. Origins Centre at Wits University 9. Neighborhoods Market (Saturdays only) Free Hotel Shuttle bus collection times: Sandton: The Holiday Inn: 08:45 & 10:15 The Maslow: 08:53 & 10:23 The Sandton Hilton: 08:57 & 10:27 The Radison Blue Gautrain: 09:04 & 10:33 Sandton Convention Center: 09:09 & 10:38 Da Vinci Hotel: 9:12 & 10:41

Johannesburg, Soweto and the Apartheid Museum are the perfect destinations for learning about the City of Gold. Start the day by visiting key landmarks in Johannesburg city, starting with Constitutional Hill where you will learn about apartheid prisoners. Then, head deep into the city, driving through the tall buildings, most of them built during the gold rush period. The next stop will be Top of Africa where you can see the city from above and take photos. The Apartheid Museum tour is the next stop as you dig deeper into the dark apartheid history of South Africa. This will be a 3-hour tour of the museum before heading into Soweto township. On arrival, you visit Mandela House Museum and get a 30-minute guided tour into his former house before he was sent to prison. The Hector Pieterson Museum will give you some inspiration on the language resistance uprising of 1976. Next, will be a quick drive to the Regina Mundi Church to discover the importance during the apartheid era. Finally, drive by Orlando Towers and the World Cup Stadium to finish the tour.

See the sights of Johannesburg at your own pace with a 1 or 2-day ticket for the hop-on hop-off sightseeing bus tour. Then, take a 2-hour eco tour of the township of Soweto, described as the “New York of Africa.” Take in the sights of the city where Mandela once lived and Mahatma Gandhi started his legal career. Learn the history of Johannesburg from the audio commentary in English once on board the double decker sightseeing bus. Ride through the city's historic neighborhoods and see fascinating attractions, many related to the struggle against apartheid. Get on and off as much as you like. Hear about 2 of the 20th century’s most famous liberation heroes in the city where they started their legal and political careers. Follow in the footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi and his Passive Resistance (Satyagraha) Movement, and Nelson Mandela with his Defiance Campaign. Hop-On and Hop-Off Bus Route: Green Tour:  1. Rosebank: @The Zone Mall, next to “Hamleys”  2. Zoo Lake 3. Johannesburg Zoo 4. Military Museum  5. Constitution Hill Red City Tour: 5. Constitution Hill 10. Mining District 11. Carlton Center for the “Roof of Africa” viewing deck 12. James Hall Transport Museum  13. Gold Reef City Casino Hotel – join the Soweto Eco tour here 14. Apartheid Museum  15. New Town 16. Origins Center at Wits University  17. Neighborhoods Market (Saturdays only) Soweto Eco Tour: Reconnect with Nelson Mandela's past, and get an understanding of where he started his fight against apartheid at his family home in Soweto. Now a museum, Mandela House follows the story of the legendary leader in the small rooms where his family lived. The single-story matchbox house is located at number 8115, on the corner of Vilakazi and Ngakane streets. A short distance up the road is Tutu House, the home of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. Encounter the eclectic atmosphere of the markets and memorabilia stands, as well as various eateries like the Mandela Family Restaurant. Enjoy drinks on restaurant balconies or at tables dotted along the sidewalks. Soweto is home to thousands of South Africans and the site of some of the most iconic events in the nation’s history. Get a fascinating look into kasi living, and hear the history of South Africa’s freedom struggle. Stop at Soccer City on the outskirts of Soweto before going to Diep Kloof. Discover the renowned Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, the largest hospital in the world in 1997. Go to Orlando Towers to see the site of the world’s highest Suspended Catch Air Device (SCAD) Freefall. Enjoy a drink or some braised meat at the Chaf Pozi shisa nyama and shebeen. Drive past Orlando Stadium, the 1st ever sports facility built for black South Africans in a residential area. Then, go to the Hector Pietersen Memorial in Orlando West to discover a work of art that marks the events of 16 June 1976, a catalyst for the Soweto Uprising. End your Soweto tour at the Kliptown Open Air Museum in Walter Sisulu Square, where 3,000 people gathered in 1955 to adopt the Freedom Charter. See the 10 tenets on which the South African Constitution is based. Another popular landmark, just a few meters from the museum is the 4-star Soweto Hotel.

Explore the rise and fall of the apartheid at the Apartheid Museum, the first of its kind, in Johannesburg. Embark on an emotional 3-hour journey with a guide, and hear the sad story of a state-sanctioned system based on racial discrimination and the struggle of the majority to overthrow this tyranny. After pickup from your hotel in Johannesburg, make your way with your guide to the Apartheid Museum. Once you've entered the museum, discover a series of 22 individual exhibition areas assembled and organized by a multi-disciplinary team of curators, filmmakers, historians, and designers.  Learn about the policy of apartheid, implemented in 1948 by the white elected National Party government, which turned 20 million people into second class citizens, damning them to a life of servitude, humiliation, and abuse. See provocative film footage, photographs, text panels, and artifacts illustrating the events and human stories of apartheid. Bring your dramatic journey to an end with the election of Nelson Mandela, the prisoner you became president, in 1994. The liberation of the nation and people of South Africa from apartheid is the climax of a tale of resistance, courage, and fortitude. It is not uncommon for 3 hours in the museum to feel too short. The local partner's guides will try to adjust the schedule to your liking if this is the case for you. After your museum visit, the tour concludes with drop-off back at your hotel in Johannesburg.

Take a comprehensive tour of Johannesburg, Soweto, and the Constitutional Hill Museum. Pass important landmarks and learn about the country's difficult history of Apartheid. Be picked up from your hotel for a full-day tour of Johannesburg, the Constitutional Hill Museum, and Soweto. Begin your explorations in the heart of bustling Johannesburg, the third-largest city in Africa. Pass landmark buildings and structures such as the Hillbrow Tower, one of the tallest towers in Africa, the sky-scraping Ponte City, Sentech and Carlton Centre Towers, and the multimillion-rand Nelson Mandela Bridge. Once a prison and military fort, visit the Constitutional Hill Museum and learn about South Africa's journey to democracy. Be humbled as you hear and see the struggles South Africa endured during its societal transitional phases such as the Apartheid. Leaving the hustle and bustle of central Johannesburg behind, the tour will proceed to historical Soweto, an iconic South African township that experienced many student uprisings and much police brutality during the apartheid era. Visit the Hector Pieterson Museum and Memorial, and see the house of Nelson Mandela. After an interesting and thought-provoking day head back to your hotel on a comfortable air-conditioned bus.   

After collecting you from your hotel or residence in Johannesburg, your guide will give you a quick pre departure tour briefing before departing to Soweto (South Western Township). On your way to Soweto you pass by the National Football Stadium City, which hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the World Cup 2010. You enter the Diepkloof area, where you will take a walk past vendors selling just about anything. In Orlando West you visit Vilakazi Street - drive past the former home of Nelson Mandela and past the home of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. You will have an opportunity to read about the Soweto uprising on 16 June 1976. On that tragic day an innocent little boy called Hector Pieterson gave up his life and kick-started the liberation of South Africa. During this tour you will pass by the Mandela House. A visit into the museum is optional. You continue your tour driving into one of the shanty towns where you get to interact with some of the locals. By now you will have seen the good, the bad and the ugly facets of Soweto. You drive past the Soweto Campus of the Johannesburg University and end your tour with a stop at the largest hospital in the world: Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital. After Lunch on your own account, you will arrive at the world famous Apartheid Museum. Here you will learn about the history and struggle of South Africa during apartheid. Once you are done with the Apartheid Museum, you head into Johannesburg City and start with the view of the impressive 269 metre Telkom Tower, as seen on many postcards of Johannesburg. You then enter the inspiring Constitution Hill – and Court (when not in session) Political activists like Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi were once held here. During a tour inside you will learn about some of the legal history of Johannesburg. On your way to Newtown you pass by the longest southern African bridge, named Nelson Mandela bridge. At Mary Fitzgerald Square you can walk on the Jazz Walk of Fame. You end this tour with a visit to the Carlton Centre, also known as the ‘Top of Africa’. There a lift will elevate you 50 stories for an amazing and total view over the city. In short, this tour offers you a unique Johannesburg experience at an affordable rate.

Meet your local guide and drive towards your first stop at the quaint Liliesleaf Farm in northern Johannesburg. Discover the history of the place used as a safe house for the African National Congress in the 1960s. Then head to Nelson Mandela Foundation, the last offices that Nelson Mandela occupied before his passing. Find original pieces of history pertaining to the President such as his briefcase, noble price medal, and Xhosa mountain attire. Next, visit the Constitutional Hill, where Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Ghandi, Winnie Madikizela, Joe Slovo and so many others were imprisoned. From here, make your way to the Chancellor House in Johannesburg, that was once home to Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo’s first black law firm in South Africa. Get to see the three-story building in the Ferreirasdorp area of Johannesburg. Then, proceed to Mandela House where he lived from 1946 to 1962 with his family. This house is not far from the Tutu house which was also the residential home of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. This is the place where Nelson Mandela returned to after being released from prison in 1990. At the end of the tour discover the exhibitions of the Apartheid Museum.

Embark on this history filled tour to understand the real history of South Africa in six hours. Firstly, be picked up from your Johannesburg hotel and travel to Constitutional Hill, which holds remarkable history about South African law. You will get to learn about the injustices of the South African Pass while observing the process by which freedom was won and is now protected.  You will hear stories of the rebellious Boer soldiers who fought with the British soldiers at the turn of the century, the youth caught up in the Soweto Uprising, to the dawn of democracy and the building of South Africa's constitutional court; Constitution Hill has witnessed it all. In addition, you will visit the Apartheid Museum. This tour helps you understand and experience what apartheid in South Africa was really like for local people. 

Starting in Kliptown, one of Soweto´s oldest districts, see the Soccer City Stadium also known as The Calabash. This stadium is located in Nasrec, bordering the Soweto area of Johannesburg, and was one of the many venues constructed for the World Cup in 2010. It has a capacity of just under 95,000 people, and was the location for the final of the tournament. Today, it hosts many concerts by major international artists, as well as many other sporting events. Next, visit the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum, situated in Orlando West. This site commemorates the role of the country’s students in the struggle against apartheid and in particular the role played by the school children who took part in the Soweto Uprising of 1976.  Explore Vilakazi Street, in the heart of Soweto. The street is is where Nelson Mandela spent the first couple of nights of freedom upon his release after 27 years of imprisonment. You will walk by this residence and pass by the home of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. As such, Vilakazi Street is the only street in the world that can boast having had two Nobel Laureates as residents. After this, enjoy a traditional kota lunch, followed by a visit to the Apartheid Museum (if full day option selected), illustrating the history of South Africa´s struggle for change and freedom in the 20th century.

Day 1: JohannesburgYour South African sightseeing tour begins in Johannesburg at the Radisson Blu Four-Star Hotel. From here, travel to Pretoria to visit the Voortrekker Monument where you'll learn about the history of the Afrikaners and the Great Trek. Drive through the beautiful city of Pretoria and pass by Church Square before heading to the Union Buildings, the seat of the South African Government, for a photoshoot. See the iconic Nelson Mandela statue while here. Next stop, Soweto. Visit the Hector Pieterson Museum and Mandela House before wrapping up your first day with a visit to the Apartheid Museum. Day 2: JohannesburgDepart from the Radisson Blu Hotel and head to the Cradle of Humankind. Located about 50 kilometers from Johannesburg, the Cradle of Humankind is one of eight places in South Africa listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Visit the Sterkfontein Caves where the 2.3-million-year-old fossil Australopithecus africanus was unearthed in 1947, and see the Maropeng Visitor Center, a world-class exhibition that was opened in 2005 and focuses on the development of hominins. Day 3: Cape TownGet picked up from the Radisson Blu Hotel in Johannesburg in the morning and travel to Cape Town. On arrival in Cape Town, embark on a full-day tour that takes you around the entire Cape Peninsula. Discover the wonders of Cape Town, from the pristine beaches to the spectacular sight of Cape Point, where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet. Your day also includes a visit to the sensational Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. Day 4: Cape TownStart your day with another convenient pickup from the Radisson Blu Four-Star Hotel in Cape Town and set out on a full-day wine tour. Start in Stellenbosch and make your way through the best Winelands in the Cape. Take part in an optional wine tasting. Day 5: Cape TownSpend the final day of your tour on a full-day safari in a beautiful private game reserve. See South African wildlife in its natural habitat. The reserve is home to over 1,200 species including lions, cheetahs, black rhino, eland, leopards, the Cape clawless otter, and many more. Enjoy the prolific birdlife in the park, which includes the African fish eagle, black-breasted snake eagle, giant kingfisher, Cape vulture, Cape eagle owl, flamingo, ostrich, secretary bird, sacred ibis, spotted eagle owl, black stork, barn owl, and jackal buzzard to name just a few. Your tour concludes with a return flight to OR Tambo International Airport.