Johannesburg, Soweto & Apartheid Museum tour

This full-day tour takes in the contrasting areas of Johannesburg and its surroundings to give you a greater understanding of the city’s past and present. Along the way, your guide will share local insights and point out key landmarks that help tell the story of the city, and you’ll visit the Apartheid Museum for a thorough grounding in what apartheid meant and the impacts it had — and continues to have.

You’ll explore the affluent suburb of Houghton, where streets are lined with jacaranda trees, golf courses and parks are tucked between grand residences, and your guide can point out Nelson Mandela’s former home and place of death.

This is contrasted with a visit to Hillbrow, a densely populated inner-city district that became a ‘grey area’ during apartheid, meaning people of various ethnicities lived — and continue to live — side by side. Lack of investment here both during and after the apartheid led to an increase in crime and poverty, but more recently it has seen several urban regeneration schemes. Your guide will fill you in on Hillbrow’s past and present, including its mix of cultures, key landmarks, and forward-thinking enterprises.

You’ll also visit Soweto, a sprawling, densely populated township where many black workers in Johannesburg were forced to live during apartheid. Your guide will tell you about the riots that occurred here during that time, including the 1976 Soweto uprising that resulted in the death of hundreds of students who were protesting the introduction of Afrikaans as the main language of education in schools. You can learn more about this at the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum. Your guide will also share what the township is like today, including its mix of middle and upper-class areas and strong sense of community, and you might get the chance to have lunch in one of the local shebeens (bars).

Within Johannesburg City itself, you’ll see and hear about key landmarks, including the Supreme Court, Gandhi Square, Market Theatre, and Museum Afrika. And, you’ll visit the Apartheid Museum, where interactive exhibits, footage and sound clips, and real-life accounts give you a fuller picture of the apartheid regime and its long-lasting implications for the whole country.