Johannesburg ideas and hotel before Safari

Johannesburg doesn’t have a good reputation but I thought it was very interesting. I was on a tour that spent a few days there. Where you want to stay is NOT downtown, but in the upscale suburb (and current business hub) of Sandton. I forget the name of my hotel, but it was very close to Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton, where there are excellent restaurants, and an extensive shopping mall (try Pappas for great Greek). This area is safe for walking. A small group of us arranged (before the tour program started) with our hotel concierge for a good driver and van to take us to the Apartheid museum, a nice botanical garden and a visit to the neighboring area of Rosebank at a reasonable price. Johannesburg reminds me a bit of Southern California, in terms of climate and geography, it’s spread out with a lot of freeways. You do need a guide who knows where to go, but that’s not hard to find. We did Soweto with our tour group, very rewarding, but again, don’t try to do it on your own, go with a tour or a private guide.

Thank you, the OATS tour we are on has us staying in Pretoria, really didn't want to stay there for 5 nights,.
Slate did I read you were on an OATS tour on another Johannesburg forum reply?

Super interesting city. I'd recommend hiring a driver to take you around for the day, apart from the time you spend at the Apartheid museum. If you are interested in African handcrafts, you might enjoy a visit to Kim Sacks Gallery in Parkwood:

https://kimsacks.com

We've stayed at different hotels on every visit..you could look at 54th on Bath; Ten Bompas; The Four Seasons and the Peach.

Super upscale but great is The Saxon.

Hi Monica, yes, this is Slate (from Virginia, but that’s not my forum name), I was in Johannesburg with OAT. That was in 2024 on a tour they have since discontinued, which I think is too bad as it was a good one focusing on South Africa beyond just the “big two” of Kruger and Cape Town/wine country. We did those, but also Johannesburg (staying there, in Sandton as I recommended, rather than Pretoria), Eswatini (Swaziland), another game reserve in Zululand called Hluhuwe, Port Elizabeth and the Garden Route. Are you on the “Ultimate Africa” one — I know that is one of their most popular and it looks great, but it’s just a quick pass through in South Africa. Or there’s the one they set up to replace the one I did, which includes “big two” and I think Vic Falls? Whichever tour you’re on, I’m sure it will be excellent, OAT always does a great job in my experience.

Not too far from Jburg is Hitgeheim Country Lodge and Eco Reserve which is one of the most remarkable places I have ever stayed. https://www.hitgeheim.com/ My best to Archie & Marietjie

Sorry Slate , should have realized it was where you were from...We are on the Ultimate Safari, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Thank you all for the valuable information, very helpful..

Mr É 🇺🇸 🇺🇦 🇭🇺 looked at the place you recommended,. https://www.hitgeheim.com/ My best to Archie & Marietjie
It looks fabulous, but how far is it from Johannesburg?

I would like to do that Ultimate Africa sometime. I think you are wise to do a few days beforehand in the Johannesburg area. I would say the top two “must sees” are a Soweto tour (including Mandela’s house) and the Apartheid Museum. The Walter Sisulu Botanic Garden is very nice, and a good contrast with the more intense other sites. I give it its full name as there is more than one botanic garden in Johannesburg. The Sisulu one is a national garden; not as large or impressive as the Kirstenbosch garden in Cape Town, which is world class, but still very beautiful. If you want more Apartheid era history there is Lilieslief, a farm that was an ANC hideout (now in a suburban area), and Constitution Hill downtown, an old prison, near the modern high court building which is very interesting architecturally. To see any of these places in the sprawling Joburg area you will need a driver with vehicle, and a knowledgeable guide for Soweto, but these are not hard to arrange.

Monica, so terribly sorry. I was just reminded that we flew ...... im no help. That trip was 5 days here and 5 days there and yet another move as we chased the World Cup matches. Tge place i listed is the only I loved.

I thought that driving around the CBD was fascinating. Much more so than Soweto, which is no longer the dismal township you might think it is.

You could also check out Maboneng but I was there before Covid and things may have gone downhill, from what I have read...
https://mabonengprecinct.com

Thanks again for all your advice
ekscrunchy thank you for the hotel recs 2 were booked already 11 months out and the Four Seasons really is out of our price range.

Our safari trip with OAT was April 2022, and we arrived in Jo’burg a couple of days early, staying at the same hotel as what OAT included in the trip, the Garden Court O.R. Tambo International Airport. It’s actually convenient to the airport of Jo’burg, but not actually at the airport. It’s in the northeast corner of the city, not right downtown, but that was OK for us. When we had a drive downtown, on the way to the fabulous museum I’ll mention in a moment, we got to see the “nice” part of downtown, where upper-middle-class houses have walls around them, with barbed wire at the top. Not a place for a leisurely stroll, like we’ve done countless times in London, Paris, Oslo, Rome, Krakow, Madrid, etc.

I don’t know why OAT isn’t still using that hotel, but the Garden Court had a nice outdoor garden with tropical plants that attracted an assortment of African birds. We did go for a short walk from the hotel one night. They provided an airport shuttle van. Beds and bathrooms were good - what you’d find at a decent hotel anywhere that serves First World international clientele. The breakfasts were very good. They also have an “Irish” pub, Rosie O’Grady’s, where we had dinner one night. We also ate night one night at their restaurant, which is the same room where breakfast is served in the mornings.

We could’ve arranged transportation to dine elsewhere, but the chief recommendation was a kind-of food court mall some distance to the south, which had an assortment of cuisines from around the world. That didn’t really sound exciting enough to make the effort to go there, and our fine dining happened later, in Cape Town, after the safari part of the trip. We went to Cape Town (and beyond) on our own, and didn’t take the OAT post trip add-on.

We did, however take OAT’s pre-trip to the Okavango Delta in Botswana. Nobody else did, so we had a private safari before the main trip, and that frankly made it (along with seeing a roaring lion 30 feet away - he had just eaten, and was so full that he couldn’t get up and attack us if he’d wanted to) the very best part of an excellent trip. So we stayed at the Garden Court Hotel (Website: https://www.southernsun.com/garden-court-or-tambo-international-airport ) for two nights, then went on the Okavango pre-trip, then arrived back at the Garden Court just as folks on the main trip were arriving for it. We were given a different room for the second stay.

Things to see and do - The front desk at the hotel arranged for a driver/guide to take us to the Apartheid Museum and Soweto. As mentioned above, Soweto isn’t now a sketchy location, but I’m glad we had a guide with us. He took us to a restaurant where Sowetans eat, and it was a good lunch, although we passed on the specialty of the house, chicken feet, complete with claws and skin.

What was (still is???) a popular attraction for daredevils was a bungee jump off of a platform on a tower (former power plant, I think), but we passed on that, too. Our driver said he would never do that jump, either!

But we also went to a place the driver had never heard of - The Origins Centre Museum, on the University of the Witwatersrand (“WIT”) campus. It features displays on the San People (aka Bushmen), with rock art, ancient artifacts, and a scene of a kudu being hunted with poisoned darts. It also has an extensive display on a cave where archaeologists have determined the very first humans probably lived (hence “Origins”). We actually stood inside that cave (known as Site PP13B), after the safari part of the trip, after learning about it at this museum.

As I said, following the safari, we did our own trip to Cape Town, flying there from Jo’Burg. We then rented a car, going to Mossel Bay for several nights. The ancient cave, where humans lived 146,000 years ago, is now on the grounds of a golf course, Pinnacle Point (the “PP” in the name of the cave), but they allow guided tours to it. Even if you don’t see the cave, see the museum.