Sheraton Pretoria

Classic South Africa

Family Classic + 3 more + 3 more

A classic South African holiday, with a few lesser-visited surprises.

17 days

from £3,655 pp

including flights

South African Grand Tour

Safari Wildlife & Nature + 3 more + 3 more

Three weeks, one unforgettable road trip across South Africa’s greatest highlights.

21 days

from £4,295 pp

including flights

South Africa Family Holiday

Family Safari + 1 more + 2 more

The ultimate family adventure through South Africa's highlights.

15 days

from £3,495 pp

including flights

Romantic Safari + 2 more + 3 more

South Africa Safari & Beach

South Africa, Mauritius

A seamless South Africa and Mauritius holiday.

14 days

from £4,450 pp

including flights

Safari Wildlife & Nature + 1 more + 2 more

Waterfalls to Waterfront

South Africa, Zimbabwe

Victoria Falls, Kruger & Cape Town.

11 days

from £4,950 pp

including flights

The Best of South Africa

Romantic Classic + 3 more + 3 more

Cape Town, wine & wildlife: South Africa's highlights over 11 days.

11 days

from £3,225 pp

including flights

Quirky excursions

View all excursions in South Africa

Soweto Cycling Tour

Any tour of Soweto is not a township tour in the traditional sense, as Soweto is much more a (relatively affluent) suburb these days than an informal settlement. The houses are permanent, well-constructed and well-tended and there is a thriving community and growing economy here. So your tour of Soweto is much more about the culture and history of the place, and there is plenty of that to see. One of the defining places in the struggle against apartheid, Soweto boasts the only street in the world home to two Nobel Laureates: Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a key part of the cycle tour. You'll also visit the Hector Pieterson Memorial, where you learn about the 1976 Soweto Uprising. But the tour is also forward looking, with stops outside the highly decorative residence of famous opera singer Abigail Khubeka, and looking out over the Orlando Pirates football stadium, site of the Opening Ceremony for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. By cycling rather than taking a car, you interact much more with Soweto and her people, who are always ready to exchange greetings and have a chat. There's also the chance to sample traditional street food, which is much tasty than you might at first imagine! The tour concludes where you began, at Lebo's Backpackers, a Soweto institution where Lebo has been welcoming international visitors since 1999; you bid farewell to your guide and fellow cyclists with a calabash of traditional beer.

Soweto tour

For many people a township tour of some sort is an essential part of any trip to South Africa, to try and understand the country’s turbulent recent history. As far as townships go, none is more famous than Johannesburg’s South-West Township, or Soweto as it became known. A tour here will take in several key elements, including the Hector Pieterson Memorial. In 1976 there was a student uprising in Soweto and 12 year old Hector was killed when the police opened fire, one of 23 who died that day. His was the most famous death because the photo of him being carried away after being shot became an iconic image of the anti-apartheid movement. Another famous landmark is the only street in the world to have housed two Nobel Prize winners – Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu; Mandela’s old house is now a museum. There are more light-hearted and uplifting elements to a Soweto tour: a visit to a shebeen (tavern) for a beer with the locals is always entertaining, and then there is the modern symbol of just how far Soweto and South Africa have come – Soccer City, the purpose-built stadium that played host to the opening ceremony and the final of the FIFA World Cup 2010.

The Cradle of Humankind

Northwest of Johannesburg lies an area of limestone hills, The Cradle of Humankind, riddled with caves with concealed entrances that over time trapped many animals and early hominid species; the caves proved perfect at not only trapping them, but also preserving their bones as fossils and it’s through these fossils that we’ve been able to trace the development from our common ancestor with the apes through to Homo Sapiens. A huge proportion of all early hominid fossils excavated are in this area, hence its UNESCO World Heritage Site designation. The main visitor centre at Maropeng isn’t amazing, but does give a bit of an overview of the development of hominid species, and why this region is so important to that understanding. Of much more interest is Sterkfontein Cave. “Mrs Ples” and “Little Foot”, two of the most famous fossils (along with over a third of all early hominid fossil discoveries to-date), were found here and it’s the site of the longest continuously running fossil excavations in the world. Exploring the caves with a guide is interesting both from an anthropological point of view, and simply because the caverns, pools, stalactites and stalagmites are beautiful to see. The tour takes around an hour, there are quite a few steps to climb and one or two narrow, low pinch-points to squeeze through.

The Voortrekker Monument

The Voortrekker Monument was built in 1938 to symbolize the unity of the Afrikaner people, descended from those early pioneers who set out to settle the interior of South Africa, and establish a state in keeping with their religious views. The monument is a vast, imposing edifice, a huge brick Cenotaph surrounded by a wall bearing the frieze of 64 Great Trek wagons. These symbolize the 64 wagons at the Battle of Blood River, a pivotal event in early Afrikaner history when a small raiding party of Voortrekkers held of an assault by several thousand Zulu troops. This event gave the Voortrekkers the idea that their enterprise was favoured by God, and is why it was the inspiration for the monument. There are also murals depicting scenes from the Great Trek and a museum: it’s an important place to visit to understand the origin and role the Voortrekkers and their Afrikaner descendants have played in South African history.