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City Guide - Johannesburg - Tours of the City | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tours of the City Walking Tours Parktown and Westcliff Heritage Trust (tel: (011) 482 3349; web site: http://home.intekom.com/parktown) offers fairly easy walking tours that are around three hours (prices around R150). These can be guided or self-guided (by picking up the relevant pamphlets from 'Northwards', 21 Rockridge Road, Parktown, daily 0900-1300. 'Mansions & Minor Masterpieces' explores the stately Sir Herbert Baker-designed 'mining-magnate' homes of Parktown and the artworks that decorate them; 'From Cliff to Forest' starts at Westcliff, another historic suburb, and ends in Forest Town, where the Zoo and Military History Museum are located; and 'Northcliff and Melville: Pre-History to Present' covers the ancient Stone Age sites on Melville Koppies, the heights of Northcliff, the Louw Geldenhuys farmhouse, Emmarentia Dam and the Botanical Gardens. Walktours (tel: (011) 444 1639; web site: http://users.iafrica.com/b/bp/bporter) organises longer, but no more strenuous, guided walks, which take 4-8 hours and cost R70-400 per person. Routes include 'Sophisticated Sandton' (explore Africa's richest shopping, business and residential areas), 'Natural Johannesburg' (the Braamfontein Spruit (stream) and Sand Spruit trails), 'Historic Johannesburg' (the CBD, first suburbs and Alexander Township) and 'Johannesburg by Night' (nocturnal Zoo animals, restaurants and clubs in Sandton, Rosebank or Melville). Bus Tours The City Slicker is Johannesburg's official hop-on-hop-off sightseeing bus. The service runs 0900-1800 seven days a week and one-day passes cost R70, three-day passes R150. The Parktown and Westcliff Heritage Trust (see above) puts on irregular guided bus tours, such as 'Winsome, Wiley and Wonderful' and 'Magnates and Miners', each 90 minutes, according to a quarterly schedule advertised on their web site. Springbok Atlas Safaris (tel: (011) 396 1053; fax: (011) 396 1069; web site: www.springbokatlas.co.za) organises full- or half-day tours (pick-up from hotels) to Central Johannesburg, Gold Reef City and Soweto. Other Tours Court Helicopters (tel: (011) 827 8907) offers a regular service from Rand International Airport over Johannesburg and Soweto. Half-hour tours cost R750 per person. Historical Flights (tel: (011) 978 5625 or 5685) runs slow, low champagne flights over Johannesburg in older historic aircraft, such as the SAA Junkers JU52, at a cost of R375 per person. Bill Harrop's Original Balloon Safaris (tel: (011) 705 3201-03) offers tours over the majestic Magaliesberg Mountains in a huge colourful hot-air balloon. The flight (R650 per person) lasts for about an hour and is followed by a superb freshly prepared hot breakfast when you land. |
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