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Pretoria, the Administrative Capital of South Africa. A beautiful city draped with Jacaranda trees and a purple city when these Jacarandas are in bloom. Your guide will take you on a tour of : Voortrekker Monument - A commemorative museum for the courage of this country’s pioneers during their ‘Great Trek’ into the unknown interior; City Hall and Transvaal museum (Entrance optional extra) – with statues of heroes of events leading up to the foundation days of Pretoria and the home of ‘Mrs Ples’, fossil scull of one of the first known hominids to roam the earth. Church Square – here church services were held in the early days and it is dominated by the statue of ‘Oom Paul’, Paul Kruger, founder of the Kruger National Park. This square is the site of impressive historical buildings and is now a venue for trade and recreation; The Union Buildings – Designed by the famed architect, Sir Herbert Baker, this is where the Presidential and Administrative Offices are with its beautiful gardens and the replica of the Delville Wood Monument in France. When standing in these gardens you have an elevated view over the valley of this friendly city. Duration: HALF DAY Departure: 09H00 / 12H00 Included: Entrance fees to Voortrekker Monument. Services of a friendly registered Tour guide, transport in a luxury, licensed, air-conditioned vehicle. Excluded: Lunch, any items of a personal nature, tips, and or gratuities to guide JPD Tours’ Price: 1pax-R 1 680, 2; pax-840 pp Time required: Ideally 4 hours; can be done in 3 hours
(Recommendation: combine with Apartheid Museum/ Origins Centre) (Time required for combo: Full day) The largest “township” in South Africa that became a city in its own right. Experience the history of this famous township, the root of the freedom struggle, Johannesburg Southwest Township (Soweto). Famous or notorious, Soweto is a former township from the times of Apartheid. Starting about 15 km away from the centre of Johannesburg, it comprises some 63 sq. km, where an estimated two million people live. Originally there were only temporary living quarters for the mine workers, before Soweto was declared a ghetto for the black population of Johannesburg by the infamous "Urban Areas Act" in 1923. Although the government had a housing program to build hundreds of thousands of plain two-room houses here, the illegal squatter camps kept on growing and spreading. Still Soweto is by no means only an accumulation of tin shacks. There are also better suburbs and a number of more or less functioning social institutions like schools and hospitals. The main impression though is that of great crowding and poverty, and Guides’ approach are often that of the ‘Good, the Bad and the Ugly’. The home that Nelson Mandela and Winnie Mandela shared is based in Soweto. You will visits sites such as: Nelson Mandela’s HouseHector Peterson (a boy who died during the 1976 Youth Uprising and who has become an icon of this sad event) MemorialRegina Mundi Church, where secret meetings were held under the Apartheid regime.Wandie’s Place restaurant (an internationally known shebeen), or similarAn ‘experience real life’ informal settlement visit(Kliptown or similar) Duration: HALF DAY Departure: 0830 / 1230 Included: Entrance fees to Mandela House, Hector Peterson Memorial and Regina Mundi Church. Services of a friendly registered Guide, transport in a luxury vehicle. Excluded: Lunch, any items of a personal nature, tips, and or gratuities to guide; also tips for Kliptown locals displaying domestic environment/ beer making, etc. (R20 (US$3) adequate). JPD Tours’s Price: 1pax- R 2 300, 2pax-R 1150pp Time required: Ideally 4 hours; can be done in 3 hours Bonus: Jo’burg City drive through
The De Wildt Cheetah Centre was established in 1971 with the aim of breeding endangered species. Over the past two decades the Centre's efforts have resulted in the major achievement of breeding what was once a threatened species, the cheetah. Over the years, nearly 600 cheetah cubs have been born at De Wildt - a dramatic contrast to the days when the cheetah population of South Africa was estimated at a mere 700. While the cheetah project was the base from which the Centre launched its conservation ethic, it soon widened to include other rare and endangered animal species such as wild dog, brown hyena, serval, suni antelope, blue and red duiker, bontebok, riverine rabbit and vultures - including the very rare Egyptian vulture. Many of these have been successfully bred for later reintroduction into the wild, thus helping to repopulate areas where such species have disappeared or are no longer abundant. Website: www.dewildt.org.za Duration: 3/4 DAY (0nly Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays & Sundays) Departure: 0630 / 1200 Included: Entrance fee and activity fee to Cheetah Project. Services of a friendly registered guide, transport in a luxury vehicle. Excluded: Lunch, any items of a personal nature, tips, and or gratuities to guide; photograph with a cheetah JPD Tours’s Price: 1pax-R 2 650, 2pax-R 1 450 pp Time required: 6 ½ hours Bonus: Sights of scenic Hartebeespoort Dam De Wildt regretfully does not allow children under 6 years of age.
(Recommendation: combine with Maropeng) (Time required for combo: 5 hours) An in depth tour, conducted by paleoantropologist, is available on request. Enjoy a tour of the Sterkfontein Caves. The Sterkfontien cave system, about 12km north of Krugersdorp in Gauteng, is the site of some of the most important discoveries concerning human evolution. The limestone deposit at the surface, from which the first fossils were recovered, was formed by the collapse and infilling of a cavern as it became exposed by erosion. Underlying the old quarry is an extensive system of younger caves containing an underground lake and many limestone formations, part of which is open to tourists. The Palaeo-Anthropological Research Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand has been excavating at Sterkfontein continuously since 1968, and more than 550 hominid fossil specimens have been found. Sterkfontein is one of the world's most productive and important palaeoanthropological sites. It is the place where the very fist adult ape-man was found by Dr Robert Broom in 1936. This ancient cave system has over the years revealed a sequence of deposits with fossils dating from about 3.5 to 1.5 million years ago, a period of time which spans the early development of the family of man- the hominids. In addition to almost 500 skull, jaw, teeth and skeletal fossils of these early hominids, there are many thousands of other animal fossils, over 300 fragments of fossils wood, and over 9,000 stone tools which include some of the earliest manifestations of human culture on earth. Some of the youngest deposits in the cave also contain fossils and tools from the period just prior to the emergence of modern humans, the period ca. 100.000 to 250,000 years ago, most widespread of which are the dolomites of the Transvaal Supergroup. http://www.sterkfontein-caves.co.za/sterkfontein.htm Duration: HALF DAY Departure: 0900 / 1200 Included: Entrance fees to Sterkfontein Caves Tour. Services of a friendly registered guide, transport in a luxury vehicle. Excluded: Lunch, any items of a personal nature, tips, and or gratuities to guide JPD Tours’s Price: 1pax-R 1 880, 2pax-R 940 pp Time required: Ideally 3 hours; can be done in 2 ½ hours
(Recommendation: combine with Sterkfontein) (Time required for combo: 5 hours About 10 kms away from the world famous Sterkfontein Caves the world class visitor facility MAROPENG recently opened to the public. A must see for every visitor to the province, the centre has within it a visitor attraction which tells the story of the Cradle of Humankind and brings to live the history of humankind in entertaining, educative and interactive ways. Maropeng also offers restaurants, a market place, an outdoor amphitheatre, and the HOTEL. The Tumulus contains a vast underground visitor attraction incorporating a sensory extensive display which immerses visitors in touching, hearing, feeling, seeing and experiencing the unique history of humankind. Within the visitor attraction lies an exciting 4-billion-year journey on an underground lake, through the elemental forces – water, air, fire and earth – dipping through waterfalls and real icebergs, into the eye of a storm, past erupting volcanoes and through the depths of the earth and emerging at the beginning of the world. From here, the journey continues through an experience highlighting the history of our world and humankind as a species, brought to life via audiovisual techniques, evocative sound effects, theme-park technology and theatrical displays. There are also real fossils on display at the visitor centre. Children will delight in the interactive elements of the exhibits, which encourage them to experience rather than just observe our development as a species and the underlying message of the unity of humankind. It's best to spend up to 2.5 hours within the Visitor Attraction, but one can spend up to half a day within the complex, or book specialist tours to the fossil sites including the world famous Sterkfontein Caves. Duration: HALF DAY Departure: 0900 / 1200 Included: Entrance fees to Maropeng Museum. Services of a friendly registered guide, transport in a luxury vehicle. Excluded: Lunch, any items of a personal nature, tip,s and or gratuities to guide JPD Tours’s Price: 1pax-R 1 880, 2pax-R 940 pp Time required: Ideally 3 ½ hours; can be done in 3 hours
(Recommendation: combine with Soweto) (Time required for combo: 5 ½ hours) In 1948 the white-elected National Party government implemented the policy of apartheid, turning 20 million people into second class citizens. Their liberation in 1994 with the election of Nelson Mandela, the prisoner who became president, is a climax in the saga of a nation’s resistance, courage and fortitude. In 1995 the South African government set up a process for the granting of casino licenses, establishing an agency to do this called the Gambling Board. The bid documents stipulated that bidders should demonstrate how they would attract tourism and thereby grow the economy and stimulate job creation. A consortium, called Akani Egoli, put in a bid that included the commitment to building a museum. Their bid was successful, the Gold Reef City casino was built and an adjacent piece of land given for the construction of a museum. The cost of the construction of the museum was paid for by Akani Egoli however, the museum is an independent, non-profit organization relying on donations to sustain its growth. The Apartheid Museum opened in 2001 and is considered the pre-eminent museum in the world dealing with 20th century South Africa, at the heart of which is the apartheid story. A series of 22 individual exhibition areas takes the visitor through a dramatic emotional journey that tells a story of a state-sanctioned system based on racial discrimination and the struggle of the majority to overthrow this tyranny. Visitors are supplied with a headphone set controlled by electronic transponders within the museum, which means that the visitor controls the speed at which they want to walk through the exhibits. Note: museum hours are 10:00 am to 5:00 pm and it is closed on Mondays. Website: www.apartheidmuseum.org Departure: 0930 / 1300 Duration: HALF DAY Included: Entrance fees to Apartheid Museum. Services of a friendly registered guide (museum tour is self-guided), transport in a luxury vehicle. Excluded: Lunch, any items of a personal nature, tips, and or gratuities to guide; Specialist Museum Guide @ R 250 divided by number of guests JPD Tours’s Price: 1pax-R 1 500, 2pax-R 750 pp Time required: Ideally 3 ½ hours; can be done in 2 ½ hours Bonus: Jo’burg City drive through
(Recommendation: Combine with Apartheid Museum/ Soweto) (Time required for combo: 5 ½ hours Gold Reef City is a theme park created around an authentic 19th Century Gold Mine. Gold Reef City has an abundance of history, adventures rides, restaurants, site seeing and tours including an underground mine tour. Jozi’s Story of Gold is a two-hour tour that includes an underground mine tour, visits to museum houses, gold pouring and (time permitting), chances to see gold panning or to visit Africa’s only 4D theatre, the Odin. It’s an opportunity for your clients to go back in time and touch history, with a first-hand look at life in the old mining town of Johannesburg. It is an interactive tour that brings the Theme Park’s exciting historical and gold mining attractions together in an entertaining and informative package. It is an opportunity to go back in time and touch history, with a first-hand look at life in the old mining town of Johannesburg. Duration: HALF DAY Departure: 0930 / 1330 Included: Guided Tour: “Jozi’s Story of Gold” Services of a friendly registered guide, transport in a luxury vehicle. Excluded: Lunch, any items of a personal nature, tips, and or gratuities to guide. JPD Tours’s Price: 1pax-R 1 945, 2pax-R 970 pp Time required: 3 hours Bonus: Jo’burg City drive through
(Recommendation: combine with Soweto/ Apartheid Museum, or Cradle of Humankind) (Time required for combo: Full day) “We are who we are because of who we were” ”The Origins Centre @ Wits, the newest heritage resource in South Africa, is one of the finest learning centers and home of Khoisan Rock Art in the world. It is a facility where we explore the origins of humans in Africa and peek into the fascination world of earliest humans. Visitors are also able to complete a basic questionnaire to trace their origins. The Origins Centre explores the very beginning of human technology, thought and spirituality – everything that makes us who we are today.” Duration: HALF DAY Departure: Any time from 09:00 to 14:30 Included: Entrance fee, Guided transport in a luxury vehicle. Excluded: Lunch, any items of a personal nature, tips, and or gratuities to guide JPD Tours’s Price: 1pax-R 1 580, 2pax-R 790 pp Time required: 2 ½ hours This tour can be combined with a Johannesburg sight seeing tour, which could include the Museum of Africa and/or Constitution Hill and/or the Apartheid Museum. Entrance Fees for these optional extra. Bonus: Sights of the leafy Johannesburg northern suburbs.
Time required’ includes collection from/drop off in Sandton/ Rosebank. If collection is at O.R. Tambo International Airport, add 30 minutes. Add 10% of tour duration for peak traffic periods, 06:30 09:00 and 15:4518:30. There are good quality restaurants in close proximity/ en route of all tour destinations. Should guests wish to have lunch while on tour, we require (1) a lunch or R 100 for the driver and (2) R 280/ hour (payable direct) for vehicle extended hours. |
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