Flights to Johannesburg
Johannesburg OR Tambo International is South Africa’s largest airport and is the air transport hub for Southern Africa. If your flying to Jhb OR Tambo is the main airport unless you booked a flight to Lanseria ariport.
JHB International, now known as OR Tambo, presently carries approximately 20 million passengers annually and accounts for roughly half the air-traffic that comes and goes out of South Africa.
It?s hard to imagine that the bustling modern city of Johannesburg was once a small shanty town, full of miners with diamond dreams in their eyes. Not only is Johannesburg South Africa?s biggest city and a busy stronghold of business and trade, it?s also a good destination for a pleasure-seeking tourist.
Gold Reef City provides a glimpse into the past of Johannesburg. It offers a visit to a mineshaft as well as some more modern forms of entertainment. For a closer look at the heritage of the area, drop in to the Lesedi Cultural Village, a multi-ethnic group consisting of Zulu, Xhosa, Basotho and Pedi people. This can be a fulfilling and enlightening experience as you watch dances and learn about the history and culture of these people.
Some tourists head for places like Soweto and Nelson Mandela?s previous home, the Regina Mundi Church, and the Hector Pieterson Memorial Museum. Take a break and enjoy a refreshing drink at a ?shebeen?. The most popular one is the Wandie?s Place.
You may like to visit the Johannesburg Zoo, which keeps its animals without any bars. It has gone far in reproducing the natural habitats for the animals. This is a good option if you can not visit a real nature reserve. When you are in the surrounding area, you may even hire a rowboat, and spend some time on the Zoo Lake and enjoy bird watching. If you feel a little hungry by the end of the day, get into the Moyo?s to enjoy the African delicacies accompanied by the some good African music, which the city has to offer.
A mere hour?s drive from Johannesburg is yet another important sight to see: The Cradle of Humankind, a World Heritage site. The Sterkfontein Caves are found here – the site where Mrs. Ples, a three million year old skull was first discovered in 1947.
Johannesburg is a shoppers? paradise, offering shopping experiences ranging from sophisticated malls like Hyde Park, Sandton City and Nelson Mandela Square to a whole variety of vibrant African and Oriental flea markets. Most visitors simply cannot leave without buying some samples of the beautiful arts and crafts for sale at these markets: local wire-work, traditional carvings, bead work and fertility dolls, to mention but a few.
Food and wine are a treat in this city. With cuisine influenced by the melting pot of cultures here, you can literally sample just about anything: Malaysian, Indian, French, Mexican, Italian, Moroccan, Creole and African. So make sure you have plenty of time in Johannesburg and explore all that this wonderful city has to offer its visitors.
