Pretoria & Cullinan Diamond Mine Day Tour from Johannesburg

Pretoria, the administrative capital

Pretoria lies about fifty-five kilometres north of Johannesburg, close enough to be a comfortable Pretoria day tour from Johannesburg yet different in character: wider streets, older public buildings and a slower rhythm. Founded in 1855, it became the capital of the old Boer republic and is now the administrative capital of South Africa and the seat of the executive, housed in the Union Buildings. The city is also known as the Jacaranda City for the tens of thousands of purple-flowering trees that line its avenues.

On this tour we drive through the historic centre, where the guide points out Church Square with its old parliament building and courthouse, before stopping at the main sights. The best time to visit Pretoria is spring, from early October to mid-November, when the jacarandas are in bloom and the hills around the Union Buildings turn lilac; the tour runs all year, however, and winter days are clear and mild.

The Union Buildings and their gardens

The Union Buildings were completed in 1913 on Meintjieskop, a ridge above the city, to house the government of the newly united South Africa. Built of local sandstone in a grand classical style, they consist of two wings joined by a semicircular colonnade, a design meant to symbolise the union of two peoples. The buildings still serve as the official seat of the national government, so you admire them from the outside and the terraced gardens below.

The gardens are the highlight for visitors: lawns and flower beds step down the hillside and give one of the best views over Pretoria, with the Voortrekker Monument visible on the opposite ridge. Allow around thirty to forty minutes here for photographs and a stroll. Union Buildings opening hours for the gardens are generous, from early morning until the evening, and the site is a favourite for families at weekends.

A Victorian house museum in the city centre

Close to Church Square stands a modest single-storey house from the 1880s, once the residence of a president of the old republic and now a museum of life in late nineteenth-century Pretoria. The verandah with its two stone lions, the original furniture, the private railway coach in the garden and the small chapel give a vivid picture of the period and of the people who shaped the city before the South African War.

The guide walks you through the rooms and explains the political history of the time without the textbook tone, which makes the stop surprisingly engaging even for travellers who know little of South Africa's past. The visit takes roughly thirty minutes. Entrance fees for the sights on this tour are paid locally and are not included, so bring a card or some cash.

The Voortrekker Monument

Standing forty metres tall on a hill south of the city, the Voortrekker Monument was inaugurated in 1949 to commemorate the Great Trek, the migration of Afrikaner farmers into the interior in the 1830s and 1840s. The granite block is ringed by a wall of carved ox-wagons, and inside, the Hall of Heroes holds a long marble frieze depicting the journey. Below it lies a cenotaph that is lit by a ray of sunlight through the dome at noon each year on the 16th of December.

Climb or take the lift to the roof for a view across Pretoria to the Union Buildings. The monument sits in a nature reserve with zebra and antelope, and the guide explains how its meaning is debated in modern South Africa. Expect about an hour here. For anyone asking whether the Voortrekker Monument is worth visiting, the architecture and the view alone justify the stop.

Cullinan diamond mine tour

About thirty kilometres east of Pretoria, the village of Cullinan grew up around a mine opened in 1902 that, three years later, produced the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found, a stone of more than three thousand carats later cut into pieces that now sit among the British Crown Jewels. The mine is still working and remains an important source of rare blue diamonds. The guided surface tour takes you to a viewing point over the open pit, an enormous hole roughly a kilometre long, and explains the kimberlite pipe below and how diamonds are separated from the rock.

The tour also visits displays of replica famous stones and the old mining equipment. Allow about an hour and a half, including the walk through the surface works. Closed-toe shoes are required, and the mine tour fee is paid on site. Cullinan opening hours for surface tours are fixed, which is why the itinerary keeps Pretoria in the morning and the mine in the afternoon.

Cullinan village

Cullinan itself is one of the best-preserved mining villages in South Africa. Oak Avenue, the main street, is lined with Edwardian cottages built for mine staff in the early 1900s, now housing cafés, craft shops and small galleries, and the old railway station and recreation club survive from the same period. It feels a world away from Johannesburg's highways and is a pleasant place to walk for half an hour after the mine tour.

Lunch is usually taken in the village, at your own cost, before or after the mine visit depending on the tour time. From Cullinan the drive back to Johannesburg takes about an hour and a quarter on the highway, and you are dropped at your hotel in the late afternoon, roughly eight hours after pickup. A Cullinan day trip from Johannesburg is hard to arrange by public transport, which is why most visitors come with a guided tour.