Soweto & Apartheid Museum Full-Day Tour, Johannesburg

Central Johannesburg: the skyline of the City of Gold

Johannesburg grew from a mining camp after gold was found on the Witwatersrand ridge in 1886, and within a few decades it had become the economic heart of South Africa. The day opens with a short Johannesburg city tour by vehicle through the centre, where the skyline tells that story: the Carlton Centre, for decades the tallest office building on the continent, the cylindrical Ponte City tower with its hollow core, the Hillbrow telecommunications tower and the Sentech tower on the Brixton ridge.

Our guide explains how the inner city changed over the twentieth century, from the gold-rush boom to the years of enforced segregation and the creative revival of districts such as Braamfontein and Newtown, where galleries, markets and murals now fill old warehouses. This part of the day is seen mainly from the air-conditioned vehicle, with short photo stops where traffic allows, and it gives you the context you need before the heavier history of the rest of the day.

Constitution Hill: from prison to the Constitutional Court

Constitution Hill stands on a ridge between Braamfontein and Hillbrow and is one of the most moving places in Johannesburg. The site began in the 1890s as a fort and then served for most of the twentieth century as a prison complex, with the Old Fort, the Women's Gaol and the notorious Number Four section, where ordinary people arrested under the pass laws were held alongside political prisoners of the struggle against apartheid.

Today the hill is home to the Constitutional Court of South Africa, opened in 2004 and built partly with bricks from the demolished awaiting-trial block, a powerful symbol of the country's journey to democracy. On this tour we stop at Constitution Hill for views and an introduction from our guide, who explains the history of the site and the meaning of the court's open, light-filled design. Travellers who want to explore the prison museums in depth can return on another day, as the site opens daily.

The Apartheid Museum

The Apartheid Museum, opened in 2001 just south of the city centre, is the most complete museum about twentieth-century South Africa and the reason many travellers book this tour. The experience begins at the entrance, where your ticket randomly classifies you as white or non-white and sends you through separate gates, a small taste of the system of racial classification that governed every part of life from 1948 until the early 1990s.

Inside, photographs, film footage, documents and personal objects follow the story from the gold-rush era through forced removals, the resistance movements, the uprisings of the 1970s and 1980s and the first democratic elections of 1994. Is the Apartheid Museum worth visiting? For anyone who wants to understand South Africa, absolutely; allow about two hours, which this tour gives you. The Apartheid Museum opening hours run from Wednesday to Sunday, so plan your tour for one of those days.

Soweto: Vilakazi Street and the 1976 student uprising

Soweto, short for South Western Townships, was created on the edge of Johannesburg for Black families moved out of the inner city, and it grew into a vast, lively city of its own. It was here, on 16 June 1976, that schoolchildren marched against being taught in Afrikaans, and the police response sparked uprisings across the country. The day is remembered every year as Youth Day, a public holiday, and the memorial in Orlando West stands close to where the first student was shot.

A few minutes away, Vilakazi Street is the highlight of any Soweto tour: a street of modest brick houses where leaders of the struggle once lived, now lined with restaurants, craft stalls and street performers. How to get to Soweto from the city is easy with us: it lies about twenty kilometres south-west of the centre, around thirty minutes by road, and our driver-guide parks close by so you can explore the street and the memorial for about an hour.

Everyday Soweto: the cooling towers, neighbourhoods and lunch

Beyond its history, Soweto is a place of contrasts, and the drive shows you the full picture. The twin Orlando cooling towers, part of a power station closed in 1998, are now a landmark covered in colourful murals, while the neighbourhoods range from comfortable family suburbs to an informal settlement of corrugated-iron homes, seen respectfully from the vehicle as our guide talks about housing, work and daily life in the township today.

Lunch is included at a local restaurant in Soweto, a relaxed hour with home-style South African dishes such as pap, slow-cooked stews, chakalaka and grilled meat; tell us about any dietary needs when you book. A Soweto day trip from Johannesburg is pleasant all year: winter, from May to September, brings dry sunny days and cool mornings, while summer afternoons often end with a short thunderstorm. After lunch we drive you back to your hotel.