371 Best Sights in South Africa

Guided tours are offered at Alanglade, the former beautiful home of the Transvaal Gold Mining Estates' mine manager, set in a forested grove 2 km (1 mile) north of town. The huge house was built in 1916 for Richard Barry and his family, and it is furnished with pieces dating from 1900 to 1930. Look carefully at the largest pieces—you will see that they are segmented, so they could be taken apart and carried on ox wagons. Tour tickets are available at the information center and should be reserved in advance to ensure a guide.

The Apartheid Museum, in Ormonde, takes you on a journey through South African apartheid history—from the entrance, where you pass through a turnstile according to your assigned skin color (Black or white), to the myriad historical, brutally honest, and sometimes shocking photographs, video displays, films, documents, and other exhibits. It's an emotional, multi-layered journey. As you walk chronologically through the apartheid years and eventually reach the country's first steps to freedom, with democratic elections in 1994, you experience a taste of the pain and suffering with which so many South Africans had to live. A room with 121 ropes with hangman's knots hanging from the ceiling—one rope for each political prisoner executed in the apartheid era—is especially chilling.

South Africa's largest falls by volume of water, Augrabies plunges 653 feet over terraces and into an 18 km (11 miles) long gorge, which was carved into smooth granite over millions of years. It is strangely otherworldly, mesmerizing to behold. Legend has it that an unplumbed hole beneath the main falls is filled with diamonds washed downriver over millennia and trapped there.

You can hike in the park for an hour or several days, and you don't need a guide. Markers will direct you along routes that range from the short Dassie Nature Trail to the three-day Klipspringer Hiking Trail. You can also drive to the park's beautiful, well-appointed lookout points showcasing the gorge below the falls; scenic stops are highlighted on the maps provided with your entry permit. All are easily accessible and well marked. Unfenced Ararat provides the best views. Oranjekom, which is fenced and has a shaded hut, is particularly welcome in the blistering summer heat. The Swartrante lookout offers a view over rugged, barren areas of the park. Some areas suggest that you've arrived on another planet; others might evoke the Arizona Badlands.

If you have a 4x4, you can spend a good six hours following the 94-km (60-mile) Wilderness Road into some of the reserve's most remote parts. Midway along it is a scenic picnic spot where there are toilets and a braai (barbecue) area.

Depending on how things are with the pandemic, you might have to undergo a quick COVID-19 screening at the main gate. The visitor center, with an information office, shop, and restaurant, is a few miles down the road; this is also where you'll pay entry fees and where boardwalks to the main falls viewing areas and the SANParks rest camp are situated.

If you do one thing in Kimberley, visit the Big Hole, which, at 2,690 feet deep, is the world's largest hand-dug hole. Although water now fills most of its depth, it's still impressive, particularly from the observation post. You also get to explore facsimile tunnels for a sense of what it might have been like for miners—there's even a simulated dynamite blast that can take you unawares. At the end of the tunnels, comprehensive museum displays document the history of both the city and the mine. Replicas of the world's most famous diamonds, including the Eureka, a 21-carat yellow diamond that was South Africa's first recorded diamond discovery in 1866, are also on view.

Touring the extensive, open-air Kimberley Mine Museum, on the lip of the mine, is like stepping back in time to wander through a mining town with a host of authentic 19th-century buildings, many of which were moved here from the city center. They include the first house erected in Kimberley (1877), which was originally brought piece by piece from Britain to the diamond fields by ship and ox wagon; Barney Barnato's boxing academy; and the very popular Occidental Bar, which serves pub-style food and is reminiscent of a Wild West saloon. There is also a hotel, The New Rush Guesthouse, whose good-value accommodations are in a variety of the museum site's old buildings and have antique furniture and slipper bathtubs that enhance the time-travel sensation.

With a history that dates back three centuries, this lovely estate is one of the Cape's major attractions. Recent renovations have added polish to an already top-notch estate. Cradled between the Simonsberg and Groot Drakenstein mountains at the base of Helshoogte Pass, Boschendal runs one of the most pleasant wine tastings in the region: on warm days you sit outside at wrought-iron tables under a spreading oak. In 1981, Boschendal was the first to pioneer a Blanc de Noir, a pink wine made in a white-wine style from black grapes. The Boschendal Blanc de Noir remains one of the best-selling wines of this style. The recently renovated Werf Restaurant serves excellent country-style cuisine, and picnic baskets are available to enjoy on the lawns. Hour-long vineyard tours and cellar tours are available; be sure to book ahead. You can also take a horse ride through the vines, and there's a jungle gym and hands-on farm activities for kids.

This series of small coves lies among giant granite boulders on the southern outskirts of Simon's Town. Part of Table Mountain National Park, the beach is best known for its resident colony of African penguins. You must stay out of the fenced-off breeding beach, but don't be surprised if a wandering bird comes waddling up to your beach blanket to take a look. Penguin-viewing platforms, accessible from either the Boulders Beach or Seaforth side, provide close-up looks at these comical birds. When you've had enough penguin peering, you can stroll back to Boulders Beach for some excellent swimming in the quiet sheltered coves. This beach is great for children because it is so protected, and the sea is warm(ish) and calm. It can get crowded in summer, though, so go early. Without traffic, it takes about 45 minutes to get here from town, less from the Southern Suburbs. Amenities: none. Best for: walking, swimming.

Between Oudtshoorn and Prince Albert, the huge and stunningly beautiful 20-million-year-old Cango Caves, filled with weird and wonderful stalactite and stalagmite formations, are deservedly one of the most popular attractions in the area. Only a small fraction of the caves, which extend for several miles through the mountains, is open. There's some damage from vandals, especially to the first chamber, but things get more magnificent the more the tour progresses. One of the highlights is Cleopatra's Needle, which stands 29 feet high and is at least 150,000 years old. You can choose between two tours: the hour-long standard tour and the aptly named adventure tour, which lasts 1½ hours. The latter is exhilarating, but the temperatures and humidity are high, there's not much oxygen, and you'll be shimmying up narrow chimneys on your belly, wriggling your way through tiny tunnels, and sliding on your bottom. Wear old clothes and shoes with a good tread.

Cape Point is a dramatic knife's edge of rock that slices into the Atlantic. Looking out to sea from the viewing platform, you feel you're at the tip of Africa, even though that honor officially belongs to another dramatic point at Cape Agulhas, about 160 km (100 miles) to the southeast. From Cape Point the views of False Bay and the Hottentots Holland Mountains are astonishing. The walk up to the viewing platform and the old lighthouse is very steep; a funicular makes the run every three or four minutes. Take a jacket or sweater—the wind can be fierce. It took six years, from 1913 to 1919, to build the old lighthouse, 816 feet above the high-water mark. On a clear day the old lighthouse was a great navigational mark, but when the mists rolled in it was useless, so a new and much lower lighthouse (286 feet) was built at Dias Lookout Point. The newer, revolving lighthouse, the most powerful on the South African coast, emits a group of three flashes every 30 seconds. It has prevented a number of ships from ending up on Bellows or Albatross Rock below. You can't go into the lighthouses, but the views from their bases are spectacular.

Stark reminders of the ships that didn't make it are dotted around the Cape. You'll see their rusty remains on some of the beaches. One of the more famous wrecks is the Thomas T. Tucker, one of hundreds of Liberty Ships produced by the United States to enable the Allies to move vast amounts of supplies during World War II. It wasn't the German U-boats patrolling the coastline that did the ship in. Rather the fog closed in, and on her maiden voyage in 1942, it ended up on Olifantsbos Point. Fortunately, all on board were saved, but the wreck soon broke up in the rough seas that pound the coast.

The mast you see on the western slopes of Cape Point near the lighthouse belongs to the Global Atmosphere Watch Station (GAW). The South African Weather Bureau, together with the Fraunhofer Institute in Garmisch, Germany, maintains a research laboratory here to monitor long-term changes in the chemistry of the earth's atmosphere, which may impact climate. This is one of 20 GAWs throughout the world, chosen because the air at Cape Point is considered particularly pure most of the time.

During peak season (December–January), visit Cape Point as early in the day as possible to avoid being swamped by an armada of tour buses. There are a few shops and snack kiosks.

The best way to experience the park is to hike on one of the numerous walking trails (favorites include the boardwalk trail to Diaz Beach and the shipwreck trail) and/or enjoy a picnic and dip at the Bordjiesrif or Buffels Bay tidal pools, or on Platboom or Oliphantsbos beaches. A fantastic alternative is to stay overnight in the comfortable basic accommodations, booked through South African National Parks.  Do not feed the indigenous resident chacma baboons, which are increasingly under threat.

Despite the peninsula's population being estimated at only 450 individuals, baboons continue to be shot for raiding homes and stealing food; baboon-feeding tourists are largely responsible for this serious situation, and you should always be wary of them; they can be dangerous if provoked or if they think you have food.

The Cederberg mountain range might be the last place you'd expect to find a vineyard, but that's what makes Cederberg Private Cellar so unusual. When old man Nieuwoudt, known to everyone as "Oom Pollie," planted the first vines in 1973, all his sheep-farming neighbors thought he had gone mad. Today, however, winemaker David Nieuwoudt and his small team are laughing all the way to the awards ceremonies. At an altitude of around 3,300 feet, this is the highest vineyard in the Western Cape, and consequently is almost completely disease-free.  All the wines are excellent; in fact, you'll struggle to see the labels for all the wine accolades pasted on the bottles. The Cederberg Observatory is an open-air wonder run by passionate stargazers who help you spot faraway galaxies with their super-powerful telescopes. The little farm shop usually stocks delicious koeksisters served with strong coffee.

Clanwilliam is close to the northern edge of the Cederberg, a mountain range known for its San rock paintings, its bizarre rock formations, and, once upon a time, its cedars. Most of the ancient cedars have been cut down, but a few specimens still survive in the more remote regions. The Cederberg is a hiking paradise—a wild, largely unspoiled area where you can disappear from civilization for days at a time. About 172,900 acres of this mountain range constitute what has been declared the Cederberg Wilderness Area. Try to visit in spring when the area is carpeted in orange, yellow, and white flowers. You can get hiking permits from Cape Nature or the local tourism offices in Clanwilliam or Citrusdal. Be sure to tell somebody if you are planning to hike in the area.

A scenic dirt road that heads south out of town, past the tourism bureau and museum, winds for about 30 km (18 miles) into the Cederberg to Algeria, a Cape Nature campsite with self-catering cottages and tent sites set in an idyllic valley. Algeria is the starting point for several excellent hikes into the Cederberg. The short, one-hour hike to a waterfall is great, but it's worth going into the mountains for a day or two, for which you will need to book and obtain a permit through CapeNature or from one of the local farms, many of which have simple, self-catering cottages on their land.

It spans less than 25 km (15½ miles), but it is without question one of the most beautiful stretches of road in South Africa. Clarence Drive—less poetically known as the R44—begins as you leave Gordon's Bay headed south. Sandwiched between ocean and mountain, the road winds around more than 70 bends on its way to the hamlet of Rooi Els. There are plenty of places to pull over though, and you'll make good use of them because Clarence Drive is a photographer's dream. On a clear day you'll see right across False Bay all the way to Cape Point. Keep an eye out for baboons when you're driving; they're usually in no great hurry when crossing the road.

Overlooking Jo'burg's inner city, Constitution Hill houses the Constitutional Court, which sits on the most important human rights cases, much like the United State’s Supreme Court. The slanting columns represent the trees under which African villagers met to discuss important matters and each of the 11 chairs of the justices are covered in Nguni cowhide, representing their individuality. If not in session, you can view it and its artworks.

This is also where you will find the austere Old Fort Prison Complex (also called Number Four), where thousands of political prisoners were incarcerated, including Nobel Peace Prize laureates Albert Luthuli and Nelson Mandela, and iconic Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. There is no fee to explore the prison ramparts (built in the 1890s) but there is an hour-long highlights tour (R120) of the Old Fort Prison Complex every hour on the hour from 9 am to 4 pm, while the two-hour full site tour (R180) takes place at 10 am and 1 pm. Both tours visit the Women's Jail. Food I Love You, in the refurbished prison kitchen, serves breakfast, lunch, and grab-and-go bites with local flavor, while Motherland Coffee has a coffee truck on-site.

Covering 88,900 acres of isolated coastal terrain as well as the undersea world below the waves, this reserve deserves its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Massive sand dunes, rolling mountains, and rare lowland fynbos are home to eland, bontebok, and Cape mountain zebra, as well as more than 250 species of birds. (Keep an eye out for the blue crane, South Africa’s national bird.) Though the reserve is only three hours from Cape Town, it feels a world away. 

This is a fantastic place to watch whales from the shore—not quite as easy as in Hermanus, but much less crowded. You can also hike the enormously popular Whale Trail, which runs through the reserve. A shuttle service takes your bags to each new stop, so all you have to carry is a small day pack and a water bottle between overnight stops. Book up to a year in advance to enjoy the Whale Trail, or try to snag a last-minute cancellation. Self-catering cottages sleep up to four people and range from basic to fully equipped.

You can still enjoy De Hoop without doing the Whale Trail; there are delightful day hikes, beautiful and largely unpeopled beaches and excellent bird-watching, including a viewing platform where you can lie down and watch Cape vultures swooping overhead.

Access is via a dirt road between Bredasdorp and Malgas. From Bredasdorp take the R319 to Swellendam. At about 6 km (4 miles) turn right at the sign posted De Hoop/Malgas/Infanta. Follow the road for 35 km (21.2 miles) until you see the sign for the reserve

An ideal beach and safari destination, the Eastern Shores (which lies on the eastern section of Lake St Lucia) features a number of straightforward, paved game-viewing roads that offer comprehensive access to the lucky packet of charming habitats at a fraction of the cost at other Big Five destinations. Take a day trip to scour the grassland, lakes, pans, and coastal dune forest for animals and birds via the lookout points (if there's time for just one, then make it Kwashaleni Tower which was designed for whale watching). Pack a bathing suit and snorkel mask too and break your day in the car with a picnic on the beach at popular Cape Vidal. 

The same Otis elevator brand that sails down Sandton’s tallest towers in Johannesburg can be found on the edge of a cliff in Mpumalanga. The Graskop Gorge Lift drops 51 meters into a magical world of indigenous forest where guests wander the brilliantly signposted boardwalks (wooden walkways and scenic suspension bridges make up a 600-meter [1,969-feet] long trail) to learn about local flora and enjoy views across the Motitsi Falls. After your walk, there are refreshments with upper-level views down the gorge at The Lift Cafe and craft shopping from local vendors in the market outside. Fourteen veteran traders that previously sold from makeshift plastic and wood structures around town now operate from this sheltered, upmarket trading area. The lift is wheelchair-friendly.

It will take you six minutes to get to the top of the longest mono-cableway in Africa to savor panoramic views of the Magaliesberg Mountains and Hartbeespoort Dam from an altitude of 1985 meters (6512 feet), and 345 meters (1132 feet) above the base station. At the top, a short circular pathway (less than a mile in length) takes in indigenous flora, while signposts point out geological features of interest. There’s a restaurant at the bottom station, as well as three restaurants at the top which sell pizzas, pastas, sandwiches, and burgers. Treat yourself to a late afternoon cocktail on the wooden deck at the mountaintop bar, while keeping an eye out for the resident Black Cape Vultures. After buying mementoes and branded items at the curio shop, you can also paraglide from the top with a qualified tandem flight instructor.

A great way to get acquainted with Table Mountain and all its moods is to hike part of the Hoerikwaggo Trail, which opened in 2006. The trail follows the spine of the mountains that run the length of the peninsula; there are four camps though only Slangkop and Smitswinkel are currently open and parts of the trail are closed due to fire damage and land disputes. Multiple-day, guided hikes can be arranged with an operator like Walks in Africa ( www.walksinafrica.co.uk/hoerikwaggo-trail/).

Most guided tours of the Malay quarter include a visit to this 18th-century home, which originally belonged to well-known Turkish scholar and prominent local Muslim leader, Abu Bakr Effendi. The museum showcases local Islamic heritage and culture, with highlights including “Who Built Cape Town?,” “Mapping Bo-Kaap: History, memories and spaces,” and the documentary “Viewing Bo-Kaap.”

Set between Montagu and Barrydale on the R62, the Op-de-Tradouw region, named after a pass through the mountains, is best known for its excellent wines. Joubert-Tradauw is a great place to stop for a wine tasting or for lunch or tea. Owner Meyer Joubert makes wine in the age-old French tradition—unfiltered and unrefined. His Chardonnay is sublime, and he has publicly stated that it is his ambition to make the best Syrah in the world. (Try it; he's definitely on the right track.) While he works his magic in the winery, his wife Beate waves her star-spangled wand over the small deli–coffee shop, where you can sit under the pergola and spend ages over a superb cheese platter or Gruyère salad, or just have a quick coffee and cheesecake. It's tapas alfresco with a traditional Afrikaner touch.

In the days when the Dutch East India Company stopped in Cape Town en route to the East, a ship would fire a cannon as it entered the harbor to let farmers know provisions were needed. A set of relay cannons on the hilltops would carry the message inland. One such cannon was on this farm, which was then called Kanonkop, Afrikaans for Cannon Hill. The beauty of Kanonkop today is not in its history or its buildings, but in its wine. Paul Sauer, a blend of about 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, and 15% Cabernet Franc, rakes in awards both in South Africa and internationally year after year. The Kanonkop Black Label Pinotage is an iconic wine produced in small quantities and sold only from the farm. There are no guided tours, but during harvest you can do a walkabout in the cellar to see the action. An added attraction is the art gallery featuring works from 50 leading South African artists. It's a wonderful selection of the totally traditional to the strikingly modern.

Called Kalahari Gemsbok National Park when it was first incorporated in 1931, Kgalagadi was combined with Botswana's Gemsbok National Park to create this internationally protected area of nearly 9 million acres. Unlike Kruger, South Africa's other mammoth national park, this is a desert park, with sparse vegetation and sand dunes. The game seen here is mostly concentrated around two roads that follow the park's two (mostly) dry riverbeds. These are dotted with man-made watering holes.

Black-maned Kalahari lions, springbok, oryx, pygmy falcons, and martial eagles are among the star animal attractions. You will not find the broad range of large mammals that you see in Kruger, but because of the sparse vegetation and limited grazing areas, animals are more visible here. Among the noteworthy plant species are plenty of beautiful camel-thorn acacia trees; you will also spot many of the large communal nests of sociable weavers that are something of a visual signature all across the Kalahari.

The park has several lodges and rustic rest camps, and while its isolation means that it's never as crowded as Kruger, the pandemic saw a marked increase in South African visitors. According to SANParks reports, the rest and wilderness camps here are almost always full, so don't delay in making reservations.

Spectacular in each season, this renowned botanical garden was established in 1913, and was the first in the world to conserve and showcase a country's indigenous flora. With its magnificent setting extending up the eastern slopes of Table Mountain and overlooking the city and distant Hottentots Holland Mountains, these gardens are truly a national treasure. In addition to thousands of out-of-town visitors, Capetonians flock here on weekends to laze on the grassy lawns, picnicking and reading newspapers while the kids run riot. Walking trails meander through the plantings, which are limited to species indigenous to Southern Africa. Naturally the fynbos biome—the hardy, thin-leaved plants that proliferate in the Cape—is heavily featured, and you will find plenty of proteas, ericas, and restios (reeds). Garden highlights include the Tree Canopy Walkway, a large cycad garden, the Bird Bath (a beautiful stone pool built around a crystal-clear spring), the fragrance garden (which is wheelchair-friendly and has a tapping rail), and the Sculpture Garden. Free 90-minute guided tours take place daily except Sunday. Those who have difficulty walking can enjoy a comprehensive tour lasting one hour (R70, hourly 9–3) in seven-person (excluding the driver) golf carts. Concerts featuring the best of South African entertainment—from classical music to township jazz to indie rock—are held on summer Sundays at 5 (be sure to arrive early to get a spot), and the Galileo Outdoor Cinema screens movies on Wednesdays an hour after sunset. A visitor center by the nursery houses a restaurant, bookstore, and coffee shop. There are also several trails taking you to the top of Table Mountain, from which point you can hike to the cable car station. Unfortunately, muggings have become increasingly more common in the gardens' isolated areas, and women are advised not to walk alone in the upper reaches of the park far from general activity.

There are nine entrance gates to Kruger, namely (counterclockwise from the north) Pafuri, Punda Maria, Phalaborwa, Orpen, Paul Kruger, Phabeni, Numbi, Malelane, and Crocodile Bridge. National access roads to all the entrance gates are paved. If you're staying at one of the park's lodges or camps, you can arrange for a late-entry escort until 9 pm for the following gates (and their nearby camps): Paul Kruger (Skukuza), Numba (Pretoriuskop), Malelane (Berg-en-Dal and Malelane), Crocodile Bridge (Crocodile Bridge), Punda Maria (Punda Maria), and Orpen (Orpen).

With excellent roads and accommodations, Kruger is a great place to drive around yourself, though first-timers may want to think again about getting behind the wheel, since not everyone knows what to do when an enormous elephant with wavering ears is standing in front of your vehicle, blocking the road. Travel times in the park are tough to estimate, in addition, and a hefty fine is levied if you don't make it out of the gates on time.

An affordable solution is to join a game drive with a park ranger, who will drive you around in an open-sided four-wheel-drive. All the major rest camps offer ranger-led bush drives in open-air vehicles (minimum of two people), and, if you're not staying in the park itself, you can still join a tour led by ranger; your option for this are the Park & Ride tours, which leave from the park's entrance gates. There are also plenty of outfitters who will arrange a safari for you (as well as accommodations). Most drives depart in the early morning for either a half day or full day.

There are also bush walks on offer, something else you can't do on your own.

Whatever you do, don't miss out on a ranger-led sunset drive, when the park is closed to regular visitors. You'll sit in a large open-air vehicle, scanning the bush as dusk settles over the landscape with the ranger, who uses a powerful spotlight to pick out animals, including nocturnal creatures that you would never see otherwise. You might see bush babies (enchanting furry, big-eared, big-eyed little primates that leap from bush to bush), servals (mini-leopard-looking felines), civets (black-and-white possum look-alikes), genets (spotted catlike creatures with bushy tails), or an aardvark ambling along in the moonlight. Scrutinize branches of big trees for the giant eagle owl, with its pink eyelids, or a leopard chewing on its kill. Night is also the time when hyenas and lions hunt. These opportunities alone make a night drive an unforgettable experience. The three- to four-hour trip leaves the rest camps roughly half an hour before the gates close.  Book drives at least two weeks in advance or when you make your park reservations, and don't forget your binoculars, a snack or drink, and a warm jacket whatever the season.

Tucked away in the Eastern Cape, near the historic university "city" of Makhanda (formerly known as Grahamstown, and now increasingly run down), Kwandwe is a conservation triumph as more than 55,000 acres of various vegetation types and scenic diversity, including rocky outcrops, great plains, thorn thickets, forests, desert scrub, and the Great Fish River were just ravaged farmland and goat-ridden semidesert two decades ago. Today it's home to more than 7,000 mammals, including the Big Five and the elusive black rhino, and it's likely you'll see fauna you don't always see elsewhere, such as black wildebeest, bat-eared foxes, and the endangered blue crane (Kwandwe means "place of the blue crane" in isiXhosa). If you spend more than a couple of nights here, you'll likely see a huge and impressive array of animals, including leopards, lions, and herds of elephants marching across the terrain. If you come in winter, you'll see one of nature's finest floral displays, when thousands of scarlet, orange, and fiery-red aloes are in bloom, attended by colorful sunbirds. The reserve also has a strong focus on community development, as evinced by the Community Centre and village within the reserve, both of which are worth a visit.

Most of the popular bathing beaches in KwaZulu-Natal are protected by shark nets maintained by this shark-research institute, the world's foremost. Each day, weather permitting, crews in ski boats check the nets, releasing healthy sharks back into the ocean and bringing dead ones back to the institute, where they are dissected and studied. One-hour tours are offered, including a shark dissection (sharks' stomachs have included such surprising objects as a boot, a tin can, and a car license plate!) and an enjoyable and fascinating audiovisual presentation on sharks and shark nets. An exhibit area and good curio shop are also here. You can also join the early morning trip from Durban harbor to watch the staff service the shark nets off Durban's Golden Mile. Depending on the season, you will more than likely see dolphins and whales close at hand,  but the real kicker are the sunrise views across the city. Booking is essential for trips to the shark nets, and a minimum of six people is required; no one under age six is allowed.  Book well in advance for this—it may turn out to be a highlight of your trip.

You'll find more gorgeous waterfalls clustered on the Panorama Route than anywhere else in southern Africa. Just north of Graskop, the dramatic falls are set in a bowl between hills just outside the Blyde (Motlatse) Canyon Nature Reserve, sending cascades 120 feet onto rocks below, throwing up spray over a deep pool. Named nostalgically by European miners who came here looking for gold in the late 1800s, this is a good kick-off point for the whole Panorama Route. Hike down (roughly 40-minutes) to the pool on a path from the parking area, and enjoy a picnic below Mpumalanga's highest waterfall.

Maropeng is the official visitor center of the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site and offers much more than information about the region: it's a modern, interactive museum dedicated to the history of humanity that kids will love. It provides information about the various fossil sites in the area. About a 90-minute drive from either Johannesburg or Pretoria, it's one of the area's top attractions. It's best visited in parallel with the nearby fossil site of Sterkfontein Caves, but to visit both you'll need to set aside at least half a day.

The city's zoo, covering nearly 200 acres, is considered one of the world's best, with about 9,000 animals from almost every continent (including rare Komodo dragons, the world's largest lizards). The animal enclosures here are much larger than those of most zoos. Like any modern zoo worth its name, this is just the public facade for a much larger organization that specializes in the research and breeding of endangered species. It includes an aquarium (with Africa's largest collection of freshwater fish) and reptile park, where the king crocodiles and the impressive collection of snakes don't fail to intimidate. A cable car transports you high above the zoo to a hilltop lookout, and it's a fun, worthwhile ride. It's also a good idea to rent a golf cart, so you can move more quickly between enclosures for the staggered feeding times each morning and afternoon.

In 2012, on the 50th anniversary of Nelson's Mandela's capture, this breathtakingly dramatic steel sculpture was unveiled and the visitor center opened. You will never have seen anything quite like this—don't miss it. The magnitude of what happened here is remarkable: on August 5, 1962, after 17 months on the run, Nelson Mandela, disguised as a chauffeur, was arrested at this very spot on his way from Durban to Johannesburg. He was convicted of incitement and illegally leaving the country and was sentenced to 5 years in jail before being prosecuted in the Rivonia Trials that led to his 27-year incarceration, most of it served on Robben Island. The new immersive exhibition is a marvel with a 360-surround film screened onto the towering walls accompanied by copious clippings and artifacts that'll keep you engrossed for ages. Plan at least two hours for your visit; the last admission is at 4 pm. The cafe is open on weekends from 10 to 4 for light lunches and coffee.

A relatively new establishment, the Norval Foundation is a center for art and cultural expression, holding numerous prolific art exhibitions and events. Along with the gallery and museum are an incredible sculpture garden, a children's playground, a research library, and the Skotnes Restaurant, which is worth visiting for creative South African fine dining. The views of the mountain are spectacular and there is a large paid car park.