Long wait in JNB airport - suggestions?
 

We will be coming into the JNB airport very early for our international flight home. We get in around 1:30pm and our flight does not leave until almost 8pm.

Any suggestions on what we can do to spend the time?

Hi ttravels
Your best bet would be to take the shuttle to Ceasars Palace which is just 5 minutes from the airport. Yes, it is the same Ceasars Palace as in Las Vegas and besides the casino there are shops and restaurants for you.

Great - thanks for the advice. Can we just pick up the shuttle outside the airport - any specific location?

ttravels
Yes, the shuttle runs every 15 minutes and can be picked up on the ground level

There also might be time to do a tour of Soweto or Alexandra Township, if that interests you.

Unfortunately, your arrival time means that you would have missed the boat in terms of the standard half day tours I've found on the Internet. The latest half day tour I've found departs at 1.30 p.m., but you're only getting into the airport at 1.30 p.m.

So I'm guessing that, if you wanted to take up this idea, you'd need to find a private guide, and I honestly don't know how you'd go about doing that.

Another logistical question to which I don't know the answer is what you would do with your luggage. It would be nice if there was a place where you could park your suitcases.

If you took a tour, however, you might have to put your bags in your guide's car.

Just to follow up on Judy_in_calgary's note, you can leave you bags in the left luggage facility for 1/2 a day or longer. It is situated in the basement (level B?) of the international terminal. It costs I believe R18per bag for 1/2 day. If the bags are small you can get them to take 2 for the price of one. Or better yet, we just checked in and handed in our luggage. You can then wander around a bit before returning to go to the gate.
As for private tours we did one on one of our days in JNB.
We did a private tour of Soweto and Pretoria using Wilro tours. They were very nice and the tour was reasonable. They might be able to help you.