Robbietravels

We have a five hour layover between arrival in JoBerg (after 3 weeks in Tanzania) and onward flight home to USA. What facilities does the airport have? Can I shower? Get a massage? Does Air France have a decent lounge there? Is there anywhere interesting in the vicinity of the airport to tour?

santharamhari

Hi! Joburg airport is top-notch.......i dont know about the Air France lounge, but......the SAA and BA lounges are both very nice. If you are using one of the lounges, i'm sure they hv showers there. I hv used the lounge shower facilities and are very good.

Lots of nice shops. Lots of Africa centered shopping. Some nice shops. I've always found nice wildlife dvd's to add to my collection at the airport. Some of the nice shops include Indaba, Out of Africa etc etc., also a nice store is called Cape travel or something like that.....which is basically a store like LLBean etc and i really like their stuff.......

I dont know about things to do in the vicinity of the airport.....but other posters might........

good luck

Hari

African_Hilton

Hi Robbietravels

Joburg airport is great.
Depends on what time you land as you could book a private tour to take from the airport to a craft market nearby for some shopping etc and brief city tour before heading back to the airport to check in for your flight.

You ask about Air France - I presume you are flying back with them. Am not sure if they have their own dedicated lounge but there is a Non airline affilaited lounge called The Premier Lounge, which you can get into and use their facilities including showers.

Hope that helps
Hilton

bellhouse

We're flying over on SA and have fairly long layovers in both directions. Does SA have lounges for lowly Tourist class?

Robbietravels

Thanks Hari and Hilton, you provided just the info I was looking for. Hilton, is there some kiosk in the airport where I would book a tour to the craft market? Our free time is from about 1:30-6:00 PM.

African_Hilton

Bell House and Robbietravels

To answer you both
lounge - afarid most airlines nly reward those passengers with lounges that have paid for business class or first class tickets I am afriad. The waiting area in JIA is awesome though

Not sure about the kiosk at the airport though

For both of these services I would recommend that you look at booking these before hand through someone like myself

The trick when you travel I have found with my other guests is that you have arranged something ebforehand, have budgetted and paid for so giving you peace of mind.

Lounge tickets are very easy to arrange
Would recommend you have a private tour arrnaged for you where the driver will collect you at the airport when you arrive and drop you off at the aiport again in time for your flight, while helping you with your purchases, giving you touring info on where you going etc and generally being on hand to assist you

mkhonzo

There are a few plpaces where you can chill at the airport.
on the far northern wing there are showers for tourist class. These are normally locked, so find an airport rep and plead your case, should work it did for me last time.
BTW, this was on the public side, not once I had passed through immigration etc.

Once in, there is a very nice little smoking lounge, it's hidden and not publicised, so seldom over corwded. If you aren't a smoker the back around the corner section is good. Also there is internet activity available.

It is located up an escalator on the left of the airport as you come through immigration. next door to a bar.

napamatt

The main waiting area has a big area offering all kinds of chair massages.