bc of frequent flyer availability, we have a couple of extra nights in jburg before we head up to botswana. we are thinking about staying in sandton and had a few questions about hotels. from internet searches it looks like the Michaegelo is the best place to stay, but it comes at a price. are there any other more moderately priced hotels within walking distance of the restaurants and shops. we wont have a car and just plan to wander around a bit for the 2 days before our 10 nights on safari. any input would be appreciated. thx in advance.

Hi BC,

I stayed at the Balalaika Hotel & Crown Court last Dec. Very nice! Its attached to a small shopping mall with a great italian restaurant next door. There is also an African marketplace out front I really enjoyed.

http://www.balalaika.co.za/

Hello,

For a moderately priced hotel in an area where you can walk to interesting shops and restaurants, I'd recommend one of the following:

MELVILLE
Melville is a stylish area popular with students and young professionals -- a posh version of Berkeley or Greenwich Village. There are a huge number of small, interesting locally owned shops and great restaurants -- it's one of the best foodie neighbourhoods in Joburg, and one of my favourite places to stay. There are a number of options listed on the Portfolio Collection site:

http://www.portfoliocollection.com

A Rooms with a View is a wonderful place -- a Tuscan villa crossed with a Moroccan riad. It works better than you would think! It's about a ten-minute walk from the main part of Melville.

http://www.aroomwithaview.co.za/

Saffron House is right around the corner from the heart of the action. It's a funky boho sort of place.

http://www.saffronguesthouse.co.za/

A newer more modern option is The Space Guest House:

http://www.thespaceguesthouse.co.za/about/index.htm

ROSEBANK
Rosebank is a genteel neighbourhood best known for the Rosebank Mall, where there is a great African crafts market. If you want to stay here, the best moderately priced option is The Parkwood Guest House.

http://www.theparkwood.com/

Cheers,
Julian

If it helps at all to convince you to go with the Michaelangelo, we stayed there as part of a tour several years ago & it is spectacular - the best of all the wonderful hotels we stayed in in SA & all of them were fantastic. Of course that was part of a package so the cost was transparent to us.

We hope to do an independent trip next year that includes 3 or 4 nights in Botswana (where is in doubt - I'm over stimulated with choice & can't make up my mind) & do the Rovos Rail Namibia trip afterward. For that we will probably stay in Pretoria between safari & Namibia.

Happy trails!

I, too, thought that the Michaelangelo looked great but was a bit more expensive than I wanted for our unwanted but necessary overnight in JBG. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Garden Court in Sandton; it was perfectly fine for our needs and was directly across the street from Sandton Square.

thanks for that list, julian. would you mind enlightening us as to how far melville is from rosebank...ditto sandton?

also, if one were to choose melville, does that preclude one from seeing sandton- and what is there in sandton that everyone likes so much apart from michaelangelo?

lastly, where do you suggest to eat in melville and is it ok walking around at night? i expect so, but you know after seeing tsotsi i'm freaked.

thanks for those helpful links!
kerikeri

For our overnight stay at the beginning and end of our safari we stayed at the Sandton Hilton. Great room both times - large and airy, very clean and warm (which we appreciated after returning from our 'winter' safari . Also a very extensive breakfast buffet. The hotel is across the street from a small mall (walking distance) and they have a shuttle to a much larger mall at Nelson Mandela Square.

Last trip, we stayed at the Crowne Plaza in Sandton. Decent, good enough and pretty close to Sandton square and the mall area.

Hari