Half-Day Walking Tour in Soweto
Description
Our tours are unique a great experience offered by local guide who lives in Soweto. This tour gives an opportunity to our guest to interact with local people to absorb the culture lifestyle and history of Soweto. Our tours cater for all ages easy also design to meet the needs of different guest.
Tour Options
Itinerary
One of the significant sights where our guests will learn about the Freedom Charter that was signed in 1955 by the congress of the people for the democratic South Africa of the future. Freedom Square is also known for its buzzing atmosphere and daily fruit and vegetables market.
Popularly known as the (Power park) the Orlando towers are today the tallest landmark of Soweto booth with very tall artwork murals that advertise corporate businesses and depict the daily life of Soweto. Orlando towers are also home to an extreme sport, bungee jumping and free fall.
Another historic part of Soweto that still has the original first brick homes of the township popularly known as match box houses. Orlando East is also known for its rich soccer heritage with Orlando Pirate as the biggest soccer club in Soweto.
Learn about the Soweto uprising a student protest that happened in 1976 when young people of Soweto protested against the introduction of Afrikaans as the language of instruction this protest was regarded the beginning off the end of the Apartheid system as South Africa was sanctioned.
The only street in the world that has 2 Noble peace price winners a house of Nelson Mandela and a house of Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu. Vilakazi Street is a 1km long and boost a number of restaurant art & craft market , musicians and traditional dancers a perfect place for a refreshment or shopping something local.
Get an opportunity to taste the local Soweto beer and get a special tour of the brewery.
We will be visiting a local community project in Kliptown called The Shalk that caters for young people and kids in the community, it offers a daycare and afternoon programs for young people and kids. Here, visitors get to interact with kids while learning about positive work being done by the community members.
Mandela house and Vilakazi street are iconic landmarks on the map of South African history. immerse yourself in the memory of one of South Africa's most important struggle journeys.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Wheelchair accessible
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
- Transportation options are wheelchair accessible
- All areas and surfaces are wheelchair accessible
- Not recommended for travelers with poor cardiovascular health
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Reviews(90)
Wonderful half day with guide Thabiso around his own community of Soweto. We feel so much better informed as he answered all our questions in a considered and patient way and especially enjoyed visiting the community centre his community not for profit group run to support the children in the area. Very inspiring work making the world a better place one small step at a time.
Excellent tour with Thabiso! really good experience i would 100% recommend
This was a wonderful tour. We went through the communities, and it was very authentic. I would recommend anyone take this tour; especially if you value authenticity, community, and sincerity. I enjoyed it.
Very poor experience with this trip I am afraid to say. Directions and guidance for the pick-up location was terrible and resulted in wildly different locations being found for the place between Apple Maps, Google Maps and Ways. We managed to find what we thought was the location and locals helped try to find our guide (whether they did or not is unclear….but they were friendly while we waited around to see if they turned up). After waiting for 30 minutes past the tour starting, we gave up. No communication from our guide at all. I did manage to find a number via the website eventually and messaged our guide whose communication was unclear in regard to us meeting them somewhere else or rescheduling for the next day). I messaged back to say we would be unable due to us leaving that day and requesting refund details and got absolutely no response at all. A very expensive and unfulfilling missed experience to explore and find out some of the history and culture of this colourful place.
Apologies that you were lost and didn’t find the meeting point this has never happened to us before you are the first client to get lost while trying to join the tour. Viator is the one who deal with refund not us as the tour operator. I think we can agree that they was something wrong with your GPS or Maps. And this review is based on you getting lost not the experience we offered.
Highly recommend this experience. I was the only person on the tour which was delightful as Thabiso could tailor it to my interests. I was very interested in the local community centre for young people and met some of their volunteers. Thabiso also helped me choose a street stall to have lunch at, which I wanted to do, so we skipped the brewery. Great history, wonderful guiding and we also walked and caught some local mini buses together which I had been wanting to do.
Interesting, impactful, and a perfect opportunity to better understand Soweto’s history
I am *super* glad I took this half-day tour on my brief visit to Joburg! It was easy to book, and is great value for the price. My guide (Thabiso) was incredibly friendly and fun, easy to talk to, and had lots to say. I could ask any question I wanted, and felt well taken care of. We walked around in the poorest part of Soweto first, and Thabiso explained about its history and how people live. Then we took a brief cab ride to two towers and looked at their graffiti, then we walked to the famous street where Mandela and Tutu lived, and on to a memorial of an apartheid massacre. I absolutely recommend this tour to anyone - group or solo travellers - who have some hours in Joburg, and who are curious about how people actually live there.
It was very confusing to know where to go to "check in". In fact, only a young man approached us in our Uber when we entered the gate to say he was the guide and to join another couple. No one asked for our vouchers and the other couple said they were told to pay afterwards, with a suggested amount. The guide was good, but at times we walked long distances, and other times we had to wait for a taxi to pick us up. We were taken to a few places to watch people perform and go shopping. This was not something I was interested in. Since we'd already paid for our tickets, I was not expecting to have to pay through tips, as the other couple was told. The tour was interesting and our guide was informed, but you have to be willing just to go for it and trust that it will all work out. And it did.
Hi Cristina, We really apologies for the confusion with regards to check in the guide made a mistake by not showing you the confirmation ticket of the tour. With the second couple was they were not suppose to be part of the same tour as they book from another partner company but unfortunately they did not have a guide scheduled for that time it was not the same package and we apologies for the confusion. Almost all the historical sights in Soweto they do have the performers but its not compulsory to perform for everybody only people who are interested and comfortable as we try to make all our experience memorable. We will work hard to improve our experience. Thank you for your feedback it will help us grow.
Our guide was incredible—he explained the history of Soweto and South Africa really well, gave us a truly immersive experience, and was very polite and great to be around.
Thabiso was our tour guide . He is one of the best tour guides I’ve ever met . He started the tour telling us we would be safe and we felt it completely . He catered to our every need - food , shopping , sights and history. He also made sure we got safely back to our car after he finished his tour ( he didn’t need to do that )… but it’s an extra touch like that that makes him a very special guide that we were lucky to have . Couldn’t recommend a tour guide more .
