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Full- & Half-Day Tours Around Pretoria
AS PER TOURISM PROTOCOLS, ALL TOURS ARE CONDUCTED AS PRIVATE FOR GROUPS THAT ARE ALREADY CONNECTED TO EACH OTHER. YOU SUPPLY YOUR OWN MASK - WE SUPPLY THE SANITISER AND OFF WE GO - EXPLORING THe Capital’S INSPIRING AND BEAUTIFUL SPACES.
Pretoria City Tour
Capital of South Africa – Jacaranda City
Pretoria serves as the seat of the executive branch of government and is the capital of South Africa. Today, the greater metropolis has been renamed the City of Tshwane, but the CBD still keeps the name of Pretoria.
Pretoria, also known as the “Jacaranda City” because of over 50 000 Jacaranda trees that lines her streets and carpets the city in purple from late September until mid-November.
We will drive past Paul Kruger’s house, President of the old Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR), stopping for Photographs.
A stop is made at the Union Buildings that house the offices of the South African President and walk down to the Nelson Mandela Statue, the largest statue of him in the world. Unlike many Mandela statues around the world, which have the former African National Congress leader displaying a clenched fist, symbolising his campaign against the racial segregation era of Apartheid, this statue has his arms outstretched, seeming to call viewers into his embrace.
Voortrekker Monument
The Great Trek
The Voortrekker Monument was built to honour the Voortrekkers who left the Cape Colony in their thousands between 1835 and 1854.
Visitors enter the Monument through the giant teak front doors into the hall of heros with its marble floors and an impressive marble frieze, the largest in the world (92 metres long and 2,3 metres high), depicting scenes from the Great Trek. The Historical Frieze consists of 27 marble panels made from Quercetta Italian marble. Tales of heroism and perseverance, illness and death, defeat and conquest, friendship and treason are depicted.
The central focal point of the Monument is the Cenotaph, above the Hall of Heroes is a cupola from which one can look down into the interior of the Monument or take a lift to the top for a Panoramic view around Pretoria City.
HAPO MUSEUM
History & Freedom
The environmentally-sensitive museum forms the entrance to the huge Freedom Park, perched on a quartzite ridge overlooking Pretoria.
The Hapo Museum is unusual, its exterior is a copper overlay, while its buildings are distinctly reminiscent of granite rocks or ancient boulders. The copper on the exterior hails back to the material most traded and worked throughout Southern Africa, while the shapes of the building refer directly to the ancient shelters of KhoiSan healers in the rocky surrounding landscape.
Inside the cave-like interior of the museum are a series of installations that cover the evolution of Africa and the tribes that have lived on the continent since Gondwana Land, as well as the history of Apartheid in South Africa.
The interactive nature of the installations narrate the country’s history that focuses on the freedom that South Africa enjoys today.
freedom Park
Sacrifice & Liberty
The Park is a national and international site that celebrates the ideals of liberty, diversity, and human rights.
Freedom Park is a cultural institution housing a museum and a memorial dedicated to chronicling and honouring the many who contributed to South Africa's liberation. The museum aims to preserve and narrate the story of the African continent, and specifically South Africa, from the dawn of humanity, through pre-colonial, colonial, Apartheid history and heritage, to the post-Apartheid nation of today. It is a long walk, spanning some 3.6 billion years.
It is a memorial to honour those who sacrificed their lives to win freedom. Freedom Park also celebrates and explores the country's diverse peoples, and our common humanity.
Javett Art Centre
Creativity & Diversity
The museum's art collection includes a very impressive and expansive selection of 20th century South African art and dozens of large-scale iconic South African artworks on loan from private, public, and corporate collections.
The Art Centre also celebrates Africa's ancient art history in the high-tech Gold of Africa wing, which has provided a spectacular new home for the iconic gold rhino, leopard and other priceless treasures from the precious Mapungubwe collection. The new Gold of Africa gallery offers visitors a unique, interactive view of the thriving Mapungubwe civilization that served as a sophisticated trading centre from around 1200 to 1300 AD in what is now Northern Limpopo and is complemented by a glittering exhibition one floor below of intricate gold decorations and accessories from West Africa.
