Discovering Gauteng

South Africa's smal­lest province, Gauteng, is its richest and is home to most large cor­por­a­tions head offices and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The city of Johannesburg was foun­ded because of the gold min­ing industry and all of the large min­ing houses have their headquar­ters in Gauteng.

Gauteng is the country's busiest province by far — it seems that no one rests in Gauteng, and the cul­ture is one of urban indul­gence and a work hard, play hard men­tal­ity. In Johannesburg the night­life is excel­lent, with many of the coun­tries hot­test bars, res­taur­ants and clubs loc­ated here. It is also a shop­ping haven, with malls offer­ing inter­na­tional designer wares along­side loc­ally pro­duced fash­ions — an ideal des­tin­a­tion to pick up some proudly South African haute couture!

Soweto, or South Western Townships, is loc­ated along­side Johannesburg, and is fast gain­ing pop­ular­ity as offer­ing the best town­ship tours in the coun­try. People from around the globe visit South Africa's largest town­ship to see the local she­beens and res­taur­ants, and stay in one of the many fine gues­t­houses in Soweto on offer to get a feel for town­ship life.

To the North of Johannesburg lies the city of Pretoria, famed for its pro­lif­er­a­tion of Jacarandas, which burst into bright purple flower in the spring. Pretoria is a city with a rich his­tor­ical her­it­age, as well as being the judi­cial cap­ital of the coun­try, and vis­its to rem­nants of the apartheid era such as the Union Buildings, and the Voortrekker monu­ment, throw light onto South Africa's oppress­ive past. To bal­ance this trip into the dark past of South Africa, also sched­ule a visit to the newly built Freedom Park, which cel­eb­rates South Africa's emer­gence from oppression.

Also chron­ic­ling South Africa's rise to polit­ical free­dom, are the Apartheid Museum and the Constitutional Hill Complex which is home to the con­sti­tu­tional court which upholds South Africa's new democracy.

This city also has much to offer in the way of cul­ture, with the State Theater, the fam­ous Pretoria Zoo and the botan­ical gardens.

Dotted around these major cit­ies are many excel­lent game reserves, where game drives, walks, hik­ing and other out­door activ­it­ies are on offer, along with 5 star accom­mod­a­tion and excel­lent cuisine, as well as the Cradle of Humankind, a fas­cin­at­ing jour­ney into the ori­gins of man and a World Heritage Site.

Since the area was built on the dia­mond and gold min­ing indus­tries, a trip to the restored min­ing town of Cullinan, which an oppor­tun­ity to pur­chase dia­monds and to take a tour of one of the mines, is worth con­sid­er­ing. If off road adven­ture or hik­ing is your pas­sion, then head off to the Magaliesberg, where many excel­lent trails are on offer.

Gauteng, while South Africa's smal­lest province, cer­tainly man­ages to pack a lot into a very small area, and if fast-paced action and a wide vari­ety of attrac­tions is what you are look­ing for, then this area is first choice.

Useful Links
For fur­ther inform­a­tion of to make a book­ing for your Gauteng hol­i­day, please visit:

• Gauteng Attractions
• Things To Do in Gauteng
• Gauteng Accommodation
• Gauteng Hotels