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Tips & Traps
Insider advice from Local Friends and travelers. What to do, and what to avoid, city by city.
- TipA place or a move worth it
- TrapWhat to avoid, and how
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Insider advice from Local Friends and travelers. What to do, and what to avoid, city by city.
Join RALF to share your own tips and traps
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Orlando West is the easiest base for the museums, with small B&Bs such as Motsolga on Bacela Street, about 500 metres from Vilakazi Street, and Dakalo on Inhlwathi Street. Staying here lets you walk to Vilakazi Street without driving. If you arrive by car after dark, ask your host to meet you on a main road and lead…
The Soweto Wine Festival is an annual lifestyle event that has usually been held in September. Older reports place it at Walter Sisulu Square in Kliptown, while the 2025 edition was listed at Soweto Theatre in Jabulani. Confirm the venue and dates on the organiser's channels or Joburg tourism listings before you book…
Lebo's is a hostel and guesthouse on Pooe Street in Orlando West, with dorms, private rooms, chalets and camping beside a community park that was once a dumping site. Breakfast, lunch and dinner come from the open-air restaurant, and guests get a discount on the bike, walking and tuk-tuk tours. Book through the…
Soweto Fashion Week, founded in 2011 by Stephan Manzini, fills the Soweto Theatre for three days with emerging designers and established names. The 2025 edition ran over the first weekend of November, and the theatre's own calendar lists the 2026 edition for 5 to 7 November. Book through the theatre's ticket channel…
Native Rebels is a restaurant and bar on Kadebe Street in Jabavu where boom-bap, broken beat, jazz and soul artists play, and where Jazzuary events are held. Earlier listings mention a Wednesday jam session and Friday DeepSoulja parties. The venue has no sign of its own, so look for the Pick n Pay sign and climb to…
The Jabulani Amphitheatre has been a cultural landmark since 1952 and now has upgraded outdoor staging, at the Soweto Theatre complex in Jabulani. Soweto Theatre's own calendar lists music and choral nights, such as Kings of Harmony Voices and Nkalakatha Fest, so check what is on while you are in town. Buy tickets…
Craft stalls gather near the Hector Pieterson Museum, and guides point visitors to the printed Nelson Mandela cloth there. An art and craft fair is also listed beside the memorial, so you can see several makers in one stop. Buy from the maker where you can, ask what each pattern means, and bargain politely with a…
Streetside stalls on Vilakazi Street sell beadwork, struggle-era T-shirts and other crafts, so compare a few before you buy and ask who made each piece. At the top of the street, The Box Shop is a building made from shipping containers, with local fashion labels, skincare and accessories. Kofi, on its second floor…
Credo Mutwa made this open-air village in Jabavu between 1974 and 1986: Zulu chiefs, tokoloshes, creation gods and a traditional healing clinic, set among medicinal plants below the Oppenheimer Tower. It is weathered rather than polished, so go with a guide, sturdy shoes and a hat, and allow a morning. Sources differ…
A guided Soweto art tour led by Thabo Modise of Toura Travel Therapy, working with Lebo's Backpackers, links murals, galleries and working studios. Stops have included the painted elephant houses on Nkungu Street, the Matchbox Gallery on Vilakazi Street and the Mofolo Arts Centre studios. Book ahead because it is a…
The Orlando Towers are covered in murals of Soweto life, including the Soweto String Quartet and Nelson Mandela, and the grounds also hold bungee, a zipline and paintball. The venue lists opening hours only from Thursday to Sunday, noon to sunset on Thursday and 10 in the morning to sunset from Friday to Sunday, with…
Illegal guiding is a known problem in Gauteng, and inspectors have focused on the Vilakazi precinct. Registered guides carry an official Gauteng Tourism Authority badge and identity card, and operators should hold valid permits. Ask to see the badge before the tour starts, book through a registered company, and favour…
Local guide Masike Lebele leads the Soweto Ndofaya Hike from a tavern in Meadowlands past Fleurhof Dam and its wetlands, then up an old mine dump carved into canyon-like passages. From the top you see Meadowlands, the Johannesburg skyline and the painted cooling towers. The standard route is about 5.5 km and steep in…
Guided bike rides leave from Lebo's Soweto Backpackers in Orlando West and come in two-hour, four-hour and full-day versions. The route climbs to a lookout over Orlando East, rolls through Mzimhlophe and Meadowlands and ends on Vilakazi Street. Bikes and helmets are provided, there are some steep uphill stretches, and…
Taxi ranks and township corners are where Soweto street food lives: boiled or grilled chicken feet (maotwana), roasted sheep or ox head (skopo) and diana, the offal usually eaten with pap. Order a plate by picking your meat and your starch, such as pap, samp or steamed bread. The area around the Baragwanath taxi rank…
Chaf Pozi sits at the foot of the painted Orlando Towers and works like a classic chisa nyama: choose raw cuts at the butchery, then have them grilled over the fire and served with pap, samp or chakalaka. Time your meal for when the towers are running so you can watch the bungee jumpers drop above your table. Locals…
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