As the train travels the length and breadth of the country, guests can enjoy the great variety of landscapes, shorelines, cultures, lifestyles and cuisine that the South African Rainbow Nation has to offer.

Pre-Day - Johannesburg

You will be met upon arrival at O R Tambo International Airport and transferred to the train. Having a pre-day allows guests to acclimatise and unpack prior to the day of touring. The pre night on board includes dinner, bed & breakfast.

Guests may choose from the optional extras listed below, but these are dependent upon your arrival time at the train and the availability of vehicles, which may be transferring other passengers.

Day 1 - Pretoria / Johannesburg / Soweto

Gauteng is the economic powerhouse of the southern African region and home to South Africa’s capital, Pretoria as well as Johannesburg. The name of the province derives from the Sotho word meaning “Place of Gold”, which is very suitable since much of the wealth of Gauteng derives from this precious metal.

Inclusive Options

1. Pretoria and Soweto

Guests will spend the morning in Pretoria, the administrative capital of South Africa. Then, a visit the Union Buildings, designed by the famous colonial English architect, Sir Herbert Baker, and completed in 1913 but which now house the offices of the President and his Ministers. The buildings overlook the city towards the once fortified hills to the south. A grand bronze statue of “Oom Paul (Kruger)”, the patriarch president of the ZAR or old Transvaal Republic, surrounded by his Boer fighters, dominates Church Square, central point of the city. Before leaving the capital behind, guests visit the Voortrekker Monument that commemorates the “Great Trek” of the 1830s. In the afternoon the tour travel to Soweto to visit the Hector Petersen Memorial, named after one of the first students to be killed in the 1976 uprising against the Apartheid government. (Full day. Distance travelled. 265 km)

2. Johannesburg and Soweto

Our day starts at Constitution Hill in Braamfontein in the centre of Johannesburg. This is the new home of the Constitutional Court and the site of Johannesburg’s notorious Old Fort Prison Complex, where many of South Africa’s leading political activists were detained. The tour then heads onto the Newtown precinct to visit Museum Africa previously known as the market of Johannesburg. This is all part of the history of the “City of Gold”. This is followed by a lunch break (guests’ own account) in the suburb of Rosebank, where you can experience the multi-cultural Rainbow Nation in a modern, ethnocentric setting. Rosebank shows you the mix of first and third world cultures and showcases arts and crafts from all over the African continent. In the afternoon, guests travel to Soweto to experience the heartbeat of this township, comprising one million people and made famous by the Apartheid laws. The tour passes the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, the largest hospital in the southern hemisphere and also drive past the only street in Africa that once housed two Nobel Peace Laureates, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela. Guests visit the Hector Petersen Memorial, named after one of the first students to be killed in the 1976 uprising against the Apartheid government. (Full day. Distance travelled: 170 km)

The train travels overnight to Nelspruit.