RESORT INFORMATION - JOHANNESBURG

You may choose to stay in the affluent northern suburbs of Rosebank and Sandton, where you will find stylish shopping malls, galleries selling contemporary African art and upmarket entertainment areas. Rosebank also has the excellent African Craft Market, with 2 storeys of stalls selling all kinds of arts and crafts or, if you prefer the convenience of staying closer to the airport, the Metcourt Laurel @ Emperor's Palace is the ideal choice. Just a 5-min shuttle ride from the airport, it is perfectly situated for an overnight stay. Whilst you are in Johannesburg, be sure to make time for its top excursion, the guided tour of the township of Soweto, where you can visit the house in which Nelson Mandela grew up. It really is an unmissable experience. Johannesburg is a great place for live jazz, so be sure to catch some in one of the northern suburbs' many upmarket bars.

Sightseeing ideas

• Shop amongst the seriously rich at Rosebank or Sandton.
• Visit Johannesburg Zoo, where animals are confined by moats, not bars.
• Visit the Apartheid Museum for an evocative moving taste of the effects of white supremacy.
• Visit Gold Reef City theme park for the gumboot dancing displays.
• Make a pilgramage to the dawn of humanity - the World Heritage Site of the Sterfontein Caves.
• Listen to messages of former inmates of prison 'Number Four'; now known as constitution Hill, home of South Africa's constitutional court.