Soweto Walking Tour with Lunch USD 33.38. Soweto was the heartland of the movement that freed South Africa from apartheid. Explore it the sensitive way, with a guide who was born and raised in the township, on this half-day walking tour. Learn about Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu on the street where they both lived, hear about activist Hector Pieterson’s life and death, and more. Your tour includes a kota sandwich lunch but not entry fees..
Review the Soweto Walking Tour with Lunch direct from One Day Africa.
Popular this week
Ultimate Johannesburg Soweto Experience with Apartheid Museum MoAfrika Tours Review now Ultimate Johannesburg Soweto Experience with Apartheid Museum USD 86.51. Explore South Africa's most famous township on this full-day guided tour of Soweto from Johannesburg. Enjoy a personal experience of how vibrant and lively Soweto from your guide, who was born and raised in the township, as you visit landmarks like the Apartheid Museum, the Diepkloof area, and Carlton Centre.. Review the Ultimate Johannesburg Soweto Experience with Apartheid Museum direct from MoAfrika Tours.
Half Guided Day Tour of Soweto And Apartheid Museum Solly Review now Half Guided Day Tour of Soweto And Apartheid Museum USD 58.42. Discover the renowned South African township of Soweto on this small-group guided tour from Johannesburg. You'll first visit the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg to get a better understanding of that dark period in South African history, then head for Soweto for a walking tour, which takes in both Nelson Mandela's and Desmond Tutu's houses.. Review the Half Guided Day Tour of Soweto And Apartheid Museum direct from Solly.
Full Day Soweto Apartheid Museum and Lunch Tour MoAfrika Tours Review now Full-Day Soweto, Apartheid Museum and Lunch Tour USD 86.51. Spend a day exploring the most famous township in South Africa on this full-day small-group guided tour of Soweto from Johannesburg. Join a knowledgeable local guide for a visit to the renowned Apartheid Museum and huge Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital. Eat a buffet lunch of traditional local dishes. Enjoy round-trip transportation including hotel pickup and drop-off.. Review the Full-Day Soweto, Apartheid Museum and Lunch Tour direct from MoAfrika Tours.
Half Day Tour of Soweto MoAfrika Tours Review now Half-Day Tour of Soweto Tour USD 55.08. Visiting South Africa's most famous township can be tricky to do independently. But this half-day tour of Soweto lets you explore with a guide who was born and raised there. You'll hear personal insights into the culture of the township and learn about Soweto's vibrant modern personality.. Review the Half-Day Tour of Soweto Tour direct from MoAfrika Tours.
Soweto Johannesburg and Apartheid Museum Guided Full Day Tour Solly Review now Soweto /Johannesburg and Apartheid Museum Guided Full Day Tour USD 77.89. Get to know South Africa’s biggest city on a full-day tour that covers all the highlights of Johannesburg and Soweto. Take in the views from the Top of Africa, learn about the city’s history as you visit Constitutional Hill and the Apartheid Museum, then follow in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela in Soweto, with a tour of the Nelson Mandela House, Hector Pieterson Museum, and Freedom Square.. Review the Soweto /Johannesburg and Apartheid Museum Guided Full Day Tour direct from Solly.
Johannesburg Full Day TourSoweto Jo Burg & Apartheid Museum MHLANGANISI TRAVEL AND TOURS Review now Johannesburg Full-Day Tour(Soweto/Jo-Burg & Apartheid Museum USD 75.11. Spend a day exploring Johannesburg with a professional guide with this private, full-day tour of the city, which includes pickup from your hotel or alternative accommodations. You'll visit local highlights such as the Apartheid Museum, the Mandela House, Freedom Square, and the township of Soweto as you learn about South African history and culture.. Review the Johannesburg Full-Day Tour(Soweto/Jo-Burg & Apartheid Museum direct from MHLANGANISI TRAVEL AND TOURS.
Jo'burg Hop On Off Bus Tour with Apartheid Museum & Soweto City Review now Jo'burg Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour with Apartheid Museum & Soweto USD 15.3. The finest way to explore Johannesburg safely, reliably and in comfort from the top deck of an open-top bus. Learn about the history of gold mining, hear stories of apartheid history and understand the triumph of modern Johannesburg while listening to the on-board audio commentary, available in 15 languages. This tour stops at all top sites in and around the Johannesburg allowing you to explore the economic powerhouse of Africa, easily and safely. . Review the Jo'burg Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour with Apartheid Museum & Soweto direct from City Sightseeing South Africa.
Half Day Small Group Township Tour South Africa from Cape Town Sams Cultural Review now Half-Day Small-Group Township Tour South Africa from Cape Town USD 33.38. Immerse yourself in Cape Town's apartheid-era history on this half-day tour that includes visits to District Six, a local preschool, a local shebeen pub), and meet a traditional healer. Learn about apartheid and its legacy in South Africa through a guide's enlightening commentary. Enjoy the intimate atmosphere that comes with traveling in a small group of 15 people fewer. Upgrade your tour with an additional excursion to Robben Island.. Review the Half-Day Small-Group Township Tour South Africa from Cape Town direct from Sams Cultural Tours.
Guided Bicycle Tour of Soweto with Lunch One Day Africa Review now Guided Bicycle Tour of Soweto with Lunch USD 38.94. The township of Soweto, once a byword for oppression, had a major role in overturning apartheid. Cover more ground than you would on a walking tour while remaining close to the city streets on this half-day guided bicycle tour, complete with a traditional kota sandwich lunch. You'll learn not only about Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and Hector Pieterson but about the women who helped topple apartheid, such as Liliian Mgoyi.. Review the Guided Bicycle Tour of Soweto with Lunch direct from One Day Africa.
Swakopmund Township Home Cooking Experience Explorer Cultural Tours with Tuyeni Review now Swakopmund Township Home Cooking Experience USD 66.67. Live an authentic culinary experience in in the Township of Mondesa Swakopmund with a local Family. Enter the home of Nathalia Lifestyle Township Home Kitchen and enjoy amazing hands-on cooking class with a lunch or dinner. Eat the meal you've made, complete with wine or beer. The home is in in the Township of Mondesa 5 Minutes’ drive from the centre, a very central district. Walking around its backstreets and little alleys is a fascinating experience, off the beaten path. Learn about culinary Namibian traditions before going to a typical home home for…
Soweto an authentic true & bespoke day with locals Eenblond TOURS Review now Soweto an authentic, true & bespoke day with locals USD 124. By far the most unique and authentic tour on offer in Soweto, covered often in local media. Many Soweto tours are covering the same sights in large groups. EENBLOND TOURS do things completely different. We believe in making travellers out of tourists, and prefer to share current day Soweto, let you experience life as it is lived today and meet some regular local people without ignoring the importance of past events. Your guide is well known and loved in Soweto, and also use 2 or 3 local guides to…
Soweto & Johannesburg Half Day Tour African Eagle Daytours PTY ltd Review now Soweto & Johannesburg Half Day Tour USD 51.63. Combine a comprehensive tour of Johannesburg with an educational visit to Soweto Township in a single tour. This half-day excursion allows you to check many of the must-see area landmarks off your list, including the Hector Pieterson Museum, the Apartheid Museum, and Constitution Hill. Along the way, you'll enjoy insightful commentary from your guide.. Review the Soweto & Johannesburg Half Day Tour direct from African Eagle Daytours PTY ltd).
20 reviews for Soweto Walking Tour with Lunch One Day Africa
Rated 5 out of 5
Priscilla_A –
Our group of 3 from the US were greeted by the very courteous and professional Lebo (Rambo). He provided a wonderful tour experience and showed us lots of sights along the way as he recounted interesting historical moments and information.
We enjoyed getting to know him as we spent the morning together touring Soweto. We highly recommend this tour with Rambo as the guide. 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Rated 5 out of 5
Harald_S –
We had a fantastic walk with an amazing tour guide: he had an incredible knowledge that truly stunned us, there was no question he left unanswered and he provided us with so many facts, dates and background information that we were just amazed. We feel very rewarded that we were given the chance to learn so much about South Africa, Soweto, and the history of this country. Thank you very much for a fantastic tour which we can highly recommend.
Rated 5 out of 5
Patrick_S –
Absolutely recommendable. Rambo was our tour guide. Had a lot of fun with him during those 4 hours. The lunch was delicious, and we were lucky to be treated with a tour through the local brewery (Soweto Gold) at the end.
Rated 5 out of 5
Mrcio_S –
Knowledgeable about Sowetan history, Sibusiso, our polyglot local guide, gave us an informative and captivating walking tour in Orlando West and East. Having booked a quiet mid-week February morning, we were lucky enough to have him only for ourselves. He was always ready to answer our questions, even those only tangentially connected with Soweto.
During the tour, we got to taste kota, a hollowed-out loaf-like bread filled with stuffing of your choice. (As vegans, we asked for our kota to be stuffed with fries only.) The bread works as a pocket holding the filling; for the novices, such as we, just holding it is already fun. Tasting the Soweto Gold beer, named after the 1886 gold rush, was another perk, even if the brewery is now part of the Heineken company and has been moved away from Soweto.
For the adrenaline-boost seekers, the Soweto Towers – the famous decommissioned cooling towers that are the tallest structures in all of Soweto –, provide an opportunity for bungee-jumping from a suspended bridge between the two towers. You can also enjoy – or endure – the world’s highest SCAD freefall, which takes place inside the Western Cooling Tower. This freefall entails being dropped facing up and “lying” in a horizontal position, plummeting with no attachments as your surroundings vertiginously flit by and finally landing in a net. Both the bungee and the freefall are recommended – and there’s a discount if you book both.
There is also, however, a heavier, graver side to the tour. Walking around both Orlandos for a few hours gave us a sense of how people live here, of how Soweto looks, smells and feels like. Soweto is at once thriving and decadent. Indeed, it is expanding, the population is growing and the 2010 World Cup cashflow led to the birth of small businesses. Moreover, the standard of life proves comfortable for the few who belong to the Sowetan middle and upper class, who seem to concentrate in the vicinity of the famous, bustling Vilakazi Street, once home to two Nobel Peace Prizes and now – or at least prior to the pandemic – a tourist hotspot. Yet, “living” conditions are degrading for the poor surviving in the precarious shacks popping up like mushrooms in less glamourous areas.
Soweto remains, to this very day, an all-black area. The only palefaces you’ll see here belong to tourists or passersby. Ironically, although Soweto itself is a testament to the continuing separation and segregation of races in South Africa, its historical significance in the struggle against Apartheid is undeniable.
Ample demonstration of that is given by landmarks such as Nelson Mandela’s red-brick house, located in Vilakazi Street and converted into a museum in the late 90s. It was built in 1945, around the time squatter camps forced the municipalities to erect more housing for the blacks living in shanties, and Mandela moved into it in 1946. (After his release from his three-decade incarceration, he returned to this house for 11 days.) Shots were frequently fired as an intimidation tactic, given that the Mandela household was a meeting place for freedom fighters. Bullet holes can still be seen in the outside walls. This chapter of history is so recent that two people beside us were moved to tears listening to Winnie Mandela’s voice on a speaker. The wounds have barely healed, if at all. Its sequels still aggrieve all South Africans.
Perhaps even more impressive is the Hector Pieterson Memorial, dedicated to the 1976 Soweto Uprising. Deaths from police brutality during the Uprising could be anywhere from just under 200 – the usually reported estimate – all the way to 700. The Uprising, which also sparked further riots elsewhere in country, was, up to that time, the most striking and incisive act of resistance against the regime, rocking its already shaky international reputation. The exhibit at the Memorial displays sometimes conflicting reports from both parties – on the one hand, the black students (some of whom also acted as looters alongside adult rioters) and, on the other, the white police officers –, letting you form a rather more nuanced understanding of the matter.
If you have a car, our suggestion would be for you to drive around on your own after your walking tour to get a glimpse of other, less touristic, townships in Soweto, such as Kliptown. These poorer areas will help you understand the utter poverty that thousands upon thousands of Sowetans, just like other Joburgers, endure to this day.
The struggle continues – and Soweto is a living and dying testament to that.
Rated 5 out of 5
Eric_H –
I was the only one on the tour but Lebo still gave me the real Soweto experience. Would definitely recommend the tour and make some food friends along the way!
Rated 5 out of 5
Rui_F –
The guide was very friendly and provided a full immersive experience. Fully recommend to anyone who wants to get to know such an historical and important area of Johannesburg.
Rated 5 out of 5
Thandisa_T –
Tebogo gave us a beautiful Soweto experience.
Very friendly and knowledgeable.
Thank you…
My children really enjoyed it.
Rated 4 out of 5
Chantelle_L –
Really enjoyed this tour. Great local food, and your guide had great knowledge, showing real pride of his local area.
Rated 5 out of 5
Kimberly_S –
Great tour. Wear comfortable shoes, you’re not just walking but also go up some hilly & rocky places.
Rated 5 out of 5
Simbarashe_T –
Sho, what an experience. The tour guide was incredibly knowledgeable and very friendly. Easy to talk to and ensured that we knew what was happening at all times. The experience was quite a heavy one, even as a local you sometimes forget that today, we are currently benefitting from the sacrifices that others made for us and often paid for with their lives. Highly recommend the tour for both locals and foreigners and those interested in learning more about our history.
Rated 5 out of 5
Adam_B –
Having a lunch with very friendly and talkative locals around aswell as the dancing groups on the streets, simply amazing!
Rated 5 out of 5
Alison_P –
This tour was easy to book and the staff were extremely friendly and accessible! My tour guide was very knowledgeable and I had a most profound experience!
Rated 5 out of 5
Thomas_B –
History of Soweto and the explanation of the 1976 uprising. Walking the streets and feeling safe. The Kota lunch experience.
Rated 5 out of 5
Luke_C –
Fantastic tour with a very lovely and knowledgable guide who made the day an experience to remember. Would certainly recommend this for a visit to Soweto for anyone.
Rated 5 out of 5
George_W –
A must do in Soweto – a really interesting and informative trip covering the uprisings, the Mandelas and life in the township
Rated 5 out of 5
Winnie_C –
The tour was fantastic. Debujo (not sure if I’m spelling that correctly) is a great tour guide and you can tell that he is experienced and knowledgeable. He ensured that the tour is what the group was looking for and had great details of the historical significance and well told. Its amazing doing the tour with a local sowetan! We got to go to a local brewery to do a tasting which was an unexpected highlight as well! Overall, great value and experience!
Rated 5 out of 5
Judy_J –
Felt like a personal tour from a local person who was very connected to their community. Enough information which complimented our visits to other museums in Johannesburg. So worth doing having already done several bus trips.
Rated 5 out of 5
Carol_L –
Our guide Dumi was excellent. We had a fantastic experience and learnt so much from him.
We saw Mandelas house and had lunch and tasted some Soweto food. He was just so helpful.
Rated 5 out of 5
Clark_S –
Our guide’s knowledge, who was able to impart his life experiences to us.
We now have great insight into Soweto’s history.
Rated 5 out of 5
Ruth_D –
Zeer uitgebreide & authentieke info gekregen van onze gids Bheki en niettegenstaande de criminaliteit cijfers hoog liggen in Johannesburg me steeds gerust gevoeld.
Priscilla_A –
Our group of 3 from the US were greeted by the very courteous and professional Lebo (Rambo). He provided a wonderful tour experience and showed us lots of sights along the way as he recounted interesting historical moments and information.
We enjoyed getting to know him as we spent the morning together touring Soweto. We highly recommend this tour with Rambo as the guide. 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Harald_S –
We had a fantastic walk with an amazing tour guide: he had an incredible knowledge that truly stunned us, there was no question he left unanswered and he provided us with so many facts, dates and background information that we were just amazed. We feel very rewarded that we were given the chance to learn so much about South Africa, Soweto, and the history of this country. Thank you very much for a fantastic tour which we can highly recommend.
Patrick_S –
Absolutely recommendable. Rambo was our tour guide. Had a lot of fun with him during those 4 hours. The lunch was delicious, and we were lucky to be treated with a tour through the local brewery (Soweto Gold) at the end.
Mrcio_S –
Knowledgeable about Sowetan history, Sibusiso, our polyglot local guide, gave us an informative and captivating walking tour in Orlando West and East. Having booked a quiet mid-week February morning, we were lucky enough to have him only for ourselves. He was always ready to answer our questions, even those only tangentially connected with Soweto.
During the tour, we got to taste kota, a hollowed-out loaf-like bread filled with stuffing of your choice. (As vegans, we asked for our kota to be stuffed with fries only.) The bread works as a pocket holding the filling; for the novices, such as we, just holding it is already fun. Tasting the Soweto Gold beer, named after the 1886 gold rush, was another perk, even if the brewery is now part of the Heineken company and has been moved away from Soweto.
For the adrenaline-boost seekers, the Soweto Towers – the famous decommissioned cooling towers that are the tallest structures in all of Soweto –, provide an opportunity for bungee-jumping from a suspended bridge between the two towers. You can also enjoy – or endure – the world’s highest SCAD freefall, which takes place inside the Western Cooling Tower. This freefall entails being dropped facing up and “lying” in a horizontal position, plummeting with no attachments as your surroundings vertiginously flit by and finally landing in a net. Both the bungee and the freefall are recommended – and there’s a discount if you book both.
There is also, however, a heavier, graver side to the tour. Walking around both Orlandos for a few hours gave us a sense of how people live here, of how Soweto looks, smells and feels like. Soweto is at once thriving and decadent. Indeed, it is expanding, the population is growing and the 2010 World Cup cashflow led to the birth of small businesses. Moreover, the standard of life proves comfortable for the few who belong to the Sowetan middle and upper class, who seem to concentrate in the vicinity of the famous, bustling Vilakazi Street, once home to two Nobel Peace Prizes and now – or at least prior to the pandemic – a tourist hotspot. Yet, “living” conditions are degrading for the poor surviving in the precarious shacks popping up like mushrooms in less glamourous areas.
Soweto remains, to this very day, an all-black area. The only palefaces you’ll see here belong to tourists or passersby. Ironically, although Soweto itself is a testament to the continuing separation and segregation of races in South Africa, its historical significance in the struggle against Apartheid is undeniable.
Ample demonstration of that is given by landmarks such as Nelson Mandela’s red-brick house, located in Vilakazi Street and converted into a museum in the late 90s. It was built in 1945, around the time squatter camps forced the municipalities to erect more housing for the blacks living in shanties, and Mandela moved into it in 1946. (After his release from his three-decade incarceration, he returned to this house for 11 days.) Shots were frequently fired as an intimidation tactic, given that the Mandela household was a meeting place for freedom fighters. Bullet holes can still be seen in the outside walls. This chapter of history is so recent that two people beside us were moved to tears listening to Winnie Mandela’s voice on a speaker. The wounds have barely healed, if at all. Its sequels still aggrieve all South Africans.
Perhaps even more impressive is the Hector Pieterson Memorial, dedicated to the 1976 Soweto Uprising. Deaths from police brutality during the Uprising could be anywhere from just under 200 – the usually reported estimate – all the way to 700. The Uprising, which also sparked further riots elsewhere in country, was, up to that time, the most striking and incisive act of resistance against the regime, rocking its already shaky international reputation. The exhibit at the Memorial displays sometimes conflicting reports from both parties – on the one hand, the black students (some of whom also acted as looters alongside adult rioters) and, on the other, the white police officers –, letting you form a rather more nuanced understanding of the matter.
If you have a car, our suggestion would be for you to drive around on your own after your walking tour to get a glimpse of other, less touristic, townships in Soweto, such as Kliptown. These poorer areas will help you understand the utter poverty that thousands upon thousands of Sowetans, just like other Joburgers, endure to this day.
The struggle continues – and Soweto is a living and dying testament to that.
Eric_H –
I was the only one on the tour but Lebo still gave me the real Soweto experience. Would definitely recommend the tour and make some food friends along the way!
Rui_F –
The guide was very friendly and provided a full immersive experience. Fully recommend to anyone who wants to get to know such an historical and important area of Johannesburg.
Thandisa_T –
Tebogo gave us a beautiful Soweto experience.
Very friendly and knowledgeable.
Thank you…
My children really enjoyed it.
Chantelle_L –
Really enjoyed this tour. Great local food, and your guide had great knowledge, showing real pride of his local area.
Kimberly_S –
Great tour. Wear comfortable shoes, you’re not just walking but also go up some hilly & rocky places.
Simbarashe_T –
Sho, what an experience. The tour guide was incredibly knowledgeable and very friendly. Easy to talk to and ensured that we knew what was happening at all times. The experience was quite a heavy one, even as a local you sometimes forget that today, we are currently benefitting from the sacrifices that others made for us and often paid for with their lives. Highly recommend the tour for both locals and foreigners and those interested in learning more about our history.
Adam_B –
Having a lunch with very friendly and talkative locals around aswell as the dancing groups on the streets, simply amazing!
Alison_P –
This tour was easy to book and the staff were extremely friendly and accessible! My tour guide was very knowledgeable and I had a most profound experience!
Thomas_B –
History of Soweto and the explanation of the 1976 uprising. Walking the streets and feeling safe. The Kota lunch experience.
Luke_C –
Fantastic tour with a very lovely and knowledgable guide who made the day an experience to remember. Would certainly recommend this for a visit to Soweto for anyone.
George_W –
A must do in Soweto – a really interesting and informative trip covering the uprisings, the Mandelas and life in the township
Winnie_C –
The tour was fantastic. Debujo (not sure if I’m spelling that correctly) is a great tour guide and you can tell that he is experienced and knowledgeable. He ensured that the tour is what the group was looking for and had great details of the historical significance and well told. Its amazing doing the tour with a local sowetan! We got to go to a local brewery to do a tasting which was an unexpected highlight as well! Overall, great value and experience!
Judy_J –
Felt like a personal tour from a local person who was very connected to their community. Enough information which complimented our visits to other museums in Johannesburg. So worth doing having already done several bus trips.
Carol_L –
Our guide Dumi was excellent. We had a fantastic experience and learnt so much from him.
We saw Mandelas house and had lunch and tasted some Soweto food. He was just so helpful.
Clark_S –
Our guide’s knowledge, who was able to impart his life experiences to us.
We now have great insight into Soweto’s history.
Ruth_D –
Zeer uitgebreide & authentieke info gekregen van onze gids Bheki en niettegenstaande de criminaliteit cijfers hoog liggen in Johannesburg me steeds gerust gevoeld.