Pretoria is fifty kilometres and a completely different temperament from Johannesburg. It is South Africa's administrative capital, a city of civil servants, students and diplomats, built low and green around a valley in the Magaliesberg foothills. Where Johannesburg is restless, Pretoria is slow, shaded and unusually walkable.
The city is best known for its jacarandas. From roughly mid-October to mid-November tens of thousands of trees flower at once and entire suburbs turn purple, with the streets around Herbert Baker, Bourke and the university among the most photographed. It is genuinely worth timing a visit around.
Where to stay
Hatfield is the student and embassy quarter, busy, walkable, well connected by Gautrain and full of budget-to-midrange options. Brooklyn and Waterkloof next door are quieter and greener, with the city's best guesthouses tucked into large old gardens. Arcadia puts you beside the Union Buildings and the parks. Centurion, halfway to Johannesburg, suits anyone splitting time between the two cities or flying out of Lanseria.
Recommended Stay · Arcadia · South Africa
Sheraton Pretoria Hotel
Directly opposite the Union Buildings and their terraced gardens, which means the best view in Pretoria from the front-facing rooms. Formal, well run and within walking distance of the embassy quarter and Arcadia's parks.
The Union Buildings and around
Herbert Baker's Union Buildings are the official seat of government and the terraced gardens below them are open to the public and free. The nine-metre bronze of Nelson Mandela stands at the top of the lawns. Come late in the afternoon, when the sandstone warms up and the whole city spreads out below. Nearby, the Voortrekker Monument and Freedom Park sit on opposite ridges south of the centre and are best visited together, since the two tell deliberately opposing versions of the same history.
Day trips
The Cullinan Diamond Mine is forty minutes east and still working; the surface tours are good. Hartbeespoort Dam and the Magaliesberg are about an hour west, with the Cradle of Humankind on the way. Dinokeng Game Reserve, which is Big Five and only forty-five minutes north of the city, is the closest you can get to a genuine safari from a capital city anywhere in the country.
When to come
October and November for the jacarandas, without much competition. Pretoria sits lower and warmer than Johannesburg, so midsummer afternoons in January and February can be heavy, and winter days are mild and dry. Rain falls almost entirely in short summer thunderstorms.
