Ins and outs
Getting there
Intercape
Getting around
Best time to visit
Tourist information
The centre of Tshwane (Pretoria) is 45 km from OR Tambo International Airport. The easiest way to travel to/from the airport is to use the airport shuttle. There is a Metro commuter train between Tshwane (Pretoria) and Johannesburg but high crime levels means you
should avoid it.
Intercape
,
Greyhound
and
Translux
have several daily departures between
the two cities. The high-speed
Gautrain
is under construction and will link Tshwane (Pretoria), Johannesburg and the airport. There will also be a branch line from the main railway station in the city centre to the suburb of Hatfield.
Most of Tshwane (Pretoria)'s sights lie in the surrounding hills. While there is a good local bus service, it does not connect between the various monuments in the city's suburbs. The easiest way to see the city sights is either on a guided tour or with a hire car. During the day, taking a municipal bus that runs between the centre and suburbs is a safe and cheap way of getting about town.
Church Street
is Tshwane (Pretoria)'s main through road, running from east to west, and at 26 km long is considered to be one of the world's longest streets. From the city centre it leads east to
Arcadia
where many of the embassies and the Union Buildings are located. To the south of here is
Sunnyside
, which until recently was home to most hotels and nightlife. However, the area has suffered a decline in recent years,
with increasing crime rates. Many restaurants, hotels and backpacker hostels have relocated
to the safer suburbs of
Hatfield
and
Brooklyn
a few kilometres further east where the colleges, universities and sports stadiums are located. Both are attractive suburbs, dotted with parks and gardens, and streets lined with Tshwane (Pretoria)'s distinctive jacaranda trees.
Tshwane (Pretoria) has a pleasant climate with warm to hot summers and mild sunny winters.
In winter the daily temperature averages 19°C, the days are still and the skies are clear. In the evening it can get cool. The average annual rainfall is 741 mm, mostly falling between
November and March. The best time to visit is during the spring when the city is transformed
by 60,000 flowering jacaranda trees, covering the parks and gardens in a mauve blanket.
The
Tshwane Tourism Information Bureau
, www.tshwane.gov.za, is in the Old Netherlands Bank Building. While there isn't the usual desk and helpful staff found in most local tourist offices, this bureau does produce a couple of useful maps, highlighting the major sights. The Tshwane (Pretoria) office of South Africa National Parks
(SANParks
) www.sanparks.org, is the head office and handles all bookings for accommodation and special long-distance hikes such as the Otter Trail in Tsitsikamma National Park.
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This is edited copy from Footprint Handbooks. For comprehensive details (incl address, tel no, directions, opening times and prices) please refer to book or individual chapter PDF
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