With a bit more time, you should be able to discover the real soul of this great city. To orientate yourself, start with a full-day tour of inner-city Johannesburg. Use the city segment of the suggestions for day-trippers, then build from there. Save Newtown for later, heading south after the Johannesburg City Hall.

• The Maimai Market at the Farraday Taxi Rank, situated at the bottom end of Eloff Street, is an exceptional cultural experience. Here traditional medicines are prepared from a medley of animal parts, plants and roots.
  
  
• Going east, return to the heart of the city for lunch at the Guildhall Pub & Restaurant, on the corner of Market and Harrison Streets. Built in 1888, it is the only remaining drinking hole from those early gold-mining days. With its heavy wooden bar, dimmed lamps and smoked mirrors, it became “a popular meeting place that sold all liquor except 3 Star Brandy for a sixpence a tot”.
  
  
• Fortified, you are now ready for Newtown. On the way, pass the former Johannesburg Stock Exchange in Diagonal Street, being sure to note the historic shopfronts in the area. After Newtown, end the day at the Oriental Plaza in Main Road, Fordsburg. This is a colourful, bustling emporium of eateries, clothing shops (plenty of well-priced shoes), Eastern merchandise and beautiful fabrics. There are also a number of good Indian restaurants close by.
  
  
• Use your second day to explore the northern parts of the city. Begin with a walking tour of the Randlord mansions with a guide from the Parktown & Westcliff Heritage Trust. In particular there is Northwards, the 40-room home of the eccentric and sometimes scandalous, Jose Dale Lace. She was a superb rider and expert handler of every kind of horse-drawn vehicle. She even had four zebras harnessed to a four-in-hand.
  
  
• A short way from here is the Johannesburg Zoo on Jan Smuts Avenue. It is set in beautiful gardens and is internationally respected for its innovations in display and the care of its 3 000 inhabitants, many of them highly endangered. They also offer regular night tours. In the same grounds, but accessed from Erlswold Way, is the renowned South African National Museum of Military History.
  
  
• Set aside at least a day for Soweto (See Johannesburg In a Day). First, stop in for an hour or so at Constitution Hill in Hillbrow for a reminder of how far South Africa has come from being pariah to proud hosts of the FIFA 2010 World Cup. Here the new Constitutional Court has been built among the preserved remains of the notorious Old Fort prison, where Mandela and many of the children involved in the 1976 Soweto Uprising were held.
  
  
• There are also pleasant drives in and around Johannesburg, for which you should set aside at least a day. Recommended are trips south to the quaint town of Parys on the Vaal River, west to Magaliesburg (especially if adventure sports are what you enjoy) or north to the diamond mining town of Cullinan, in the Dinokeng conservancy.
  
  
• A slow Sunday meander along The Crocodile River Ramble, will take you to an interesting assortment of crafters, artists, galleries, health spas and restaurants. At the heart of the Ramble is the Cradle of Humankind in the Sterkfontein Valley, where some of the world’s most important paleontological finds have been unearthed.
  

In need of a break to the bush? Spend a few days in Polokwane, the “place of peace” and capital of the Limpopo province, while making your way to the Kruger National Park.

• SouthAfrica.net