charlotteimmigration

Staying 1 night in Joburg
dont have much time,
what is the Lion park like?
worth a visit?
grab a cab from the hotel? (intercontinental at the airport)?

Jaimito Cartero

There are tours that will work out much better. Taxis are very expensive in JNB, and you'd spend a fortune if you used one for a tour.

The hotel can set something up for you. We took one a few years ago from Sandton. The half day tour was pretty good, and we stopped by Soweto as well, and some other stuff around the area for a full day tour.

You can also book stuff online in advance for a bit of savings. The hotel will probably double the real price of a tour. I think we paid $100 or $120 for three of us. We went to the park that is a fair distance away, but seemed decent enough.

imm2b

We have 5 hours layover at JNB, arrive at 9:30am and depart at 4pm. Do we have enough time for a Soweto tour? What is the best way to book? Thanks.

TravelinWilly

Are you arriving/departing domestically? From where are you arriving and what's your final destination?

Alysia

If you are coming in internationally:

Are you checking luggage? You must claim your luggage & walk it through customs & then re-check it (just like the system in the USA). This likely will take an hour or more. Granted, I came off the LH 380, but I spent well over an hour waiting for my luggage & then rechecking it. It wasn't a big deal to me though, as I had 4 hours in JNB. After I re-checked my bag, I still had plenty of time to shower & snack at the SAA domestic lounge. (Oh on that note, why doesn't this SAA lounge have hair dryers in their shower rooms? Who travels with a hair dryer these days?)

imm2b

Thanks TravelinWilly and Alysia.

We are coming from Istanbul on TK and continue on to Capetown on SA. Flying in C and wondering if we can leave our bags at the lounge.

We are not planning to check-in luggage, carry on 22' rollerboard. Not sure if TK or SA will make us check in or not.

Alysia

SAA is really strict about the weight of carry-on rollaboards. You may get lucky & not get pulled over to a baggage scale though. They were weighing everyone's rollaboard before boarding my flight. I only had a tote bag & purse, since I had checked my suitcase.

The SAA domestic lounge at JNB is beyond security, but the line through security had just a few people when I was there. The SAA domestic lounge has no lockers like LH Senator lounges have.

TravelinWilly

Personally, I've never had a problem with SA when I bring both a rollaboard and a laptop case in C, ever. I'm not guaranteeing anyone else's success, but I've never had a problem.

As far as time for a Soweto tour...

If you arrive JNB at 09:30 and depart at 16:00, you have more like 6.5 hours. Assuming you get a boarding pass in IST for the SA flight, and have carry-on luggage only, then you'll go through customs on arrival at JNB (this is always fast, assuming you don't get pulled aside for screening, and when you do, is usually cursory) and you're on your way. Don't bother hiking over to the domestic terminal to the lounge to leave your luggage - that's a waste of very precious time if you want to take a tour. Your tour guide can put it in the boot of the car and you should be fine.

Should you opt to go for the Soweto tour, arrange it in advance, and tell the booking agent specifically what your intentions are in terms of time and things you feel you must see (e.g., do you want a 2 hour car tour? Do you want to visit the Hector Pieterson Museum? etc. etc. etc.). Also, you must (obviously) tell them your time constraints and flight times. You can find a couple of recommended agents here, and if you do a search you'll likely find more. Should you want to find a Joburg-based agent, PM me and I'll track one down for you. Also, if you look at the link I posted a couple of sentences ago, SafariCraig (Craig Beal) may be someone you want to PM as well, as he seems quite well connected with agents in the US, specifically in the Bay area (my Cape Town agent has to have card imprints, which does mean sending things through snail mail from the US, etc. - not a problem for me, as it's easy to manage from S. Africa, but not as easy from the US).

Good luck and let us know how it works out!

imm2b

Thanks so much TravelinWilly! PM on its way....