Johannesburg Tour: Cycle Soweto with a Local Guide

Start at Lebo’s Soweto Backpackers and head to your first stop: a look-out point that takes in Orlando West and East. View the surroundings of the township, including the home grounds of the famous soccer team, the Orlando Pirates. From there, the next stop is Mzimhlophe Men’s Hostel – a former migrant workers’ hostel. You’ll learn how men from around the country moved to Johannesburg and its townships to work in the gold mines, and the conditions they lived in — as well as how this area has now transformed to become a Soweto community today. In this area, many locals still practice traditional African customs, and you’ll learn all about their beliefs and traditions.

Your Soweto tour then continues via Meadowlands to the memorial site of Hector Pieterson, commemorating the uprisings on 16 June 1976, when hundreds of children and youths lost their lives while protesting the Apartheid education system. From there, you’ll continue on to Vilakazi Street, where you’ll stop at Nelson Mandela’s former home, and the home of Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu, to learn more about these icons’ contributions to a free and democratic South Africa. This will be the last stop of the tour, and from there, you’ll cycle back to Lebo’s, where you can take in more of Soweto, the community, and its people.

Please note: the cycling portion of this tour will be about two hours. The full duration time of the tour is to cover pick-ups and drop-offs, as well as pre-cycle preparation time.