Johannesburg

Johannesburg is South Africa's economic capital and the beating heart of its modern history. It grew from the gold discovery of 1886 into the country's largest city, and its O. R. Tambo airport is the main gateway for international flights and flights to Kruger.

The Apartheid Museum, opened in 2001, tells the story of apartheid and its end, powerfully, beginning with two separate entrance gates. In Soweto, Vilakazi Street was home to both Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, each a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

The northern suburbs such as Sandton have large malls, luxury hotels and restaurants, halal ones among them.

One or two nights in Johannesburg are enough, usually before or after Kruger.