Not sure what it says about a city when its number one tourist attraction is a beer museum. I'm also not sure what it says about Dani and me that we contributed to such a statistic (and had a blast!) The tour is advertised everywhere in Johannesburg - it's a one and a half hour guided tour organized by SAB brewing (partners with Miller-Coors in the USA) complete with a 3D adventure, an IMAX-style movie, real life machinery depicting the beer making process, and lots more. Oh, and did we mention the tasting?

Included as part of the tour: a taste of traditional South African home-brew, a pint of SAB's Castle, and two more pints from any SAB partner at the end (we had European beers Peroni and Pilsner Urquel), all included in the amazing 25 rand price tag (or three USD per person).

Doing a review of South African's Castle beer is a bit of a cop-out (and we hope to visit Zululand where we can choose a more traditional option). With that said, the elaborate SAB museum warrants some praise. The truth is we like the fact that Castle is a good South African union-made, union-bottled, union-delivered brew - that reminded me a lot of its US counterpart - Miller Light. And while Miller may not be the first beer that comes to mind when I list my favorites, it's affordable, it tastes consistently slightly better than average, and the company provides good jobs.

It would feel weird to make this a "must do" when visiting Jozi - for pete's sake spend a day at the Apartheid museum or touring Soweto - but if you're spending a little too much time on the ground, have a free Saturday afternoon, then we promise you it will be a good time. Plan well though, no walk-ins, as the tours book days in advance.

15 President Street, Newtown, Johannesburg, Gauteng 2001, South Africa‎
011 836 4900‎
www.worldofbeer.co.za/

Google map: tinyurl.com/ydp8q5j

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Do not be fooled by the more commercial 'human zoo' township tours, which will take you in a bus around the township, drop you for half an hour to see the Hector Pieterson museum before whizzing you past the houses of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. The Lonely Planet
recommends a couple of low-key tours led by locals and I opted for a tour which included two days being shown around by a local girl and a
night's stay in a typical shack. I got on so well with my guide that we went out drinking in the evening and I slept on her shack floor instead of in my own place. On the Sunday we cooked lunch all together and I let her daughter and nieces highjack my camera for a while -
they managed to take far better photos than I could have done!

Google map: tinyurl.com/y9uv4po

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I am a South African (from Cape Town) who has just toured Johannesburg with my UK friend for five days. We used Jozi Experience. We lived in private houses, went to private parties, personalised Soweto/cultural tours. We felt part of the local community, not tourists.

Website: www.joziexperience.co.za
77, 4th Road, Kew. Johannesburg
Tel: +27 11 4400109

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The Apartheid Museum is not to be missed - you need at least three hours to get round and take in all the information. The museum is experiential - as you walk around you ‘live’ the experiences: walk through cages, past cells, around one of the riot tanks they used in Soweto.

The information is presented on panels, on TV screens transmitting key speeches and reports of events under apartheid, there are audio recordings, memory boxes, videos and audio tapes. There is an attempt to trace the origins of racism and apartheid back to the first settlers, but it is the lived history of apartheid and the bloodshed of the first years of liberation which leave the deepest impression and remind us that the torture techniques and tools of repression used in South Africa under apartheid are still being used today.

I left with many questions and a heavy heart, but full of admiration for those who resisted and their descendants who are trying to rebuild a country where the commonality of human experience is more important than difference.

www.apartheidmuseum.org/

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