Things to Do in South Africa

An unmistakeable feature of the South African landscape, the 1,086 meter peak provides an imposing backdrop to Cape Town life. While accessible by cable car, the mountain is a popular climbing spot, as well as offering some of the world's most intricate sandstone cave systems.

The Las Vegas of South Africa, this resort near Johannesburg features a huge casino, a luxury theme park, and the amazing Valley of the Waves waterpark, with its manmade tropical beach and a seven-foot wave machine.

Robben Island had been a place of exile for some 400 years before becoming Nelson Mandela's prison and a centrepiece of apartheid legislation. It now serves as a museum dedicated to human endurance, and former occupants of the maximum security prison work as guides on the three-and-a-half hour tours of the island.

The oldest township in Cape Town, Langa must be visited for a dose of perspective, with the hospitality and friendliness of the local community remarkable given the hardships they endure every day.

Rorke's Drift is the site of the famed battle between the British and Zulus forces. The Battle Museum contains an exhibition to the 'Heroic Hundred', who defended the Swedish mission station used as a British hospital against 4,000 advancing Zulus. Best of all, there's the chance to put on your best Michael Caine accent and utter the immortal worlds: "Zulus... Thousands of them!"