More than just a historical home to Freedom Park, the Voortrekker Monument and the Cultural History Museum – where the famous fossilized skull of mankind’s very first, Mrs Ples, can be viewed – Pretoria also offers a burgeoning social scene that is all at once contemporary and welcoming.
Dining out is a diverse experience in the city of Jacarandas: splurge out at award-winning restaurants and hip eateries or eat on a student budget at sports taverns, takeouts and down-to-earth steak houses – they’re spread out all over the city but Sunnyside Park, Brooklyn, Centurion, Menlyn, Hatfield and Lynnwood offer it all, including a super-hot nightlife.
In fact, Pretoria may be a staid government capital on the outside but on the inside the city pumps to an after-hours’ beat. If you wanna be where the in-crowd hangout then head for Brooklyn, which is fast becoming trend central.
Pretoria is home to some amazing parks, gardens and picnic spots: try Magnolia Dell, which hosts craft markets, moonlight markets and Art in The Park, and the National Botanical Garden, where you get to lounge around on a blanket while chowing from a picnic basket.
Just for fun take a trip to the Pretoria Zoo or National Zoological Gardens of South Africa, it’s an awesome experience.
