London to Johannesburg, South Africa from £388

🌍 About johannesburg

Johannesburg sits at 1,750m on the Highveld, high enough that the air is thin and the light is sharp, and it was built on gold — the 1886 reef strike is why the city exists at all. The thing to see is Soweto's Vilakazi Street, the only street on earth that has housed two Nobel Peace laureates: Mandela's old red-brick house (now a museum) sits a few hundred metres from Desmond Tutu's. Eat a kota — a quarter-loaf of white bread hollowed out and packed with chips, polony, cheese and atchar, township fast food named for its size. Come in winter, May to September: dry, bright, blue-sky days, though nights drop near freezing. Summer (December–February) is warm but brings hard afternoon thunderstorms that flood the streets in minutes.