Pretoria

Pretoria is a bland city, and is superficially a bit like a northern Johannesburg suburb. During September and October however, Pretoria is a quite attractive city when it is dominated by thousands and thousands of flowering Jacaranda trees.

As the administrative capital of South Africa, Pretoria is home to embassies, military and civilian bureaucracies, military bases and educational institutions. Most blacks living here are Sotho people; about 60% of the whites are Afrikaners. There are several sites that are central to the Afrikaners' semi-mystical folk history - some are virtual 'holy ground'.

There are still a few old houses, incongruous not just for their size when compared with the neighbouring ranks of apartment blocks, but for their lack of high walls and razor wire. This is a much more relaxed place than Johannesburg.

With Pretoria being just 60km away from Jo'burg, it is possible to cover most of Pretoria's sights in a day trip, especially if you have a car and are staying in Jo'burg.

The eastern plateau region (including Johannesburg) has a dry, sunny climate in winter with maximum temperatures around 20ºC and crisp nights with temperatures dropping to around 5ºC. Between October and April there are late-afternoon showers often accompanied by spectacular thunder and lightning, but it rarely gets unpleasantly hot. Heavy hailstorms cause quite a lot of damage each year. It can, however, get very hot in the Karoo (the semi-desert heart of all three Cape provinces) and the far north (the Kalahari). The Western Cape has dry sunny summers with maximum temperatures around 26ºC. It is often windy, however, and the southeasterly 'Cape Doctor' can reach gale force. Winters can get cold, with average minimum temperatures of around 5ºC, and maximum temperatures of around 17'C, with occasional snow on the higher peaks.

The coast north from the Cape becomes progressively drier and hotter. Along the south coast the weather is temperate, but the east coast becomes increasingly tropical the further north you go. The Transkei region and KwaZulu/Natal can be hot and unpleasantly humid in summer, although the highlands are still pleasant; this is also a summer rainfall area. The Mpumalanga and Northern Province lowveld get very hot in summer, when there are spectacular storms. In winter the days are sunny and warm.