The Bay of Port Elizabeth is now known as Nelson Mandela Bay. It is the easiest place to end a journey along the Garden Route from Cape Town, as from here you can fly to other cities. Port Elizabeth, nicknamed "the friendly city", has great beaches to enjoy, and we highly recommend taking the ‘Real City Tour’ here. It is also very useful as a base from which to visit Addo Elephant Park and Shamwari Game Reserve.
The Real City Tour
Given South Africa’s history, the country remains surprisingly divided, and it is the purpose of this tour to narrow that divide. Qualified local guides explain the social history, and answer your questions on a roller-coaster ride that brings you face-to-face with the harsh reality of the Apartheid past, and the great successes of the present. For example, we will take you to meet talented township artists at work, and visit a community-run school. People like yourselves supporting the Real City Tour make both these projects possible.
Our expert guides use the history of the origin of the separate areas in Port Elizabeth (PE) and the contact with ordinary township people to clarify the New South Africa. The tour includes aspects of Settler history, such as the Donkin Reserve, perspectives on transformation and development attention to PE’s Black history.
70% of Port Elizabeth’s 1.4 million people live in townships, and as London’s Sunday Times Travel supplement said, "If you do only one thing in PE, make sure it’s a township tour ... This [Real City] tour is strictly cringe-free. [It] will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about South Africa past and present."
The tour covers about 70 km, its strength lying in the diversity of experiences offered, including everything from desperately poor squatter areas, Struggle memorials, elite suburbs, and high activity trading markets. Our positive feedback from our client’s stems from contact with local people at the community projects we visit.