Family Activities
Track down your favourite international and local brands, hobnobbing with tycoons and celebrities as you sip the world’s finest coffees at Nelson Mandela Square. Arm-in-arm lovers are spoiled for choice as they wind their way from one end to the other of Africa’s richest square mile, whispering sweet nothings and eyeing engagement rings.
Visit the Maboneng Township Arts Experience. Activities for the entire family include Fourways Farmers Market, the 12-storey Sandton Convention Centre or the shopping malls such as Sandton City, Diamond Walk, Hyde Park Corner and Atholl Square.
Be sure to stop by the bronze statue of Nelson Mandela at Nelson Mandela Square, which weighs 2.5 tonnes, or visit the Art Afrique Gallery. And there’s more to explore, stop by the Liliesleaf farm, Sandton Gold and Diamond Exchange, JSE Securities Stock Exchange or the Gautrain.
Mountain Biking in Central Park
The Central Park Mountain Biking Trail system is an outdoor experience of note through amazing terrain, with an awesome variety of game and birdlife to boot. There are various loops catering for all different skill levels that can be shortened or lengthened accordingly.
The Green Route runs along scenic farm roads with an African bush feel, while the Yellow Route will get you onto some great single-track sections through the trees, with a gentle climb up and around to View Point.
Finally, the Red Route is for the more advanced rider, and will test your skills. You get to blast through dense forests, up a steep ascent, onto a super-tube of a downhill. Plus there is some technical playtime around the dam, with bridges and another 2 km of single-track through tall reeds. During summer, there are night rides every Wednesday from 18:00-19:30pm.
Braamfontein Spruit Hiking Trail
The Jukskei River, a tributary of the Limpopo, rises on the Witwatersrand at a storm-water drain outside Brenthurst Clinic. It used to be a natural spring, but ravenous cities have no heart for such niceties.
It emerges somewhere in the northern suburbs as a stream, but one heavily put upon by urban development. Eventually, somewhere in Sandton, the town planners had the vision to preserve it as part of a bridal trail network where its citizens would be able to ramble, seemingly forever.
Unfortunately only a sliver of that original green dream remains, but where it does the Braamfonteinspruit Trail still provides a bit of open space for city kids to rediscover their inner Tom Sawyers and Huck Finns. Hiking along sections of the river will entice nature enthusiasts as there is an array of prolific birdlife, trees and wildlife to view.