Affordable Hostels in Pretoria, South Africa

Pretoria is the administrative capital of South Africa. Known as “Jacaranda City” for its thousands of jacaranda trees, it’s also home to universities and government buildings. The semicircular Union Buildings encompass the president’s offices and hosted Nelson Mandela’s inauguration. Nearby is the Voortrekker Monument, honoring 19th-century Afrikaans settlers from the Cape Colony. Pretoria is a handsome city with some gracious old architecture, significant historical sites for South Africans of all races, prosperous leafy suburbs, and wide streets lined with jacarandas that burst into a beautiful purple haze in October and November.

It's always been more of a conservative and less cosmopolitan city – this was once the beating heart of the apartheid regime, after all, and its very name a symbol of oppression. Today it's home to a multitude of black civil servants and foreign embassy workers, who are infusing the city with a new sense of multiculturalism. The once blighted inner city is also undergoing something of a renaissance. Officially, the greater Pretoria region, which also includes Centurion and a number of smaller towns, such as Cullinan, and townships such as Mamelodi, is called Tshwane. Pretoria is a charming getaway with plenty to offer and these hostels provide an excellent base for exploring the area.