Top 10 Things To Do In Durban City Tour

This was one of the best excursions we have experienced. Bule our guide was superb, he explained every aspect of the tour so clearly and it is clear that he is passionate about his country and heritage. The visit to the Phoenix settlement was so moving and learning about Ghandi was inspirational. The visit to the Kwamuhle museum was amazing and brought to life with Bule’s knowledge of history. Our visit to the Botanic Gardens was a highlight with Vishnu as our guide- thoroughly recommend taking the buggy with Vishnu pointing out the must see aspects- he is so funny and takes marvellous photographs! Travelling around Durban, we saw Umglanga Rocks, the docks, cruise terminal, football stadium with the huge statue of Nelson Mandela and Market of Warwick- all described so well by Bule. He answered are many questions and we gained so much in a day Booking was easy, pick up was from our hotel was punctual and we felt safe throughout the journey. Would thoroughly recommend this tour and Bule as a guide. Thank you

The host was super knowledgeable and so nice. Thank you for all the information you gave, including all the new experiences.

Bule gave us the best tour experience of Durban. Every location that he took us to, we were so enlightened. For us, the best part of the tour was the Durban Botanical Gardens. Vishnu was so passionate about his job and his love for the garden (trees and plants). He took excellent pictures and videos! He made you feel like you were in a photo shoot and video production 😄. Do spend the extra for the golf cart, your legs will thank you for it. Thanks again to Bule and 1st Zulu Safari for a wonderful and unforgettable Durban experience! I encourage everyone to visit Durban; it's a BEAUTIFUL PLACE 😍

I will like you to know, that I can give my tour guide Fortune the best recommendation possible. Fortune is knowing and highly informative as a tour guide, and a very pleasant person to be in contact with. I have had a very good, safe and interesting day in his company.

first, There was no email sent to me the night prior regarding the tour or who the tour guide is. Then this morning when we waited outside the ship at 08:30, we did not see anyone except another tour guide from this tour operator who was very rude to us. Finally at 9:05am , the director from the tour operator came and put us in a minibus. When I told the director about the bad communication this morning, he responded in an unfriendly tone. The tour guide seems to be assigned to this tour at the last minute. As he was not very well prepared. He did not tell us the itinerary clearly, nor time it properly. We were supposed to end our two at three o'clock, but it ended at two pm instead.

Durban iconic attraction of Moses mabhida soccer stadium.home of amazulu FC and this place we have different types of service

This is the closest description i could find to the trip we did - Not one of the better tours on our trip to South Africa just one stop at either the Gandi rebuilt house in township or central Museum would have been better - didnt get to a market too muh traffic / no parking and no point in really looking at very outside of a stadium might as well just have driven by if yiu canniot visit - Botanical Gardens were nice and could have done woth longer there

This provides multiple insights into the life & history of Durban. The Apartheid Museum was confronting, but essential for an understanding of the history of South Africa. We had a Zulu man as our guide - his name translated to English means Wonderman - he was very passionate about life now in South Africa.

The tour was great and the guide and driver were excellent. Very informative and interesting tour. Recommend

We were picked up at the hotel on time. By car, we visited various sights such as the Gandhi Museum in a township, an authentic market and the Apartheid Museum. Bule, our guide, used his extensive knowledge to give us a deeper understanding of the city of Durban. We highly recommend the tour and hope that you get Bule as your guide! 😊

We had a wonderful experience exploring Durban and learning more about Ghandi’s impact on South Africa. The botanical gardens were beautiful. Our guide/driver was very prompt, friendly and knowledgeable. This was our second tour through 1st Zulu and we highly recommend them.

Really great day trip to do,our guide Alain was excellent, gave a great commentary and made sure we saw all the sights including the Zulu medicine market.it was very easy to do for someone who wanted a less strenuous tour around the city, highly recommend this tour.

Had a great day seeing the sights of Durban with Thami - the Botanical Gardens were especially fun with our golf cart guide

I was on the tour in the beginning of the off season (May) and it ended up being me and the tour guide, Buleh. I appreciated the individual attention and the ability to alter the schedule/itinerary based on my preferences (spending more/less time on things I found interesting). Buleh was friendly, helpful at every stop and definitely made the day a great introduction to Durban. I was fortunate enough to bring my drone and able to fly over some of the city and create some great drone shots. If you see them posted please let me know. If I had constructive feedback it would be to add more commentary about specific Durban landmarks as we drive around the city. Often, I asked, "What is that?" because of the interesting architecture or a building or area seemed to have relevance. I would like to hear more about the story of Durban, how it's organized and how the city functions. Because we are going to see various sections of the city context is critical. Overall, this was a great tour - I recommend it to anyone who wants a great introduction and orientation to Durban during their first few days in town. I think that a simple tweak to add more history dialogue and explanation would go a long way to helping make this a 5+ Star tour experience.

Many thanks to Buleh, my friend and I had a nice tour in the city, knowing about city’s history, nature and culture, a good combination.

We had a wonderful tour of Durban with Bongani (tour guide) and Tony (driver). We learned a great deal in this trip and experienced the raw side of Durban, not the tourist version. Thank you

To say we didn’t get what we expected is an understatement. The driver was really lovely, but we didn’t get to several places on the itinerary, including the expected Shaka lunch stop.. in fact we had only 3 stops to get out, ghandi’s home, botanical gardens and the Victoria market.. no beach, no lunch and not sure driver knew itinerary.

We were on a Seabourn cruise and had a one day visit to Durban, so we booked a private tour for four people through Viator with the Zulu tour group. We had a great day with Fortune as our guide. Our day included a visit to Gandhi's compound, a visit to the Apartheid museum, a tour of the Durban Botanical gardens, a visit to the commercial port, a drive by the beautiful beachfront area, a folk art market visit, a drive to a scenic point overlooking the city and more. For a city tour, this was excellent. Fortune also offered to show us places that we might be interested in seeing.

Without notice, the tour operator added a passenger to our booking who had a different itinerary. As such, we were not able to see the top 10 things to do in Durban. Further, the additional passenger excursion cost us an additional R420 for entry charges. When I notified the tour operator before payment via WhatsApp, I received no response. It appeared the tour operator was deceptive as the morning of our pickup, I received a different time from the driver/guide. When I contacted the tour operator I was assured the 30 minute delayed pickup would not affect our tour, yet it was significantly adjusted. To add insult to injury, the tour operator required an additional R400 for being outside of the 5 mile pick up/drop off radius. Yet, over 2 hours later, after we completed the other passenger's excursion, we passed our hotel to get to our first excursion tour stop. Our drop off at the cruise terminal was also within eye distance of our last excursion. In the intetest of time, we were further asked to pay an additional R100 x 2 for a golf cart tour of the botanical garden. I will be seeking reimbursement for the R420, R400, and compensation for the missed sites as described in the tour itinerary. I do want to say, although we did not receive the tour we paid for, given the circumstances the tour guide did an excellent job at navigating the schedule as best he could. He was very pleasant, knowledgeable, and attentive.

We loved our tour of Durban with Alain who was extraordinary and caring as he showed us everything in Durban. He picked us up promptly at the port in a great car and took us all over with superb explanation and sufficient time to appreciate the sights. I recommend with all my heart. I will never forget this special day, especially the added golf cart tour through Botanical Gardens with Vishnu. We appreciated the historic importance of Gandhi’s Phoenix Settlement and the small Apartheid exhibit.

what an amazing experience with Zulu safaris, made our first time in Durban an exceptional life experience captures on beautiful photos. our driver was friendly and captured our best moments

Our tour guide was Fortune whom he was on time in every place he drove us. He was very polite, professional and knowledgeable he was detailed in everything to our satisfaction. I personally enjoyed the tour and recommend it 👌 to others.

Fortune was an awesome tour guide! We had a wonderful day with stops, facts, and general information making pleasant journey in Durban. We got a excellent overview experience in the city. Take the golf cart tour around the Botanical Gardens with Vishnu! We have several keepsake photos from that excursion.

All tourist places of interest covered well. KG our lady driver cum guide was very friendly knowledgableand professional snd took good care of us.

This was meant to be a group tour but as I was the only participant it became a private tour. The guide, Fortune was brilliant, friendly, knowledgeable and interesting. He made the tour. A great overview of the city. An unexpected highlight was the 30 minute golf buggy tour of the botanical gardens. The guide was passionate, funny and clearly loved his job. Highly recommend as your introduction to the city.

Good overall view of Durban. Our guide Christo was very good. He was very friendly and knowledgeable.

Aaron was our guide and he did a serviceable job of showing us the sights of Durban and explaining some of the cultural history and important events in the history of the area. We also felt safe on our tour with him.

Tour guide did a great job, tried very hard, but too many stops, very hot weather conditions, no water offered. Would have preferred more time at the botanical gardens, and just drive by of the stadium since you couldnt go inside anyway.

The 10-stop tour was way too long and could have dropped a few stops. When we visited the football stadium couldn't go in, just walk around the outside. The botanical garden was lovely though. The market was like any other local market and great if you need souvenirs. It was a hot day when we toured which might have affected my review. The driver was fantastic!

Small group tour off cruise ship. very knowledgeable and friendly local guide. Experienced as much of Durban as we could in 6 hours ensuring we were back to the dock in plenty of time

We had a wonderful time in Durban while staying at The Holiday Inn Express which is just a 10 minute walk to Eastgate Mall, the biggest mall in Africa, we couldn't get enough of it, we shopped till we dropped as the saying goes. The scenery is out of this world, I loved waking up to the view of the ocean every morning, I couldn't believe my good fortune! The highlight of the stay was when we visited Ushaka Marine and marveled at the varied species of fish, while there we were treated to not just a seal show but a dolphin show as well! We couldn't have asked for a better vacation.

Excellent tour guide..on time...we had a great day..saw many things we wouldnt have seen if on our own. All 4 of us enjoyed the trip thouroughly. Lots of information given by the guide..very informative. Cannot reccommend highly enough.

Our guide was excellent and everyone on the trip is so passionate and made you excited to learn more about the history of the city

A great day touring Durban sites with Aaron from 1st Zulu Safaris. Visited the Phoenix settlement where Gandhi lived and museum, very informative. The Botanical gardens were well worth the visit and the Victoria St markets are a feast for the eyes. Just beautiful. An excellent tour.

Good experience. Freddie was a very knowledagble guide. Learnt a lot about Durban during this tour from him Overall highly satisfying. 5 stars

This was a getaway trip just for me! I booked this tour so I could get the top sights in one day and it was exactly what I wanted! My favorite experience was seeing the beautiful beaches and having the sand guy’s carve my name in their creative sand art! to welcome me to Durban! My experience during the entire day was amazing and my personal tour guide Frederik made it happen from start to finish! He was punctual, sent me notification before I even left for my trip! He was a gentleman, helped and assisted in every way and it was a plus to have him take great photos on all my stops. I highly recommend asking for Frederik if you take this tour!

Very interesting- lots of different aspects and areas covered. Guide very good and knowledgeable Good value for money

We recently did the Top 10 things to do in Durban and it was really enjoyable and interesting. The tour around the Zulu medicine market was extremely insightful. Christo was very knowledgeable and funny and looked after us throughout the day. If you only have a few hours in Durban and are looking for a tour to hit all the sights this is the one to go for.

Christo was a laid back, fun, and warm guide. We enjoyed the information we learnt about Durban on our shared tour and also enjoyed hearing about his experiences of growing up in Durban. The Zala Medicine and Herb Market is visually stunning; Christo warned us not to take any photos, telling us that quite a lot of what is sold there is illegal - so if stallholders saw us taking photos they would be angry. The market also stunned our noses due to the number of dead animals/birds on sale! Christo walked us through at a very fast pace, so it wasn't really a 'cultural visit' but was certainly an experience. The Victoria Street Market was quiet as it was Sunday, but our 30 minute stop there enabled us to buy a few gifts for the family. The highlights of the day were definitely visiting Gandhi's house/museum which is situated near a township on the outskirts of Durban and the visit to the beautiful Botanic Gardens. When we stopped at Moses Mabhida Stadium, Christo told us that the Sky Car hasn't been working since 2016. If that's right perhaps the info on Zulu Safari's website should be amended as it said 'The Sky Car is available to go up if it's functioning'. It doesn't look like it will be functioning any time soon! As well as stopping at civic buildings in the historic centre, we had a 20 minute stop at Umhlanga rocks. We also drove past the ''Golden Mile' beach promenade, an enormous shopping mall, a Hindu Temple and a Holocaust Centre. The final actual stop was at uShaka Village Walk. Christo left us here and said he would return in 2 hours to pick us up and return us to our cruise ship terminal - but as it was only a short walk away we said we would make our own way back. The 'village' is very attractive and has a range of restaurants/cafes and shops (we found the shops were quite expensive). There's also a cinema and lots of fun activity centres for families. We went down to the beach from there and walked along for some distance and then made our way back. We were quite confused as to whether we had seen 'The Top Ten Things' so looked at the tour itinerary when we returned to the ship. We realised we hadn't been to the KwaMuhle Museum that was supposed to be included, but as it was a Sunday it was presumably closed. Durban is very spread out so this tour was a good way of seeing briefly quite a few of the 'highlights' of this attractive city, old and new.

The company owner and the guides are marvelous people. I enjoyed chatting and getting to know them as much as I enjoyed the tour and history of the Durban area. Just remember to bring water and snacks with you! It's a full day and I was glad they didn't rush it.

Our guide Benson was wonderful and made our tour amazing - seeing the city of Durban plus many other stops. The Botanical gardens were amazing and our guide there Vishnu was so knowledgeable and fun!

Great tour indeed. Myself and family, we are very happy and we learned a lot. The most highlight was in Inanda (Mahatma Gandhi's house) and Botanic Garden. I can do this tour over and over again.

Amazing tour. Benson was a great guide and driver. We visited the key Durban city attractions. The Botanic Garden is fantastic. We bought spices and souvenirs at Victoria Market.

Tour was excellent . We only had 8 hours for the tour. Saw all the places we needed. The guide was very accommodating and adjusted to meet our needs. Make sure to do the guided tour of the gardens. Learnt a lot .Would recommend to anyone visiting Durban.

Indian and muti market , views of city botanic gardens and city informative tour guide relaxed not rushed

Sotiris is great! He was our tour guide and took us to places we didn't know about! The Durban Botanical Gardens are amazing! We had a fun, informative day!

Durban Botanical gardens, best experience to learn about various types of trees and plants. Boat riding, one thrilling experience I recommend for everyone, Umhlanga rocks a place to be

I booked the full day Durban city tour many months ago and, with extensive communication, put together a group of 10 people through Cruise Critic. Sadly, our private tour was ruined. The website clearly gives a max of 10 and all our correspondence had related to this group. All names were shared and we all paid the deposit and the balance in good time. On arrival in Durban there were a couple of people from Zulu Safaris who just said we weren't on their list and refused to assist us further. A lady in traditional dress said she would find our driver so we waited 10 minutes until he appeared. There was then some confusion about the names - they did not have a list - and when we got to the vehicle there was a strange couple (i.e. not part of our group) sitting in the best seats. We all objected strongly and our departure was delayed as the driver and I tried to find the manager and get him to allocate the extra couple to another vehicle. He was completely uninterested. Just said that there were 13 seats so tough. Given no option, we departed on the tour. The driver was apologetic (said this happened a lot!), but that did not help. The minibus did,technically, have 13 seats. But they were very crammed and one member of our party had to squeeze in the middle and couldn't see a thing - on our 'sightseeing tour'. The extra bodies also made for extra heat on an already sweltering day. The AC was not very effective. As the originator of the group, I was packed like a sardine into the back seat whilst my husband was at the front. Benson our driver was a lovely guy, but we missed out the Zulu Medicine Market for some reason, never got to Ghandi's house and discovered that the vaunted stadium sky car with fab views had been closed for 2 years. Also, no ones fault but just to be aware, the current daily power cuts across South Africa meant that traffic lights were out and all the lights suddenly blacked out when we were in the apartheid museum. In the end, we were all hot, sticky and cross and cut our losses returning to the ship an hour early. Emails to 1st Zulu asking for explanation, apology and recompense have so far been ignored. Beware!

This was a great tour to see and learn the basics about Durban. We went to several places around the city including (but not only) the Gandhi Museum, the local Zulu market, the Botanical Garden and the city center. Cristo was our guide, and he was very knowledgeable and engaging, and provided us with lots of history. Well worth it to get a great introduction to the city.