Bloemfontein

Bloemfontein (Fountain of flowers) is popularly and poetically known as "the city of roses", for its abundance of these flowers and the annual rose festival held there. The city hosts numerous museums, including the National Women's Monument, the Anglo-Boer War Museum, the National Museum, and the Oliewenhuis Art Museum.

Understand
Bloemfontein is the judicial capital of South Africa and ​the capital of the Free State Province.

Bloemfontein was founded in 1846 and now has a population of around half a million people.

J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, was born in Bloemfontein in 1892. Despite Tolkien's fame, there is surprisingly little commemorating him in his city of birth.

In 1923, the African National Congress (ANC) political party was founded in Bloemfontein.

Today, Bloemfontein is a compact city surrounded by sprawling suburbs. It hosts sub-Saharan Africa's first digital planetarium, the Naval Hill Planetarium and Boyden Observatory, an astronomical research observatory erected by Harvard University.

The city centre is safe to walk around during the day, but many of the city's activities are focused on the Waterfront and Mimosa malls and on the large sporting complex. Second Avenue, north of the Waterfront mall, has the majority of the city's bars and restaurants.

By plane


See Air travel in South Africa for more information.

By train
Bloemfontein is a major rail junction in the middle of South Africa, however services have been reduced to trains from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth and East London three times a week. Trains are run by Shosholo Zameyl.



By car
The N1, N6 and N8 national highways meet in Bloemfontein, making it easily reachable from any part of the country.

The N1 northbound from Bloemfontein towards Gauteng is a toll road.

Distances

 * Bloemfontein-Johannesburg: 398 km
 * Bloemfontein-Cape Town: 1004 km
 * Bloemfontein-Maseru: 137 km
 * Bloemfontein-Port Elizabeth: 677 km
 * Bloemfontein-Kimberley: 160 km

By bus
A number of bus services offer connections to major South African cities.

By car
As with most of South Africa, it is best to hire a car.

Do

 * Go to the Waterfront
 * Golf
 * Cricket:
 * Visit one of the numerous game reserves in the area and go sightseeing / hunting
 * Take a walk through the tree-lined President Brand Street and visit the various museums
 * Take a drive through the northern suburbs and see the lush gardens
 * Visit the City Zoo just behind the Waterfront shopping mall. This zoo is home to a stuffed Liger a cross between a lion and a tiger, that was bred at the zoo in the 1930s. This specimen holds the world record for being the largest ever living cat. And at 798 kg you can see why!

Buy
The ongoing expansion of the Waterfront mall means that Bloemfontein now has two branches of each of the standard South African chain stores (the other branches being in the Mimosa Mall 2 km up the road). There is a craft market near the Waterfront mall on the first Saturday of the month. Many shops close Saturday afternoons and all day Sunday.

Eat
People eat early in Bloemfontein - even by South African standards, if you arrive at a restaurant after 7:30PM, especially on a weeknight, you may get some funny looks from the staff, and rushed service as they try to get you out the door so they can lock up and go home.

Stay safe
Bloemfontein is much safer than most other cities. You can walk around downtown during the day time (although it will be eerily quiet after the shops close). The Waterfront and other shopping malls are safe and patrolled with 24-hour security, and 2nd Street (the main restaurant strip) is fine day and night. The dodgy areas to avoid if possible are near the train station and anywhere east of the railway lines (where the traditional townships are located).

Go next

 * Visit the beautiful Karoo Heartland town of Graaff-Reinet and the Mountain Zebra National Park in the south.
 * Heading east you will reach Thaba 'Nchu, 60 km outside Bloemfontein, which has a luxury hotel and casino complex as well as Maria Moroka Nature Reserve. 130 km from Bloemfontein is the pleasant town of Ladybrand close to Lesotho and its capital city of Maseru.
 * The N6 will take you to East London and the N1 will take you to Gauteng (which is a toll road) or Cape Town