Blackheath, Johannesburg

Set on the lower slopes of Northcliff hill, Blackheath is a relatively peaceful, leafy suburb close to Cresta Centre. It rubs shoulders with Linden, Darrenwood, Windsor and Emmarentia and has access to one of the busiest shopping areas in the northern parts of Johannesburg - Beyers Naudé Drive, one of the city’s major arteries named after the anti-apartheid pastor Beyers Naudé that starts in Auckland Park and travels right through to Randpark Ridge, is lined with several shopping malls, the biggest of which is Cresta.

Yet life in Blackheath, once you are off the major roads, is fairly sedate, and the tree-lined neighbourhood only benefits from the easy access to shopping and major roads in and around the buzzing metropolitan city. One is never short of attractions and activities when in Johannesburg, and staying in Blackheath gives one a fair example of what it means to stay in a typical northern Johannesburg suburb.

Emmarentia Dam, the green lung of the northern suburbs, is not far from Blackheath. A short journey through pretty Linden will bring you to the Botanic Garden and the dam, around which city dwellers are apt to picnic and play ball over weekends, and which, during the week, is a haunt for amblers and their dogs. Green lawns rise from the dam up to the Botanic Garden where over 30 000 trees, a gorgeous rose garden, and one of the finest plant collections in the world have combined to earn it the title of best passive recreation space in the city. Summer Sunset concerts, at Emmarentia, are another reason to stay in this part of Johannesburg.