Local Attractions
Free State Botanical Garden
The Free State National Botanical Garden is home to approximately 400 species of plants, primarily from the Free State, Northern Cape, and Lesotho. A meandering paved path, perfect for the elderly and physically disabled, takes one through the gardens, while the more agile can venture up the koppies. The Free State Botanical Garden offers some magnificent examples of wild olive and karee trees, an orange blossom arbour and a petrified tree, thought to be over 150 million years old.
Skydiving in Bloemfontein
Bloemfontein skydiving club is one of the oldest skydiving clubs in the country, and is situated at Tempe airport, just West of Bloemfontein. Only ten minutes outside Bloemfontein, it offers skydiving to all experience levels. From tandem skydives, static line courses, accelerated freefall courses and progressive freefall training.
Oliewenhuis Art Museum
Oliewenhuis Art Museum is still a relatively young museum even by South African standards. Being only 13 years old, the Museum has shown a steady and interesting growth in its collection. The permanent collection, which is frequently rearranged, is housed on the first floor and is devoted exclusively to works produced by South African artists. It has a solid foundation of early South African artists, and includes works by Thomas Baines, Jan Ernst Volschenk, Pieter Wenning, Jacob Hendrik Pierneef and Willem Coetzer.
Choet Visser Rugby Museum
The privately owned Choet Visser Rugby Museum was first opened in 1974, and by 1976, 5000 people had been through the doors. The museum is the biggest private museum of its kind in the world, and houses more than 200 jerseys and rugby-related blazers as well as 450 ties. Original, signed cartoons and pictures of teams and players are displayed on the walls. For rugby fans, a visit to this museum is a very rewarding experience. The Choet Visser Rugby Museum is open Mondays to Saturdays, by appointment only. Please phone to arrange an appointment.
Boudair Café
If you are in Bloemfontein, make sure you give Boudoir a try. This latest addition to the Bloem bar scene, Boudoir's cocktails are opulently garnished, and complimentary snacks are served between 4 pm and 6 pm. Boudoir Cafe also have a great menu with meals ranging from lasagne, fillet pots and summer salads! The velvet cushions invite you to make yourself comfortable while you wait for friends and ease into the weekend.
Stargaze at Boyden Observatory
South Africa is famous for its diamonds, diamonds which South African skies receive on a sunless night canopy for safekeeping. As darkness deepens, the heavens slip into a gown of midnight velvet, clasped with a single, perfect jewel: the Southern Cross. Suspended over the horizon, this celestial compass points the way to the southernmost reaches of the hemisphere. Below, African campfires flare to life like scattered torches, while the moon climbs high to ignite silver bonfires that gleam across the campsite ceiling. This nightly spectacle unfolds above South Africa, a treasure for the naked eye and a constellation collector’s delight at the Boyden Observatory.
Anglo-Boer War Museum
There are plenty of battlefield sites around the Bloemfontein area, and a good place to start is the Anglo-Boer War Museum on Monument Road. It is believed that this museum is the only one in the world dedicated to the Anglo-Boer War, and along with displays of the war that continued from 1899 to 1902, there is also a Women's Memorial. The museum staff are very knowledgeable and will give directions to battlefield sites.
Fourth Raadsaal
Opposite the Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein is the Fourth Raadsaal, one of the city's finest buildings. The foundation stone was laid by President F. W. Reitz in 1890, and the building was completed in 1893. The Fourth Raadsaal is a Renaissance-style building in red brick with a prominent dome and a portico of Ionic columns. The last session of the Parliament of the old Boer Republic of the Orange Free State was held here before the occupation of Bloemfontein by British forces in March 1900. Today, the building is home to the Free State Provincial Legislature.
Florisbad Quaternary Research Station
The Quaternary Period refers to the most recent of the Cenozoic Era periods in the geological time scale. Florisbad is a spring mound that is home to a wealth of fossils, and it is situated just 45 kilometres from Bloemfontein. This is known as the spot in which the “modern” human skull (thought to date back some 260,000 years) was discovered. There is also a variety of mammalian fossils that have been dated to between 100,000 and 400,000 years old. Florisbad was, until the 1970s, a privately owned holiday resort and mineral spa. It was established as a National Museum in March 1980 and has been a Heritage Site since 1995.
Wagon Museum
Bloemfontein is the proud home of the Wagon Museum which is situated at the same address as the First Raadsaal Museum in St George Street. The Wagon Museum showcases a delightful collection of the original wagons and carriages used generations ago by the first settlers and Voortrekkers in South Africa. The collection includes an ox wagon used by the Voortrekkers, a spring wagon, mule wagon, transport wagon and a Cape cart.
