So, I almost always do bike tours when I am in a new city, as I really enjoy a more grass roots visit and a chance to exercise. Why I chose this tour company over Soweto Bicycle Tours I can't remember but I regret it. I can't remember the tour guides name, but #1 he was more like a local riding a bike with me then a "tour guide". He asked me where I wanted to go and I said the Towers, the museum, the Hector Pierson monument, etc. I asked him if that could be done in 4 hours and he said "Sure" but here is how it played out... Every monument that we stopped at he said, "There is a tour guide inside and you pay him to tell you about the location" and I thought "Wasn't that what I was paying you for?"
Then he took me to a community garden, which I'm in favor of supporting, but basically it was more like "Hello, this is our garden, please donate money" In fact the entire bike ride began to feel that way. The tour guide telling me how poor he is and everywhere we stopped people asking for donations. After about two hours of cycling I asked to stop for refreshments and I thought back to how on every other cycle tour, they provided at least one bottle of water, or asked if you wanted to stop for water. Throughout the ride his bike kept breaking down, so we had to stop repeatedly to try and fix it in the hot sun. After more than 3 1/2 hours riding (and stopping for repairs) he suggested a new route and new sites and I asked "Will we still get back in 4 hours?" and he would not directly answer the question just kept encouraging it and so I finally said "It's very hot and I am hungry, so I would like to go back to the car". He then took me up a steep hill to Winnie Mandela's house. So, I said, again, "This is interesting but can we head back towards the car?" He said "Yes, mama, yes" but then tried to cycle in the opposite direction towards Nelson Mandela's house (which I would have liked to have gone to, if he hadn't taken me to other places I didn't ask to see earlier). I stopped and said "It's been 4 hours and the car is straight ahead, why do you want me to go the other way?" He said "You have to see the Nelson Mandela house" and I said "Okay, but I'll drive there" Then he said "You also have to see the museum" I said "Okay, I'll return the bike and walk into the museum". He seemed very insistent that I visit the last two locations on the "trip" but it was very hot and I was hungry and I didn't want to pay for extra time, over the four hours, so again I said "Yes, but let me turn in my bike first". When I went to turn in my bike he says AGAIN "Go to the museum and the house" Then a boy, who I had met and spoken to that morning and who seemed to be good friends with the tour guide, comes up to me and says "I washed your car for you, mama" and I said "Why did you wash the car, it was clean, I picked it up last night from the car company? And it is a rental." He said, "Oh, I didn't know you rented the car. I thought it was your car." That made me mad as I reminded him that "We spoke this morning, I said I was from the USA, only here for 4 days. You knew it was rental car and it was clean!" I did not pay him, also my car didn't seem any cleaner. Then as I paid the guide, no tip because it was a terrible tour, he gives me a very sad face (an act that apparently has worked in the past) and he yells after me "Mama, you are going the wrong way, the museum is the other way!" It was obvious that he was getting money for taking people to these locations and that he took me to other places to make the tour more than the agreed upon 4 hours so that he could charge me extra.
There's a reason there is only one review every few months for this company - they are not professional, their equipment is in terrible shape and the only thing they want from tourists is money.