They are unlikely tourist attractions: South Africa 's urban townships are congested shantytowns, home to millions — up to a third of the country's black population. It was in the townships that the struggle against apartheid was at its most intense, but until recently few white South Africans, and fewer tourists, had actually been to Soweto or any of the other impoverished areas that huddle around South Africa 's largest cities. These days, though, a township tour is practically mandatory for anyone visiting South Africa. Soweto, a few miles from Johannesburg,

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nginx/1.14.0 (Ubuntu) attracts the largest crowds. Look for a tour offering stops at Nelson Mandela's former house or the Hector Petersen Memorial and Museum, named for a 13-year-old boy who was killed in the famous 1976 uprising; then enjoy a shebeen (backyard bar). Try Jimmy's Face to Face Tours (www.face2face.co.za), which pioneered the concept, or Max Maximum Tours www.backpackafrica.com/ accommod/gauteng/maxmaxim). Half-day tours cost around $30.

In Cape Town, try the Rainbow Curtain township tour run by Grassroute Tours (www.grassroutetours.co.za). This includes stops in District Six, a once mixed-race suburb near the city center where residents forcibly removed in the 1960s are only now finally returning. There's also Langa, the city's oldest black township, where tourists can visit the ghetto hostels set up by the apartheid government to house migrant workers, and Khayelitsha, Cape Town 's largest settlement, now with its own vibrant unofficial economy for everything from clothes to cars. The complete tour costs $45. If you want to stay overnight, Khayelitsha resident Vicki Balman runs a guesthouse from her shanty home. Bed and breakfast costs $25 per person.

• SIMON ROBINSON and PETER HAWTHORNE
• For a snapshot of South Africa's past and present, take a township tour