Johannesburg is a shopper's paradise, with a huge choice of options from upmarket fashion boutiques and giant malls to street markets and vendors, curiosity shops and muti merchants (traditional medicine vendors - especially underneath the fly-over highway on the south end of Faraday Street and on downtown Diagonal Street).

Visitors should try Johannesburg's exciting array of flea markets. Bruma Market World, 49 Ernest Oppenheimer Avenue, Bruma (website: www.brumamarketworld.co.za), is a sprawling, bewildering mass of over 600 stalls - even the sidewalks approaching the area are covered with wares. It is open every day except Monday, 0930-1700.

The African Craft Market, next to The Mall of Rosebank, 1 Cradock Avenue, Rosebank (website: www.craft.co.za), is an absolute must for all visitors, not just shoppers, especially as there are often live performances by local bands. It is more expensive and there is less junk on sale than at Market World but it still offers hundreds of stalls. There are central desks to pay for items by credit card. The market is open daily 0900-1700. Both places are among the best for African curios.

Bryanston Organic Market, 231 Bryanston Drive, Bryanston, Sandton (website: www.bryanstonorganicmarket.co.za), is truly a craftsman's craft market, where everything on sale is strictly handmade or organically produced. It is famous for tasty home bakes and a delicious range of homemade cheeses. A popular tea garden offers pies, pastries and pots of indigenous rooibos (bush) tea. It is open Thursday to Saturday mornings, as well as for occasional moonlight markets (1700-2100) over summer.

New, huge shopping malls are still springing up in and around Johannesburg. Eastgate Mall (website: www.eastgatecentre.co.za), Sandton City (website: www.sandtoncity.com), The Mall of Rosebank (website: www.themallofrosebank.co.za), Hyde Park Corner (website: www.hydeparkshopping.co.za) and Fourways Mall (website: www.fourwaysmall.com) are the biggest and best. Sandton City is the place where the rich and famous shop. It offers designer fashion, jewellery, electronic goods and also some excellent (but expensive) curio shops.

Melville's Main Road and Seventh Streets are home to second-hand bookshops, while the favoured area for antiques is Norwood, particularly Grant Avenue. Art Africa, 62 Tyrone Avenue, Parkview, sells a range of African arts and crafts objects, often produced from recycled materials in self-help projects. The Giraffe Centre, Second Avenue, Melville, has a wide selection of craft shops, while the shop at the Moyo restaurant, at Zoo Lake in Parkview (website: www.moyo.co.za), has a colourful and expansive range of gifts, furniture and crafts outsourced from artists from disadvantaged communities.

Mall shopping hours are generally daily 0900-1800 (although the smaller ones close on Sunday afternoons). Value added tax (VAT) of 14% is levied on all goods sold (although this is largely ignored in the flea markets). Visitors can reclaim this upon departure at the airports or land borders, provided they have kept all receipts. For more information visit www.taxrefunds.co.za.